BROOD I DIG AND FEEDING CHICKS. 



A Large Brooder Which Can be Converted Into a Roosting Coop— Plenty of Room Essential for Growth— The Correct 



Degree of Heat— The Food and Manner of Feeding. 



By Charles P. Clooger. 



<^Yt LTHOUGH my experience with brooders is not 

 ^=A\ particularly extensive, I have learned something 

 -^ "■ about the rearing of chicks artificially that 

 will benefit the amateur at least. A good 

 brooder is essential. If one intends doing much of 

 any work with brooders, they should be five and oae- 

 half feet square, or large enough to hold comforta- 

 bly fifty 'Aicks until twelve weeks old. No matter how 

 large or now small the brooder is, never place more than 

 three or four chicks to every square foot of fioor space; 

 overcrowding must be avoided. The best success I have had 

 with young chicks has been with our piano box colony 

 irooders. They are closely and neatly covered with heavy 

 paper, are five and one-half feet square, five feet high in 

 front, three feet high at the back and have a solid shed roof, 

 with a door at the side and a window in front. We set 





Wm 



A Flock of Promising White Leghorn Chicks. 



them twelve inches ofEthe gr,ound, so that the lamp box 

 underneath can be reached conveniently. The heating ar- 

 rangement is very simple; we cut a hole in the floor.fourteen 

 inches square six inches from the rear wall, making the 

 center of this hole midway between the ends. Into this we 

 fit closely the ordinary square tin' radiator, the bottom com- 

 ing- fiush with the floor of the brooder and resting on pro- 

 jecting cleats, with the fume pipe projecting through the 

 roof of the broader. We use a No. 3 lamp burner, which 

 gives enough heat In cold weather. Over the radiator with 

 a half inch air space we place a board hover twenty-six 

 inches square so that it projects six inches beyond the ra- 

 diator on all sides. From it are suspended the usual cotton 

 flannel curtains. The thermometer is attached to a round 

 stick twe^e inches long which projects through a round 

 hole-a7t^-^&>bac#4>f- th« broodeV and wiiich reaches- past the 

 middle of one end of the hover. One great advantage of 

 this broodei* is that when vour chicks no longer need artifl- 



cial heat you can in five minutes convert it into a colony 

 house by simply lifting out the radiator and nailing a board 

 fourteen inches square in its place. Put in perches and 

 thirty chicks can perch there until ready for the breeding 

 pens. 



From my individual experience in raising chicks with 

 brooders I find my greatest success is secured when I have 

 less, rather than more, than fifty chicks together. When 

 I do not exceed this number I have no cases of bowel trou- 

 ble If my chicks are healthy when placed in the brooder. 

 Warmth and Eood. 



I start my chicks In the brooders at ninety degrees of 

 heat and the warmth of fifty chicks will soon increase it to 

 one hundred. This temperature, however, should not be 

 maintained more than a week, when it should be gradually 

 reduced to eighty by the time the chicks are three weeks 

 old. This is my plan in the winter or early spring, but later 

 in the season I do not get over eighty-five degrees to start 

 with and gradually reduce to seventy degrees. My exper- 

 ience has been that chicks coddled too much are never 

 strong. For the first week I keep them as near the hover 

 as possible. One cannot be too careful, and a board placed 

 six inches from the hover will keep the little fellows within 

 bounds and they will not become chilled. Should they feel 

 the cold they can easily get back under the hover again 

 and warm up. 



As to the manner of feeding, I may not conform to the 

 generally accepted order of things. In the first place I am 

 no believer in soft food for young chicks, but am fully con- 

 vinced that it produces more bowel trouble than any other 

 one thing, not excepting crowding. Therefore It Is very sel- 

 dom my young chicks get mash. Forty-eight hours after 

 hatching I sprinkle a few dry bread crumbs on the brooder 

 floor with a little fine grit. I keep milk or water before 

 them all the time, and the second day feed them three times 

 a few broken crackers. The third day I start with my chick 

 feed and I find the little fellows can pick out the small par- 

 ticles in great shape, and how they do grow! In feeding 

 dry food, composed mostly of grain, with the necessary 

 quantity of meats and bone, I believe we imitate nature 

 closer than by feeding a mash. 



I believe in exercise and see more real benefit in the 

 heat produced in the body by scratching than that which 

 is given artificially. Clover cut in about one-fourth inch 

 lengths is light material and if cracked grain or millet is 

 scattered in this litter, how the little fellows will work! 



Another thing,'! never neglect is the use of bran to pre- 

 vent bowel trouble. In each brooder I keep a small box of 

 dry bran and c^rcoal and the quantity of bran these little 

 fellows will eat-OTd the good condition of the bran fed chicks 

 is surprising. Our early chicks are fed plenty of cabbage or 

 apples for green food. CHARLES P. GLOGGBR. 



