AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
sleep, the temperature is just suited to them; if 
too cold, they bunch up and each one tries to get 
as close to the others as it can; if too warm, they 
scatter apart as widely as they can, spread their 
wings out from their bodies, and breathe faster 
than ordinary, or even pant. 
So far as rules are concerned, ninety-five to one 
hundred degrees is usually considered the best tem- 
perature to maintain under the hover for the first 
day or two. Remember in warming up the hover 
that a bunch of chicks in it will raise the tempera- 
ture five to ten degrees with their animal heat. 
Gradually lessen the amount of heat supplied from 
the time the chicks are placed in the brooder until 
they are able to do without supplied heat. At the 
end of the first week the temperature should not 
exceed ninety degrees. At the end of the third 
week the temperature of the hover, when the chicks 
are in it, should be about eighty degrees. 
It is very desirable that the brooder temperature 
be reduced as rapidly as possible, and the chicks 
weaned away from artificial heat. How rapidly 
this may be done depends very largely upon the 
weather conditions, and also somewhat upon the 
nature of the breed to which the chicks belong. In 
winter or early spring it may be found desirable 
to supply heat in the brooder until the chicks are 
five or six weeks old. At all times, however, it 
should be remembered that a bunch of lusty, grow- 
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