286 INCUBATION AND BROODING 



The brooder should be thoroughly heated and dried out 

 several days before the first chicks are placed in it. Then 

 a slight sprinkling of sand should be spread over the floors 

 to facilitate cleaning and to supply the chicks with some 

 form of grit. A constant supply of clean, cool water, regu- 

 lar heat, and fresh air should be maintained. The tem- 

 perature under the hover should always be higher than is 

 required to keep chicks comfortable, so that at any time 

 they may go under the hover and be warmed quickly with- 

 out crowding. During the first three weeks of the chick's 

 life the hover room and feed room of the brooder should be 

 scraped, scrubbed, and cleaned frequently. A 5 per cent 

 solution of a strong disinfectant is used for this purpose. 

 Great care should be exercised in order that the chicks may 

 receive their food free of contamination from the droppings 

 or floor litter. 



Sanitary Precautions Necessary. — On the most success- 

 ful poultry plants strict sanitary measures are observed 

 throughout the period of brooding, so that up to the time 

 the chicks are taken to the open range or, if brooding is done 

 with hens, up to the weaning time, there is no chance for 

 disease to creep in. The brooders are arranged so that 

 each compartment can be quickly and easily cleaned and 

 disinfected. Whenever a dead chick is found, all the litter 

 should be removed and the brooder cleaned and disin- 

 fected. 



Feeding Brooder Chicks. — In feeding, an effort should 

 be made to attain the happy mean between the two ex- 

 tremes of underfeeding and overfeeding. As a rule more 

 chicks are killed by overfeeding than by underfeeding, and 

 the overfeeding in most cases starts by feeding too soon, 

 while underfeeding results in small, weak chicks. Forty 



