THE CHICK BOOK 



45 



pieces of board are fitted into slots at each front corner, 

 extending to the side of the pen, so that the chicks are kept 

 In that warm, sunny half of the pen until they are a week 

 to ten days old. The first day after being removed from the 

 Incubator they are usually kept confined to the brooder, the 



food being put on small platters 



placed in the corners of the brooders 

 for them. After they are old enough 

 to be let out they are fed and watered 

 outside, just in front of the brooders. 

 These winter chickens will need the 

 warmth of the brooders until they are 

 seven or eight weeks old, but the 

 temperature of the hover is gradually 

 reduced from 95 degrees ait the begin- 

 ning to 90 or thereabouts aJt the t-nd 

 of the second week, then to 85, then 

 80, then 75. and the last week or so 

 that the chicks occupy the brooder the 

 flame of the lamp is kept as' low as it 

 can be run, to give just the least 

 amount of warmth, 65 to 70 degrees 

 being sufficient. 



The chickens that we raise for 

 breeding stock are brooded out of 

 doors (it being our custom to begin set- 

 ting brooders out about April 1st, the 

 brooders being set in the ground, just 

 as formerly inside the brooder house, 

 but as we have much rainy weather 

 in April and May, we have "sihel- 

 ter boards" to serve as protection from the rain, set a little 

 way in front of the brooders, and under which the chicks can 

 take refuge from storms. The chicks put out of doors are 

 kept within the brooder for about one day, then a little pen 

 a yard square made of three pieces of board three feet long 

 set up to the front of the brooder gives them a snug little 

 enclosure for the few days of babyhood. Next we make 

 a pen about twenty feet square of one-inch mesh wire net- 

 ting tied to temporary stakes, and the chicks have the range 

 of this pen until they are big enough to be weaned from the 

 brooder, which, in May and June, is at about six weeks 

 old. Then they are moved back to a grassy ridge bordering 

 the pasture on one side and mowing field on the other. 

 There they are colonized in "A" coops (as we call them) 

 for five or six weeks, when it is time to separate the pullets 

 from the cockerels, and put the pullets out in the grass 

 fields, in roosting coops, in families of about twenty-five 

 each, colonized about fifty yards apart. The cockerels In- 

 tended to be raised for breeding are confined in pens about 

 50x100 feet, while the cockerels Intended for market are 

 taken back to the pens in the brooder house, which have 

 small yards 10x20 outside, and there they are fed and grown 

 for market. 



The coops for these chickens play a not unimportant 

 part in chicken raising, and a brief description of them may 

 be interesting. The "A" coops are three feet six inches by 

 two feet three inches on the ground and two feet high at 

 the apex of the roof. They are built throughout of half-inch 

 tongued and grooved pine and well painted. The front is 

 all slats, as shown in the illustration, with a slatted gate 

 sliding in grooves to close the front. We originally built 

 "A" coops to slope down to the ground, but found it an im- 

 provement to have a square base four inches high, with the 

 corners turned to an angle, to prevent the chicks from 

 crowding back under the eaves and smothering one or two 

 at a time. We find it a most decided advantage to have 



these well built coops always at hand, and as we have coops 

 now in use which were built ten years ago, and are as good 

 to-day as when made, the economy of well made coops will 

 be apparent. When we say that the tongues and grooves of 

 the roof pieces are painted before they are put together, the 



BROODERS AS USED OUT OF DOORS, 

 The One In Foregrouad has a Very Small Pen for Baby Chicks, 



reader will realize that they are thoroughly wedl built. 

 The roosting coop, which is chiefly Intended for raising 

 the pullets in, is six feet long, three feet wide, two feet high 

 at back and three feet high in front. The roof, ends and 

 back side are all of half- inch tongued and grooved pine, the 

 front being laths, set a lath width apart, except that a strip 

 of board is nailed to each corner for stiffening. Two roosts 

 stiffen it. A coop like this will comfortably house twenty- 

 five to thirty chickens until they are nearly grown; in fact, 

 we sometimes have pullets begin to lay before they are 

 brought in from those roosting coops. It is quite light and 

 can be easily moved on a wheelbarrow, or moved its length 

 and width to fresh ground, or It can be tipped up and drop- 

 pings removed, and it is a perfect summer shelter. If they 

 are to be used in the spring or fall, when the nights are 

 cold, an improvement would be to make a front of half-inch 

 boards, hinged at the top edge, so it could swing outward 

 and upward and rest upon folding legs hinged at the bottom 

 corners, which would become a roof to shelter the birds 

 from • rains. One disadvantage of this light coop is, that 

 it may be easily tipped over by a high wind, especially 

 when the chickens are all out of it, as during the day. To 

 prevent it from so tipping over a flat stone should be placed 

 on each front corner of the roof. 



The gate space in front of the coop gives access to the 

 whole inside when the pullets are to be removed. The gate 

 is made of laths nailed to two strips one inch square, the 

 left hand ends of which are long enough to slip in behind 

 the lath front, the right hand side being secured by one or 

 two buttons. If one prefers, these gates can be hinged at 

 one side or the other and secured by a hook or a button, but 

 of two by three scantling, slightly rounded at top, run the 

 whole length and are a foot apart, being securely nailed to 

 a frame of furring (one by three stuff) nine inches from the 

 ground. To this frame we nail the ends, back side and 

 front corner boards and then fit in at the top a frame 

 of inch-square stuff to nail the roof boards to and 



