ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



has "passed ov«r to the majority" through the interference of 

 an over-zealous friend or co-worker. 



A most forceful example of this over-zealous help was the 

 case of an outdoor brooder full of chicks on a poultry farm in 

 Massachusetts. It was coming on cooler at night and the zeal- 

 ous wife of the poultryman, while crossing the yard, passed the 

 brooder and thought to herself: "It is going to be a cold night 

 and these chicks need a little extra heat," so she gave a sUght 

 upturn to the lamp and flattered herself she had been good to 

 the chicks. A little later the man having the brooders in charge 

 was passing that brooder and he thought, "It is going to be a 

 cold night and these chicks need a little more heat," and he, too, 

 gave a little upturn to the lamp wick. Neither mentioned to 

 the other the kindly thought for the good of the chicks, and 

 when the man having the brooders in charge stepped out of the 

 house the next morning there was a pretty little heap of ashes 

 where the brooder full of chicks had stood the night before, 

 and in the ashes were the metal parts of the brooder and the 

 •calcined bones of the baby chicks. 



This is an extreme case, of course, but it well illustrates 

 the danger of too many fussing with the brooder lamps. One 

 person should be the responsible custodian of the brooders, and 

 should be competent to judge whether more or less heat is desir- 

 able, and as he is depending upon results he will naturally take 

 pains to keep the heat as near right as possible. All well equip- 

 ped brooders of the present day have thermometers suspended 

 within the hovers, so that it is easy to determine the temperature 

 conditions under the hovers and decide whether more or less heat 

 is wanted. A moSt successful chicken raiser of our acquain- 

 tance makes it a point to have the heat a little bit strong, and 

 give a little extra ventilation to balance it; he believes that the 

 better quality of air resulting amply compensates for the 

 very slight increased cost of oil consumed. 



POOR SANITATION. 



There is no doubt whatever that indifference as to cleanli- 

 ness is a prominent factor in chicken troubles. We all know 

 that freedom from filth and vermin is positively required, and 

 the great difficulty is we do not live up to our knowledge. Other 

 work is pressing and crowds upon the time which 

 should be given to proper care for cleanliness and the 

 result is unfortunate We do not realize how quickly 

 chicks double and quadruple in size, and that with 

 the increase in size there is a corresponding increase 

 in the droppangs and a corresponding increase in the 

 need for cleanliness. Speaking upon this point a 

 bulletin of the Rhode Island Experiment Station says: 



"Much more important are the fatalities grouped under 

 imperfect sanitation. The veriest tyro at poultry raising knows 

 that freedom from filth and vermin is a primary requisite and 

 no reference to . disease thus arising is here necessary. But 

 particular attention should be directed to the fact that a brooder 

 may be scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, yet be the 

 hiding place of disease germs far more to be feared on account 

 of the insidious nature of their attack and the difficulty of detect- 

 ing and combatting their inroads. Such a germ is that which 

 causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is very prevalent among 

 fowls. According to observations 15.1 per cent, of the chicks 

 which died were considered to be more or less affected. * * 



"Sunlight is the best and cheapest germicide for the tuber- 

 cle bacillus. We found that the simple expedient of removing 

 the hovers a.nd setting them out of doors in the full sun all 

 day reduced the evidence of tuberculosis in the post-mortem ex- 

 amination from nearly fifty per cent to only three per cent. 



GIVE THE CHICKS PLENTY OF AIR 



Lack of fresh air is another fruitful cause of chick mortality. 

 Through faJse economy or mistaken kindness the brooders are 



kept tight shut to prevent loss of heat, or to keep the chicks 

 close to the heat supply, and the result is they do not get suf- 

 ficient good, fresh air to breathe. A reasonably healthy chick 

 can stand a lot of trouble if it is well supplied with ozone, and 

 ozone is absolutely essential to the making of good blood, — ^to 

 making good growth. We spoke above of the successful chick- 

 en raiser who makes it a practice to have the heat of his brooders 

 a bit higher than the age of the chick makes necessary in order 

 that he may raise the lid of the brooder an eighth or quarter 

 of an inch, or open the ventilator slides a little more, or in other 

 ways supply currents of fresh, outside air. Contrast his method 

 ■ with that of chicken raisers who in mistaken kindness cover 

 the brooder with burlap sacks or a horse blanket at night to 

 "keep the heat in." Such do not reaUze that in keeping the 

 heat in they are also keeping the air in, to be breathed over and 

 over again. And it is no wonder that the chicks come out oC 

 such a brooder in the morning weak and trembly. Some brood- 

 ers are so constructed that the ventilators cannot be absolutely 

 tight-shut. Indeed, in one popular make of brooder we advised 

 the manufacturer to provide holes for ventilation close up to- 

 the top imder the hover, and make a slide with corresponding 



■THE FATTENING CRATES 



The frame of the crate is six feet long, sixteen inches wide and twenty inches high. It 

 is built from seven-eighths by two-inch dressed lumber, and is divided by two tight wooden 

 partitions into three compartments. Each compartment holds four chickens. Ground oats, 

 finely ground, or with the coarser hulls sifted out, form the basis of all food mixtures. 



holes through it, with a knob and wire connection to the slide 

 so that it could be operated from outside, and a catch so set 

 that when the slide was pulled a certain distance it was check- 

 ed, and there were one-eighth inch apertures through all 

 of the holes on each side. 



This device positively prevented the ventilator being fully 

 closed. The operator who did not get on to the device would 

 think he had wholly closed the ventilators, but there were still 

 some air inlets and outlets remaining. Brooders should be well 

 out daily and opened up to the sun every day; the hovers being 

 turned up and exposed to the sun and air also. There are 

 stormy days, of course, when such sunning and airing is impos- 

 sible; it is all the more imperative that the simning and airing 

 be done when possible, on warm, sunny days. Note again the 

 quotation above from the bulletin of the Rhode Island Experi- 

 ment Stations which says: "Sunlight is the best and cheapest 

 germicide for the tubercle bacillus." It is not only the cheapest 



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