166 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



coop until they are brooder broken, that is, till they 

 have learned to return to it wherever they are. 



There are various ways of keeping baby chicks 

 warm at night in these fireless brooders. A vinegar 

 jug filled with hot water and wrapped in flannel 

 makes a splendid mother, but if this is used the 

 frame with the quilt attached to it must be replaced 

 temporarily with a blanket or old sweater. 



When the jug of hot water is used, and it is an 

 effective but troublesome method, the brooder is 

 more easily constructed of a box about the size and 

 shape of an apple box. This must be made tight on 

 all sides and is then placed on its side with the open 

 top facing the side of the box coop. The hover is at- 

 tached to a frame which rests on cleats at the two 

 ends of the brooder, but the quilt or blanket must 

 be large enough to drop down over the sides of the 

 jug and rest on the backs of the chicks. It is a de- 

 light to see the comfort of a brood of chicks cuddled 

 about a jug with a blanket tucked close about them. 



Cans and Pans. — There are tricks in all trades, 

 and one of the tricks the side line poultry keeper 

 must learn is to use what he has and not spend 

 money for what he can do without. Nothing about 

 the house is more useful for supplying the needs of 

 baby chicks than the empty baking powder can. The 

 cover makes a splendid receptacle for grit, charcoal 

 or bran, and the can itself, with a little nick in the 

 edge of the top, makes a very fair fountain when in- 

 verted in a saucer. When the chicks outgrow bak- 

 ing powder can covers I give them their dry mash 

 in tuna cans. When the tuna can in its turn is out- 

 grown, they get an old basin which has served its 

 day in the kitchen. I worked out for myself a dry 

 mash hopper for grown fowls, which I considered 

 merely a temporary makeshift until I read that a 



