YARD ROOM 



199 



and probably the eggs have not been 

 aired sufficiently. 



2. Cripples, such as you describe, in- 

 variably come from overheating, espe- 

 cially the last ten days in the incubator 

 It may be only for a few hours. It is 

 such a pity, for it always seems to be 

 the biggest and best chicks. I have once 

 or twice succeeded in straightening out 

 the legs and setting the knee, fastening 

 it with a rubber. 



3. The trouble with the ducks is se- 

 vere indigestion. It may be they have 

 not had sand enough in their food, or 

 they have eaten some animal food that 

 was not fresh— was decaying. Lack of 

 shade will give the same symptoms. The 

 drinking vessel must be deep enough for 

 them to get their entire bill under water, 

 for they require to rinse their nostrils 

 many times a day and will die if they 

 cannot. 



Brooders — (Mrs. S. M. G.)— I would 

 like to tell you about the brooders I 



made from your description of them. I 

 have used the Fireless Brooder for five 

 months and have had no trouble in get- 

 ting the chicks to go inside when they 

 are cold. When I first put fifty chicks 

 into the Fireless, the weather was cold 

 and at first I found, like others, that the 

 little fellows did not know where to go 

 when they felt cold, so on the third day 

 I put a gallon jug of hot water in the 

 center of the brooder, covering the jug 

 with a hood made of several layers of 

 newspaper. I took two or three chicks 

 and held them against the jug until 

 their happy chirping brought all the 

 others ; after that I had no trouble. I 

 removed the jug at night and put it 

 back in the morning for a few days, 

 filling it with less warm water each 

 morning. During the summer months I 

 did not find it necessary to put any at- 

 traction in the brooders as the chicks 

 seemed warm enough from the first to 

 spend the entire day in the sun. 



This account from Mrs. G. will in- 

 terest and help many of our readers. 



YARD ROOM 



How Many Chickens to Keep on a 

 City Lot — Will you kindly tell me how 

 many chickens can be kept on a city lot 

 seventy-five by a hundred and eighty 

 feet? Do you think chickens will lay 

 well during the rainy season in Seattle, 

 Wash., if they are properly fed and 

 housed? How big a house do we need 

 for fifty chickens? 



Last September we bought thirty Ply- 

 mouth Rock hens and thirty pullets. We 

 got from ten to sixteen eggs from the 

 hens per day, until about the middle of 

 December, when they began to fall off. 

 We are still > getting that amount, but 

 half of them are from the pullets. Do 

 you think they are doing as well as we 

 could expect? — Mrs. L. E. S. 



Answer — -In your climate it would 

 very much depend upon the shelter from 

 the rain that you can give the chickens. 

 Fifty chickens should be divided into 

 two pens with two houses. Each house 

 not less than ten by twelve feet in size. 

 I would advise a good scratching pen to 

 be made either adjoining the house and 

 covered with a roof, or else make the 

 scratching pen to extend underneath 

 the dropping boards. You might keep 

 several hunndred hens upon land 75 x 



180 feet, if you have ample house room 

 for them, so they would be well shel- 

 tered from the rain. Hens that are wet 

 every day will not lay well. Your fowls 

 are doing well, considering the wet 

 weather you are having. 



How Many on Two Acres— I have 

 two acres of land, of which I will have 

 a hundred feet by one hundred feet for 

 an alfalfa patch, the rest for chickens to 

 run around and have the patch for them 

 to feed on for an hour or so before go- 

 ing to roost. Kindly let me know how 

 many chickens I can raise on the two 

 acres at the most. — M. J. P. 



Answer — -I think you can keep a thou- 

 sand chickens on your two acres. You 

 must be careful not to have more than 

 fifty to roost in one house. It is the 

 crowded condition of houses at night 

 that brings trouble and disease. Be sure 

 to give them shade during the day and 

 plenty of good fresh water, besides, of 

 course, the balanced ration. Allow them 

 two hours a day on the alfalfa patch. 



Fivx Acres— Will you kindly tell me 

 how many White Leghorns I can suc- 

 cessfully raise on five acres of land? I 



