INCUBATION AND BROODING 



that mothered by the old hen, while they are able to get chicks 

 in larger numbers and at whatever season of the year they want 

 them by machine methods without the diflBculties and trials 

 attendant upon the so-called natural methods. 



In this chapter we present articles telling about incubator 

 cellar and brooder house, but still more important we tell how 

 to obtain best results in hatching and brooding chicks by both 

 natural and artificial means. The beginner and veteran will 

 each find much that is both interesting and instructive in the 

 following pages and a careful study of them should enable the 

 reader to hatch and grow chicks successfully. 



BeHeving that a symposium by some of the leading suc- 

 cessful breeders would prove of great value for study and com- 

 parison, we prepared the following questions to be answered by 

 them: 



Q. 29. If you iise incubators, what proportion of all the 

 chicks you hatch each season do you hatch artificially and. about 

 what per cent of the whole by the natural method? - 



Q. 30. If you use brooders, how many newly-hatched 

 chicks do you place in each brooder? 



Q. 31. What do you feed little chicks? 



Q. 32. How do you feed chicks, also how often? 



The replies which were received in time for publication are 

 given herewith, each beneath the name of the breeder answering 

 our questions. Each question is given a number and each 

 answer is numbered to correspond with the question asked. 



W. L. DAVIS, WILLOW BROOK FARM, 

 Berlin, Conn. 



BREEDER OF S. C. BUFF, BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 



A. 29. I hatch about three chickens in the incubator to 

 one by hen. Incubators are so improved that you can hatch 

 fully as successfully' by incubator and rear by the improved 

 methods of brooding, as you can by the hen. I consider a great 

 percentage of loss of chckens is saved by getting rid of lice and 

 vermin thjjt generally come by having chickens hatched with 

 hens. 



A. 30. Our brooder house is 60 feet long, and divided 

 into sections of 5 feet each. We generally put in about 50 

 chickens to each brooder, and meet with success that way. 



A. 31. Little chickens that are just hatched are fed as 

 soon as practical, and are fed mostly on stale bread and beef 

 scrap. We continue this feeding right up to the day they are 

 put into the breeding yards. 



A. 32. Our young stock we feed three or four' times a 

 day. Their rations consist chiefly of oats, wheat and barley, 

 also one feed each day of stale bread soaked in water, but the 

 water is pressed out of same and the bread food given to the 

 young stock in a moist condition. 



W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 



WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 



A. 29. Seventy-five per cent with incubators. 



A. 30. Not over 50 chicks for best results. 



A. 31. Prepared chick food until large enough to eat 

 cracked grains, then a mixture of different grain in right pro- 

 portion to rhake a good growing food. 



A. 32. Five or six times a day on that, gradually reduc- 

 ing to three times when weaned from brooder or mother. 



WILBER BROS., Petros, Tennessee 



S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALISTS 



A. 29. We certainly use incubators, a standard make, 

 which hatches artificially with great satisfaction our hundreds 



of fine birds each year. The hen is seldom ready to sit or at 

 her post when wanted. 



A. 30. We use only brooders and 40 to 50 chicks will do 

 fine in them, and when properly run, one seldom loses a chick. 



A. 31. Our young chicks are fed from shell to age of ten 

 weeks on a prepared chick food after which' they are fed three 

 times daily on a variety of mixed grain and cracked com scattered 

 broadcast in litter, sparingly except at night when they are fed 

 a full feed. 



A. 32. When chicks are first hatched they receive noth- 

 ing for 48 hours, when they are moved to brooders and a light 

 feed of chick food is scattered in Utter four times daily for first 

 two weeks, and gradually cut as age advances to three feeds 

 daily. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 



BREEDER OF S. C. BLACK MINORCAS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 



A. 29. Until the present (J.906) season hatched about 

 75 per cent of all chicks hatched with incubators. Being well 

 convinced that incubator chicks are fully equal to those hatched 

 in the natural way, with the added advantage of ge;tting rid of 

 all vermin, we used incubators exclusively with quite atis- 

 factory results. 



A. 30. Not to exceed 50, and 25 makes a nice bunch in 

 one family. 



A. 31. Have found nothing yet to equal the prepared 

 chick food offered for sale by different companies. 



A. 32. A chick that is old enough to eat is not too young 

 to be fed in fitter. 



J. W. PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 



A. 29. Ninety-five per cent with incubators. 



A. 30. This of course all depends on the brooder and the 

 place it is located. I generally put about half as many chicks 

 in a brooder as it is rated at. Not over 50 in one flock. 



A. 31. We generally start our chicks on bread crumbs 

 browned in the oven and moistened with boiled milk. We give 

 them a supply of fine grit before we take them from the machines, 

 in other words, we take our trays out and scatter grit on the 

 nursery floor, and leave them in there for a day. After they 

 are a few days old we start them on a chick food and give them 

 a Uttle green stuff right along. After they are ten days or so 

 old we begin to feed a little fine beef scrap along with the other 

 feeds. 



A. 32. We feed whatever foods we can in fine cut straw 

 for the chicks so as to induce them to take exercise. We of 

 course give them their first few feeds on small boards or on 

 heavy paper, and give them what they will eat up clean. We 

 feed about five times a day for the first few days, and then down 

 to four times, and after they are about three or four weeks old 

 and able to work pretty lively we feed only three times. 



BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 



A. 31. Meal, groimd wheat and barley, best ground 

 scraps, mash. Later, cracked com, cracked wheat, broken rice 

 and small buckwheat. Mash is partially cooked over fire and 

 when cool more meal is added to make it dry and crumbly. 

 Meal, ten parts; scraps, one-half part; ground stuff, one-half 

 part. Increase all but meal as birds grow. 



A. 32. Four times a day. See 31. 



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