ECONOMICAL BROODING OF CHICKS 



AN EFFICIENT BROODING SYSTEM IS NECESSARY TO SUCCESS, AND MOST POULTRYMEN 

 FEEL THE NEED OF FINDING A CHEAP AS WELL AS EFFICIENT MEANS OF MOTHERING 

 THE CHICKS— THE PLAN ADOPTED BY THE AURORA SYSTEM OF BRANCH FARMS- 

 UTILIZES THE LAYING HOUSES FOR BROODING PURPOSES DURING THE PROPER SEASON 



R. P. ELLIS 



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IDG NOT know of a phase of poultry keeping that re- 

 quires more thought than the proper selection of brood- 

 ing equipment for young chicks. Of course if one is 

 so situated that he occupies a permanent place, has had 

 ample experience and is $nancially "easy," it is a simple 

 matter to install an expensive "long" brooder house with 

 pipe facilities, and so on. But the man who has arrived at 

 this stage of his chicken raising, does not need very much 

 advice, and is likely to accept less. 



Every now and then 

 someone complains that 

 the poultry press is 

 "run for the beginners." 

 There is a lot of truth in 

 that statement; but one 

 might as well find fault 

 because schools are run 

 for the uneducated. 

 They are the ones who 

 need the help ; and, what 

 is more to the point, 

 they are the ones who 

 are most likely to profit 

 by it. Of course, in all 

 this is wrapped up the 

 question, "Who are the 

 beginners, and when 

 does one cease to be a 

 beginner?" For myself, 

 I can say that I am still 

 very much in the begin- 

 ner's class, and when the 

 time comes that I cease 

 to be alive to new pos- 

 sibilities, then I shall 

 know it is my cue to 

 side-step into the leisure 

 class of the retired. 



With us — my 

 branch associates and 

 myself — it is always a 

 matter of saving expense. 

 We are running poultry 

 farms to make money, 

 and we' are always keen- 

 ly alive to the possibilities of saving money or time. The 

 trouble with most brooding systems — in my opinion — is that 

 they cost too much. When brooding equipment runs from 

 forty cents to a dollar a chick it is getting too expensive for 

 us. And since necessity is the mother of invention, the need 

 of finding a cheap yet efficient means of mothering the 

 thousands of chicks we are to raise this year, has become a 

 matter of many dollars to us. 



Heretofore, for the beginner, I have advocated the use 

 of outdoor colony brooders, since they were easy to install, 

 could be moved about and set on new soil frequently, etc. 

 One of the greatest drawbacks to permanent "long" brood- 

 ing houses is the difficulty of keeping the runs clean and in 



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FIG. 1— FLOOR PLAN OF ELLIS TYPE OF COMBINATION LAYING 



AND BROODING HOUSE 

 Diagram shows arrangement of adaptable hovers in one of the ordinary laying 

 houses in use on Aurora Leghorn Farm. The placing of these hovers in the house 

 makes it serve two purposes, viz., as a brooding house during a part of the year and 

 as a laying house during the balance, so that the house is never idle. 



green food. , Another of its drawbacks is that the house 

 with all its equipment can rarely be used for anything else 

 besides brooding and is idle most of the year. 



■ It was not until a large incubator company's adaptable 

 hover was put upon the market that I found what seemed 

 to me the solution of many problems in brooding. A tew 

 outdoor brooders are all right, but when it comes to attend- 

 ing to forty or fifty oil lamps and broods of chicks all in the 

 open, one longs for something more labor saving and com- 

 fort giving. 



On page 67 appears 

 an illustration of our 

 fourteen foot square lay- 

 ing, house, with wire- 

 screen doors covered 

 with upper and lower 

 sets of muslin frames. 

 This has a floor space of 

 196 square feet. The 

 house is four and one- 

 half feet high (inside 

 measurement). It is the 

 lowest house I know of, 

 and hence the air space 

 is reduced to the mini- 

 mum. This house we 

 equip with six adapt- 

 able hovers, three on a 

 side with a three to 

 three and one-half foot 

 center aisle. (See dia- 

 gram presented here- 

 with). 



Each of the hovers 

 is surrounded by a mus- 

 lin frame, which we 

 make ourselves. The 

 frame is made of one by 

 two inch furring strips 

 and ordinary unbleach- 

 ed muslin is tacked on. 

 The sides of the frame 

 stand 18 inches high 

 and as it rests on the 

 floor it covers a floor 

 space of 3 feet by 3 feet. The top of the frame is hinged so 

 as to lift up and allow access to the hover. There is a door 

 on one side of the frame to allow the chicks to enter and 

 leave the hover. Over this opening hangs a curtain of felt 

 — to conserve the heat. 



Necessarily each hover is separated by a wire partition 

 from the center aisle and from neighboring hovers. One 

 inch mesh wire is used for this. A three foot high wire 

 does for this purpose between hovers, though a four foot 

 high wire is used to screen off the center aisle. 



On the opposite page we show the house used for the 

 hovers. These have to be set on a platform, running the 

 length of the house, high enough to allow the lamps to rest 



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