62 



CHICK BOOK 



used, because by so doing each brooder can be modified in 

 accordance with the age and requirements of the chickens 

 therein. I am incUned to think that in the future, unless 

 the Davies & Rock system proves as flexible as is suggested, 

 the tendency towards individual brooders will be largely 

 increased, in spite of the greater amount of attention required. 

 I was very glad indeed to see on some of the plants that 

 attention is paid to the importance of fresh soil, arid in 

 several cases double yards are used. The latter appear to 

 me to be almost essential. We must remember that it is 

 not only requisite to get rid of the manurial influence, but 

 also to restore to the land elements which are lost by the 

 keeping of birds thereon, and which can only be accomp- 

 lished by cultivation. 



A FEEDING PEN FOR CHICKS 

 By the use of such a pen mature fowls or large chickens are pre- 

 vented from eating special chick food. The slata are sufficiently far 

 apart ao that the young chicks can pass in and out of the pen. 



Portable Houses With Individual Brooders 



Some years ago I came across a portable poultry house 

 in France which was very suggestive indeed. This con- 

 sisted of an ordinary house upon wheels with a brooder 

 fitting inside. That brooder could be removed when it was 

 no longer required. This was an advance upon an older 

 .system where to one side of a fixed house was fitted a brooder, 

 so that the birds could either sleep in the brooder or in the 

 house, they having to pass through the house to reach the 

 hrooder. That system has been modified in accordance with 

 •our requirements, and it was therefore interesting to see at 

 several of the plants visited — notably at Cornell, Elma, 

 Storrs, the Tillinghast Farm, and amongst the South Shore 

 roaster men — that this system is growing in favor. It is 

 not at all necessary that I sould go into details, because they 

 have received attention from breeders through your pages 

 or those of other papers. 



One of the most interesting of these houses was the de- 

 sign of Professor Jas. E. Rice, of Cornell. Fixed at one end 

 was a reservoir for gasoline, with a connecting pipe down 

 to a burner in the brooder within the house, and it was 

 claimed that the reservoir only needed refilling once in three 

 weeks, and that it could be left a week without attention. 

 I should have been glad to have seen it in operation, for that 

 was practically the only new thing which I came across in 

 this direction. 



The great advantage of these portable houses with 

 brooders is that the birds can be scattered over the land, 

 thus securing absolutely fresh ground, and, moreover, the 

 position can be changed in accordance with the season of 

 the year. In my judgment the future of artificial rearing 

 will be more and more in that direction. Moreover, there 



is something to be said for the idea that chickens thrive 

 better if they are not removed from their first house, and 

 under these circumstances it is only necessary to take out 

 the brooder after they have grown beyond the first stage. 

 Of course in some cases portable or colony houses are pro- 

 vided so that the chickens when taken from the brooder 

 houses can be scattered more widely over the land. 



In conclusion a few suggestions may be of service. 

 There is no doubt in my judgment that large houses on big 

 plants are more convenient for the first few weeks of growth, 

 but on smaller establishments where the houses can be 

 moved about I think it would be more profitable if smaller 

 houses were employed. In either case it is important that 

 the birds shall be got out of these cramped conditions as 

 speedily as possible so as to give them plenty of room to 

 grow. For that reason the colony house system for growing 

 chickens is very valuable. 



I believe that it is important for chickens at different 

 stages of development to have as much fresh air as possible, 

 and I am glad to say that in the many houses I visited there 

 appeared to be much more attention paid to this point than 

 in the incubator cellars. Perhaps this is more due to chance 

 than design, for the houses above ground lend themselves 

 to ventilation to a greater extent than those underground. 

 The weakness of the system, however, was in many cases a 

 want of shade.^ I should have thought that in America, 

 with its hot spring and summer, shade would have received 

 much more attention than is the case. I was interested to 

 note that on the Elma plant some thousands of fruit trees 

 have been planted, but being small they were not of much 

 service at the time of my visit. 



We should never forget that heated ground checks 

 growth, and if such ground receives the direct rays of the 

 sun it is heated, and both day and night the birds are under 

 conditions unfavorable to development. They require moist 

 conditions for growth, and I venture to submit that in many 

 cases better results would be achieved, both as to size and 

 quality of flesh, if greater attention were given in this direc- 

 tion. 



DRINKING FOUNTAIN 



DRINKING FOUNTAIN FOR CHICKS 



WARREN W. WOLFGANG 



1TAKE a Mason fruit jar and punch a one and one-half 

 inch hole in the jar top, then I solder a notched tin 

 ring two inches wide to the top of the jar. The notched 

 side of the ring is then soldered to a five-inch tin pie pan. 

 The illustration makes the pan look too large; there should 

 not be much room allowed. The jar can be filled with water 

 and the lid screwed on and when the pan is set on the floor 

 or ground it makes a very acceptable drinking fountaiin. 



