l82 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



that they crowd against one another to get warm. 

 Brooders require little attention. I would rather man- 

 age half a dozen than one hen with chicks. And they 

 pay for themselves over and over every year if rightly 

 managed. Get a brooder, or several brooders. They 

 are as handy as a clock to have about the house. It 

 makes no difference whether the brooder is heated 

 with hot air or hot water so that heat can be con- 

 trolled and the brooder not overheated which is the 

 cause of bowel trouble in chicks. 



I prefer the brooder to hens for raising chicks. 

 It is easier to care for 200 or 300 brooder chicks than 

 for half a dozen hens with chicks. Brooder chicks 

 have no lice on them, are not troubled with mites, are 

 protected from storms, are not killed by the feet of the 

 hen, grow fast, thrive well, are more gentle, and bear 

 handling when grown better than hen raised chicks. 

 They are always under your control and watchful care, 

 and with right treatment you will raise more brooder 

 chicks on the average than hens will raise. — [J. H. 

 Davis, Ohio. 



Brooder Capacity — Judging by my own expe- 

 rience in visiting a great many farms where brooders 

 are used, I should not hesitate to say that the one 

 great mistake of the amateur poultryman is over- 

 crowding. It certainly will produce almost any or all 

 of the many ailments so common in newly hatched 

 chicks, and I do wish that something more could be 

 done to impress it upon the beginner that one brooder 

 and a 600-egg incubator is a bad combination. 

 Another fault I find to be very common is trying to 

 save oil by keeping the brooder closed when it should 

 be open. Particularly is that true with the outdoor 

 brooder, for which, for various reasons, I have little or 

 no use. Give the chicks plenty of heat and an oppor- 

 tunity to get away from it if they want to, pure air. 



