HOW TO RAISE BROODER CHICKS SUCCESSFULLY 



PARENT STOCK OF FIRST IMPORTANCE— SINGLE BROODERS 

 PREFERRED TO PIPE SYSTEM— WHAT AND HOW TO FEED 



EDGAR BRIGGS 



ONE of the first things to be considered in raising brood- 

 er chicks successfully is the parent stock, which must 

 be in perfect health, properly fed and given abund- 

 ant exercise to insure fertile eggs and strong chicks. A 

 first-class incubator must be selected, one that will hatch 

 from 75 to 90 per cent of fertile eggs, and when you get such 

 hatches you will get strong chicks that will live if properly 

 cared for. The next thing to be selected is a brooder, and 

 this is equally if not more important than the incubator. 

 You must get a brooder that imitates a hen as closely as 

 possible; one that will let in any amount of fresh air; one 

 that has a round cylinder with no corners for chicks to 

 crowd in, and one easily heated with a lamp that will not 

 blow out nor smoke. I prefer the single brooders to the 

 pipe system. In winter heat your house to 60 and 70 

 ■degrees and keep your brooders 90 degrees at the start, gradu- 

 s\\y lowering the temperature after twelve days. Do not 

 let the chicks get chilled at any time nor allow them to 

 •crowd, for if you do bowel trouble will be the result, which 

 will take off a large per cent in a short time. Too much 

 heat will weaken them and cause many to die, so you must 

 be very careful, especially at night, about obtaining the 

 right temperature, as it often grows very cool the latter part 

 ■of the night, so a little extra flame should be left on in cool 

 nights. 



I use runs five feet wide, ten feet long inside of house, 

 and outside runs fifty feet long well shaded in summer. 



The next and most important of all is food. I wish to 

 .sayj'right here that Overfeeding for the first four weeks of a 

 chick's life has put more people out of the business than all 

 other things combined. You can hardly feed too little. We 

 feed four times a day for the first five weeks. The first 

 three weeks we use principally dry food and make them 



scratch for every meal but that given at night. We feed 

 prepared dry chick food morning and night. At ten and 

 two o'clock we feed millet seed, pinhead oatmeal and cracked 

 wheat. We keep them well bedded with cut clover two or 

 three inches deep, and throw all their food in this. They 

 also eat much of the clover. We feed very sparingly at 

 first. Keep them hungry at all times. Much depends on 

 keeping them at work; it assists in keeping them in good 

 health. We keep grit and charcoal before them all the time, 

 and fresh water is always before them. Care must be 

 taken to keep their drinking dishes free from slime; they, 

 should be washed daily. Clean your brooder every other 

 day if you bed with cut hay, and every day if you use sand 

 or bran. 



After three weeks. your chicks will begin to tire of this 

 feed, then we give two meals a day of soft food composed 

 of one part stale bread soaked in water, or better, milk, one 

 part bran, one part hominy meal, ten per cent finely ground 

 meat. The same mash with ten per cent good beef scraps 

 is a grand growing food and much more easily prepared, but 

 more expensive. We continue feeding chick feed once . a 

 day for two weeks longer, giving mash morning and night, 

 using cracked corn and wheat once a day. If running for 

 broilers make your mash one-half cornmeal. We run but 

 fifty to sixty chicks in one lot, as this is enough for any 

 single brooder if you want them to live. 



After they are old enough to leave the brooder and you 

 cannot give free range make yards twenty feet wide by one 

 hundred feet long and put sixty to seventy-five in a flock on 

 grass yards with plenty of shade, dividing the pullets from 

 the cockerels. Keep them free from lice and you will have 

 birds of fine quality for breeders. 



BROOD HOUSE ON THE R. I. RED PLANT OF D. W. RICH 

 Note the three inside brood coops in which hens are coniined, each caring'for her share of 50 

 chicles. Note also the heavy curtain which can be pulled down in case of storms. 



