30 



CHICK BOOK 



unbleached muslin or light weight duck. It may be water- 

 proofed by giving it a coat of linseed oil. The tent fly is 

 an essential and a great convenience. It affords protection 

 for the flock in wet stormy weather and provides shade when 

 the sun is hot. 



Keep ^he coops clean, move them frequently to fresh 

 ground or else spade up the earth beneath the lath shelter 

 and rake in wheat or oats. The grain when sprouted will 

 form tid-bits for the mother hen and her brood. 



Fig. 4 — Slatted chick shelter in use with the practical bTood coop. 



Keep the brood hen confined to the coop and chick 

 shelter and let the chicks run. For the first few days, feed 

 the chicks inside the shelter, afterward feed them outside 

 out of reach of the mother hen, thus saving the more expen- 

 sive chick food for the brood. Keep an abundant supply of' 

 wheat, corn, charcoal, grit, granulated bone, and pure, fresh, 

 drinking water where the hen can have free access to them. 

 Rations for the chicks same as for brooder flocks. 



, Choice of a Brooder 



Notwithstanding the statement often made, that brood- 

 ers have not reached the same perfection that is found in in- 

 cubators, the facts are quite the opposite; there are plenty 

 of good, practical brooders and artificial brooding has been 

 successfully practiced for many centuries. Fireless brooders 

 made of mud or adobe were used by the Egyptians, to rear 

 broods from their great district incubatories or hatching 

 ovens, and that these were in successful use many years B. C, 

 we learn from the books of some of the earliest writers on 

 agricultural pursuits. 



While lampless and fireless brooders have come more 

 into the "lime light" during the past few years, they were 

 successfully used on New England farms many years ago. 

 We recall that in 1885 there were, in the vicinity of East Fox- 

 boro, Mass., and also in Essex County, Mass., and in the 

 vicinity of Andover, N. H., (all 

 of which sections we visited), a 

 number of poultry keepers who 

 were then raising chickens in 

 common boxes provided with 

 hovers made with strips of wool- 

 en blanket and in two cases 

 sheep skins (with the curl clip- 

 ped from the wool) were used' to 

 keep the chicks warm. No arti- 

 ficial heat was supplied. It 

 was considered more satisfactory 

 to raise the chicks in this way 

 than to let them run with the 



hens, although all were hen hatched. On other farms we 

 visited, we found the farmer's wife raising a brood in a 

 soap box, one end covered in with a strip of blanket. At 

 night additional heat was supplied by a jug of hot water 

 wrapped in flannel. 



Although such methods have long been successful, suc- 

 cess depends in a large measure upon care and vigilance on 

 the part of the attendant. Chicks in fireless brooders, as a 



rule, require more attention than those in heated ones, and 

 a few hours neglect may mean wholesale losses in climates 

 where sudden weather changes are common. In mild weath- 

 er in the late spring and in early summer, we have often used 

 the fireless plan of brooding with success, but in cold weather 

 or early in the spring when weather, and temperature changes 

 are sudden and severe, we prefer the heated brooder. Of 

 these there are several satisfactory types. 



For large plants where chicks must be handled in con- 

 siderable numbers the open-hover, 

 coal-heated hot-water pipe system 

 of brooding is preferable to all others ' 

 and is the most economical and sat- 

 isfactory. Where only a few hund- 

 reds of chicks are to be grown 

 each season, we prefer the lamp- 

 heated individual brooder of three 

 apartment pattern, one that sup- 

 plies hot air heat, furnace system of 

 ventilation, directly beneath the 

 hover. Such a brooder provides a 

 choice of three temperatures, the 

 warmest beneath the hover. The chicks are given the op- 

 portunity to select the temperature Which best suits their 

 needs and can always, warm up quickly when under the 

 hover. 



Care of Brooder Chicks 



Newly hatched chicks need rest and warmth for the 

 first twenty-four to thirty-six hours after hatching. They 

 need time to rest from the work of pipping the shell and 

 finishing exclusion. They also need time to continue diges- 

 tion of egg yolk remnant which is taken into their bodies 

 just prior to hatching. They need no other food during this 

 time. 



The brooder should be ready, thoroughly warmed up 

 and running in good order. Litter the floor of the hover 

 chamber with cut clover in which is sprinkled a little chick 

 size grit or sharp sand. In one corner of the hover chamber 

 place a small galvanized iron fountain containing pure fresh 

 water. In two or more corners of the brooder, on the litter, 

 place a little pile of commercial chick food and one of mixed 

 meals and beef scrap; (beef scrap must be pure and sweet, 

 poor scrap will cause diarrhoeal troubles). 



In cold weather the temperature under hovers should be 

 from 95 to 100 degrees and in warm weather from 90 to 95 

 degrees temperature taken with hover empty. When the 



. .. i*' ^ — ?^®?' ^ "^"^ *° protect flock from storms and provide shad&. The use of a tent fly on an 

 ' A shaped lathed or slatted chick shelter is one of the most satisfactory methods of providing pro- 

 tection from hot sun and storms. The tent fly may be made of heavy unbleached muslin or light 

 weight duck, and can be waterproof if desired. 



chicks are put inside, which should be in the afternoon when 

 they are ready for their first meal, the temperature may run 

 up several degrees according to the number of chicks inside 

 the hover. With a properly constructed brooder, this need 

 occasion no alarm as with a circular hover, chicks have an 

 opportunity to get away from the heat on all sides if it is 

 warmer than they find comfortable. Surplus heat is neces- 

 sary so that they can warm up quickly even if there are only 



