70 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



but it was slow. The time had now arrived when 

 small business measures no longer would do. The 

 markets called for poultry in enormous quantities. 

 The result was the introduction of incubators on a 

 wide scale. It was discovered that, instead of the 

 clumsy communal contrivances employed by the 

 ancient and modern Egyptians, machines could 

 be built to serve the purpose of individual pro- 

 ducers at a minimum cost in money and labor. 

 Small incubators became the fashion, and modern 

 poultry-raising thus received its start. 



The poultry- business in fifty years has increased 

 tenfold. Under present methods the chicks are 

 placed in a heated brooder-house twenty-four 

 hours after they arrive from the incubator. The 

 brooder-house usually is a small room with an 

 easily regulated stove in the center. Around the 

 stove is a low, circular hood, raised a few inches 

 from the floor, under which the chicks may gather 

 without getting burned. This is termed the 

 *' hover," and, if the temperature is too great be- 

 neath its folds, the chicks have access to the 

 farther parts of the room where the heat is less. 



As soon as the chicks are a few days old they 

 generally are permitted to run in a small en- 

 closed yard adjoining the brooder-house. After 

 their down feathers are shed it is safe, if the 

 owner so desires, to let them roam around a larger 

 yard or even over the farm at will. This, how- 

 ever, applies only to pullets and young stock 



