SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



37 



Interior View of Double-Row Brooder Hjjuse, Showing Four Sectional Brooders in Position. - 



Before the chickens are placed in these brooders, put 

 four to six inches of dry sand on the floor of the room, ex- 

 tending it under the brooder (as no bottom) thus, bringing 

 the tiny chickens up from four to six inches nearer the ■warm 

 pipes, than they would if they stood on the floor of the 

 house. A dirt floor is ail tnat is needed for such a house 

 (but must be dry.) Two' lamps are furnished with each 

 complete brooder. The water boilers and reservoirs above 

 Bhould be made of copper. The pipes are the regular steam 

 fitting pipes, which insure durability. 



A space should be left between the back wall and the 

 rear curtain, so that if your chickens get to crowding and 

 crowding each other out into the cooler air at one place, 

 only to creep back into the warmer air under the hover al 

 another place. 



We consider a house equipped with these brooders to Tie 

 an exceedingly good and durable house, where the tiny 

 chickens can be raised up from maturity with very little 

 ease and without danger of being chilled, which naturally 

 makes a profitable investment. 



THE INCUBATOR CELLAR AND THE NEXT BEST PLACE 



THE sole idea in building an incubator cellar is to con- 

 trol the atmosphere surrounding the machine so 

 that there will be no external influences at work to 

 i Sect the temperature of the egg chamber. To se- 

 cure best results an incubator must be placed where theTe is 

 little change of temperature from day to day. The incuba- 

 tor is an inanimate thing. It has no control over itself and 

 so cannot be compared to the hen that hatches chicks in a 

 manger when the thermometer is hovering around zero. 

 The colder the weather, the closer the hen sits to keep the 

 eggs warm, and if the weather becomes extremely hot she 

 stands up and cools them off. The incubator cannot of itself 

 guard against extremes of heat and cold, and so it becomes 

 necessary that the operator should do so. "Why not turn 

 the lamp higher or lower to counteract external influences? 

 Because that would not be following closely the teaching of 

 nature. To raise or lower the temperature of the egg cham- 

 ber takes time. Did you ever notice after having turned 

 the eggs and replaced them in the macuine how long it tooE 

 to bring' the thermometer up to 103 degrees, the point at 

 which it formerly stood? Yes, and very likely you turned 

 the flame of the lamp higher or'placed a weight on the regu- 

 lator to get the thermometer up to the proper notch, and 

 then you had to open the door of the incubator to cool 

 jt off, it ran so high. When a hen returns to the nest her- 



temperature is no higher than when she left it. The eggs 

 which have ' ' cooled off ' ' resume their original heat grad- 

 ually, and observation of these things teaches us that the 

 temperature must be fixed and remain fixed, and that the 

 eggs are all right in a chamber regulated to 103 degrees 

 even if the thermometer does not register the wished for 

 figure immediately upon replacing the eggs in the machine, 

 also that not only must the operator avoid interferring with 

 the temperature in this way, but he must guard against in- 

 terference by atmospheric changes. That is why poultry- 

 men build incubator cellars. The fact that a hen hatches 

 chicks in a changeable atmosphere is no proof that she 

 would not have done better under improved conditions. In 

 fact we know the best hatches are made at a season when 

 \he temperature .varies but little. Where are atmospheric 

 -ianges least liable to be felt? Under the ground. Then 

 that is where the ineubatoi: cellar should be built, yet not so 

 far beneath the surface as to interfere with the purity of 

 the air, free from excessive moisture or drynest, are the 

 requirements of an incubator cellar. The lamps give off an 

 amount of foul air that envelopes the machines, ventilation 

 therefore must be perfect. 



The majority of incubator cellars are built in great part 

 below the surface of the ground, often in the side of a hill. 



