ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



sufficiently warm for comfort, but they get an abundance of 

 pure fresh air to breathe. Every day when the sun shone, 

 after they were a week old, these chicks have run out on the 

 snow, ice and frozen bare ground in front of their brooder and 

 in this way are becoming hardened; properly seasoned to be in 

 fit condition for weaning time when it arrives. Every day 

 after they were three days old, no matter what the weather 

 was, the hover was removed for a few minutes to air it three 

 or four times between daylight and dark. Dry grain chick food, 

 the best cut clover, grit, charcoal and pure fresh water have 

 been kept always before these chicks from the time they were 

 placed in the brooder. 



While running them in a small outdoor brooder out of doors 

 in winter was begun chiefly to see what could be done, the 

 results have been both interesting and pleasing thus far; the 

 only disagreeable feature being the discomfort attendant on 

 ca,ring for a brooder out of doors in inclement winter weather. 

 The chicks are but three weeks old at the present writing, are 

 doing well and will soon need a rough packing-box, scratching 

 shed shelter to afford an outdoor run in stormy weather. 



This report of experience has taken us a little way out of 

 the regular course of our article, but it is given to illustrate in 

 a practical manner that small chicks are naturally hardy and 

 are seldom as delicate as is popularly believed, unless we 

 make them so. 



It is by coddling, babying and otherwise mishandling chicks 

 that we make them delicate. We are afraid to give them fresh 

 air, afraid to open the brooders afraid to let the chicks be nat- 

 ural, forgetting that the mother hen in natural brooding has 

 no such scruples and frequently rises from her brooding posi- 

 tion, forcing her chicks to take exercise and fresh air whether 

 they will or no. She hardens her chicks to frequent and sud- 

 den changes and at weaning time declines, in no uncertain 

 manner, to permit them to hover. Having gradually outgrown 

 their natural hover and having become hardened to abrupt 

 changes, there is seldom any difficulty with hen-raised chicks 

 at weaning time. There is no good reason why there should 

 be any more trouble in weaning brooder chicks. 



HARDEN THE CHICKS GRADUALLY 



Lead up to weaning naturally and gradually. Let the 

 change be a constant and almost imperceptible one from the 

 start and there will be no trouble at weaning time. Begin, 

 when the chicks are a few days old, to air out the hover cham- 

 ber at frequent intervals and expose the under side of the hover 

 to direct sunlight. Reduce the heat under the hover very grad- 

 ually, but keep it warm enough to make the chicks comfortable. 

 When operating a brooder in cold weather, keep the hover 

 space warm enough so the chicks can warm up quickly. If 

 you do this and care for the chicks properly, you will seldom 

 find them under the hover in the day time. They run in out of 

 the cold to warm up a bit and then run out again to scratch 

 in the litter or play with their mates. Like all young things, 

 healthy chicks are playful and get a liberal amount of exercise 

 in this manner. If you doubt this, watch a flock of brooder 

 chicks running with a bit of wood or other non-edible substance, 

 watch them jump about and flap their tiny wings, and race in 

 and out of the brooder in the sheer joy of a happy existence. 

 If you keep your eyes open you will cease to be a "doubting 

 Thomas" and find small chicks quite as playful as young kit- 

 tens or other frisky young creatures. 



AN OUT-DOOR RUN ESSENTIAL 



Provide an outdoor run early, it will do them good even in 

 winter to have a run outside on every fair day for a little while 

 when the sun shines. On days when it is stormy, keep the 

 chicks indoors, but supply an abundance of fresh air by open- 

 ing the house windows and by keeping the brooder vents open. 



Never wholly close the ventilators of your brooders. Close, 

 dead air will kill more chicks than any other one cause. Fresh 

 air is a hfe giver and a life saver, dan't forget this. On windy 

 or stormy days it may be necessary to close the vent on the 

 windward side, but keep the apposite or lee side vent open. 

 Whatever you do, air out the whole brooder daily, if only for 

 a few minutes. Don't use a brooder which has a fixed or im- 

 movable hover. SunUght under the hover kills germs and pre- 

 vents sickness. The only way to get sunhght under the hover 

 is to remove the hover board or metal and expose its under side 

 and the inner side of the felts to sunshine and fresh air. If this 

 is done every time the chicks are fed it will benefit the chicks 

 and there will be no danger of chilling them. 



IMPORTANCE OF SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR 



As long ago as in 1889 the Rhode Island State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station issued the statement in its Bulletin No. 61 

 on the "Mortality of Brooder Chicks," that: "Sunlight is the 

 best and cheapest germicide for the tubercle bacillus. We found 

 that the simple expedient of removing the hovers and setting 

 them out of doors in the full sun all day reduced the evidence 



54— CANVASS SUN SHELTERS FOR COOPS 



of tuberculosis in the post-mortem examinations from nearly 

 50 per cent, to only 3 per cent." 



If fresh air and sunlight will work this wonderful change 

 in a fatal malady like tubercular disease, it certainly can be 

 counted on to prevent diseases of a less malignant nature. 

 When brooding in cold weather we cannot always keep the 

 hovers out all day. We can remove them for a little sunning 

 and airing while feeding the chicks several times a, day, and 

 gradually work up to keeping them out all day as the chicks 

 become gradually hardened, older, stronger and better able to 

 do without artificial heat. Whatever else you may neglect, do 

 not fail to supply Nature's best tonic and disease preventives, 

 fresh air and sunlight (when it is available), in all parts of the 

 brooder. 



DRY FEEDING A FACTOR IN SUCCESS 



I firmly believe that dry feeding is the most satisfactory 

 and most successful method of feeding brooder chicks. Dry 

 grain chick food of good quality, should be kept always before 

 the birds. The brooders should be well littered with cut clover 

 or chaff and some fine sand. Use sand and chaff half an inch 

 deep on the floor beneath the hover. Keep pure beef scrap, 

 good quality, green-cured, dry cut clover or alfalfa; granulated 

 charcoal; chick-size grit and pure fresh water (with the chill 



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