BROODING 



35 



The 



temperature of the hover is gradually reduced from 95 de- 

 grees at the beginning to 90 or thereabouts at the end of 

 the second week, then to 85, then 80, then 75, and the last 

 week or so that the chicks occupy the 

 brooder the flame of the lamp is kept 

 as low as it can be run, to give just 

 the least amount of warmth, 65 to 70 

 degrees being suflBoient. 



The chickens .that we raise for 

 breeding stock are brooded out of doors 

 (it being our custom to begin setting 

 brooders out about April 1st, the 

 brooders being set in the ground, just 

 as formerly inside the brooder house, 

 -but as we have much rainy weather 

 in April and May, we have "shelter 

 boards" to serve as protection from 

 the rain, set a little way in front of 

 the brooders, and under which the 

 chicks can take refuge from storms. 

 The chicks put out of doors are kept 

 within the brooder for about one day, 

 then a little pen a yard square made 

 of three pieces of board three feet long 

 set up to the front of the brooder gives 

 them a snug little enclosure for the 

 few days of babyhood. Next we make 

 a pen about twenty feet square of one- 

 inch mesh wire netting tied to tempor- 

 ary stakes, and the chicks have the range 

 of this pen until they are big enough to be weaned from the 

 brooder, which, in May and June, is at about six weeks 

 old. Then they are moved back to a grassy ridge bordering 

 the pasture on one side and mowing field on the other. 

 There they are colonized in "A" coops (as we call them) 

 for five or six weeks, when it is time to separate the pullets 

 from the cockerels, and put the pullets out in the grass 

 fields, in roosting coops, in families of about twenty-five 

 each, colonized about fifty yards apart. The cockerels in- 

 tended to be raised for breeding are confined in pens about 

 50x100 feet, while the cockeirels intended for market are 

 taken back to the pens in the brooder house, which have 

 small yards 10x20 outside, and there they are fed and grown 

 for market. 



The coops for these chickens play a not unimportant 

 part in chicken raising, and a brief description of them may 

 be interesting. The "A" coops are three feet six inches by 

 two feet three inches on the ground and two feet high at 

 the apex of the roof. They are built throughout of half-inch 

 tongued and grooved pine and well painted. The front is 

 all slats, as shown in the illustration, with a slatted gate 

 sliding in grooves to close the front. We originally built 

 "A" coops to slope down to the ground, but found it an im- 

 provement to have a square base four inches high, with the 

 corners turned to an angle, to prevent the chicks from 

 crowding back under the eaves and smothering one or two 

 at a time. We find it a most decided advantage to have 

 these well built coops always at hand, and as we have coops 

 now in use which were built ten years ago, and are as good 

 to-day as when made, the economy of well made coops will 

 be apparent. When we say. that the tongues and grooves of 

 the roof pieces are painted before they are put together, the 

 reader will realize that they are thoroughly well built. 



The roosting coop, which is chiefly intended for raising 

 the pullets in, is six feet long, three feet wide, two feet high 

 at back and three feet high in front. The roof, ends and 

 back side are all of half-inch tongued and grooved pine, the 

 front being laths, set a lath width apart, except that a strip 

 of board is nailed to each corner for stiffening. Two roosts 



stiffen it. A coop like this will comfortably house twenty- 

 five to thirty chickens until they are nearly grown; in fact, 

 we sometimes have pullets to begin to lay before they are 



BROODERS AS USED OUT OF DOORS 

 One in Foreground has a Very Small Pen for Baby Chicks 



brought in from these roosting coops. It is quite light and 

 can be easily moved on a wheelbarrow, or moved its length 

 and width to fresh ground, or it can be tipped up and drop- 

 pings removed, and it is a perfect summer shelter. If they 

 are to be used in the spring or fall, when the nights are 

 cold, an improvement would be to make a front or half-inch 

 boards, hinged at the top edge, so it could swing outward 

 and upward and rest upon folding legs hinged at the bottom 

 corners, which would become a roof to shelter the birds 

 from rains. One disadvantage of this light coop is, that it 

 may be easily tipped over by a high wind, especially when 

 the chickens are. all out of it, as during the day. To prevent 

 it from so tipping over, a flat stone should be placed on each 

 front corner of the roof. 



The gate space in front of the coop gives access to the 

 whole inside when the pullets are to be removed. The gate 

 is made of laths nailed to two strips one inch square, the 

 left hand ends of which are long enough to slip in behind 

 the lath front, the right hand side being secured by one or 

 two buttons. If one prefers, these gates can be hinged at 

 one side or the other and secured by a hook or a button, but 

 of two by three scantling, slightly rounded at top, run the 

 whole length and are a foot apart, being securely nailed to 

 a frame of furring (one by three stuff) nine inches from the 

 ground. To this frame we nail th* ends, back side and 

 front corner boards and then fit in at the top a frame of 

 inch-square stuff to nail the root boards to and we have 

 found it a convenience to have them wholly detachable, 

 and so make them. 



Shelter from rain and sun is of quite as much help as a 

 good coop to sleep in. By experimenting in different ways 

 we learn that it would pay as well to have "shelter boards" 

 always ready, just as are the coops; hence we make them of 

 the half-inch, tongued and grooved pine, taking five strips 

 three feet long by six inches wide for each shelter board. 

 These strips are securely nailed, to pieces of inch-square 

 spruce at top and bottom, and then the weather side is well 

 painted. We make a light frame of the inch square spruce 

 strips and laths to fit up to the "A" coops when we want 



