ALTERNATIVE RUNS 237 
large one and in this way equalise the heat in the house. It 
seems to me that on some such lines the perfect brooder-house will 
be evolved. 
Another and similar system of heating with the addition of hot- 
water pipes has been invented by Mr Hanson, of Basingstoke, 
who fully describes it in Commercial Egg Farming. 
His brooder-house is 110 feet long by 12 feet wide. There is a 
four-foot passage running along the back of the house. The front 
is divided into twenty compartments, each 5 feet wide, with a 
capacity of 125 chicks. Ten compartments are on each side of 
the stove, which is in the centre of the building and occupies, with 
coal space, 10 feet. The stove is an ordinary water-jacket arrange- 
ment with fairly large coal capacity. Two-inch pipes run from 
the stove on both sides to the extremities of the house, and two-inch 
pipes return to it. Ordinary anthracite coal is used as fuel. 
If the fire is properly made it will last for twelve hours without 
attention and will keep the water in the pipes hot for quite young 
chicks. The pipes start from the stove at about 5 inches above 
the floor-level and gradually rise by 5 inches in each 50 feet, which 
is sufficient for the circulation. On the floor of the compartment 
is put coarse sand, and over that chaff is strewn. As the pipes 
rise, more sand is put on the floor underneath them to make up 
the level within 3 inches of the pipes. A board is placed over the 
pipes to keep the heat down on the chicks, and for the first week 
a sack is thrown over the board for extra protection. 
About a week before the chicks are due from the incubator, 
the fire in the brooder-house is started and kept going in order 
thoroughly to dry the sand, which is spread in the pens some 
months before. When the chicks are ready to leave the incubator 
they are placed in ordinary chick boxes and taken to the brooder- 
house, where they are put under the pipes. There they remain 
for thirty-six or forty-eight hours without any food, but they can 
run about near the pipes, the side nearest the windows being 
blocked with a piece of board for two days, by which time the 
chicks are accustomed to their home. The board can now be 
removed, and they have the run of the whole pen. When first 
