I9 2 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



incubators has one, and they are usually good. Whether the 

 eggs are hatched in an incubator or by a hen, it is best for 

 the chicks to be soon removed and raised in the artificial 

 brooder. Parasitic vermin quickly pass from the hens to the 

 chickens, and are the cause of many losses and always of lack 

 of thrift. The artificial brooder, if kept tolerably clean, keeps 

 the chicks perfectly free from lice, gapes and similar evils. 



The fault of many who use the brooders is that they keep 

 the chicks too much confined in them. The brooders should 

 De set in very cold weather on the earth-floor or deeply sanded 

 floor of some close room or shed with a warm southern expos- 

 ure and plenty of light. The floor of a cold grapery is an 

 excellent place. As soon as the weather is such as will admit 

 of the brooder being set out-of-doors — that is, as soon as the 

 frost is out of the ground in the spring — a small enclosure 

 should be made of wire netting and the brooder placed within 

 it. Then the chicks, being allowed perfect freedom by day 

 to run in and out of the brooder, will do much better than 

 when in-doors. This is true even during cold snaps when the 

 ground freezes hard, or when there is a considerable fall of 

 snow. Care must be taken, however, that there shall always 

 be sufficient warmth within the brooder, especially at night. 

 In fact, on sunshiny days there is rarely need of any heat at 

 all by day after the little flock is ten days old. — W. 



