236 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
of the house, divided only by wire, and there is a passage down 
the centre of the house with doors leading into each separate 
compartment. This type of brooder-house is the most common. 
The advantage over the old system is that one can do all the work 
under cover, while the birds have a double protection—the hover 
compartment and the house itself. The birds have the run of 
their compartment opening directly out of the sleeping-place, and 
in good weather they have access to the open air through an 
opening in the house itself toa grass run. It is a very simple and 
very convenient arrangement. Each compartment in the house 
has a wooden floor liberally covered with chaff, where the birds 
have to scratch for their hard food. A brooder-house, say, 48 
by 12 feet is large enough to rear about 1000 chicks at a time, and 
those I have seen have been most successful. If necessary the 
brooder-house can be converted into a laying-house by the removal 
of the hovers and divisions, so that it can be made to serve a double 
purpose. 
Various attempts have been made to get rid of the old lamp in 
brooder-houses. It is difficult sometimes to get perfect ventilation 
and fumes from the oil are unhealthy, if not dangerous, to young 
chicks. Besides, lamps in brooders or houses need a great 
deal of attention, and are apt, in spite of care, to go wrong. The 
most recent experiments have been made with anthracite stoves, 
and these have proved greatly superior to any oil stove or lamp 
yet invented. 
One poultry-farmer has hit upon a simple and yet effective 
plan. He has an anthracite stove in the middle of a square 
brooder-house with an iron chimney going through the roof. 
Around the stove he has placed a circular canvas screen which 
prevents the birds getting within three or four feet of the stove. 
This arrangement prevents “ crowding,” that most deadly of all 
brooder troubles. The young chicks spread themselves out on the 
chaff of the wooden floor just as if they were basking in the sun. 
T do not quite know how the outer circle of birds get the necessary 
heat, excepting the house is a comparatively small one. Of course 
one might arrange to get, say, four small stoves instead of one 
