CHAPTER XXII 



ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



If artificial incubation is practiced 

 it necessitates artificial brooding, unless 

 the hatches are small, in which case 

 the chicks can be given to hens, though 

 this practice really defeats the idea of 

 the incubator, which is to conserve the 

 hen's time. It takes at least four weeks 

 to wean a brood of chicks, sometimes 

 six weeks, and during this period the 

 mother hen is a non-layer. In fact, 

 she seldom starts to lay for a month after she has weaned her 

 brood, due to the fact that she is usually so run down and out of 

 condition, as the result of her maternal efforts and responsibili- 

 ties, that she must first rebuild her vitality. This represents a 

 great deal of lost time so far as egg production is concerned, and 

 the time lost is usually during April, May and June, the months 

 of heaviest laying. 



Farmers are the greatest patrons of this combination method, 

 and their idea is to escape the care of the brooder, which they 

 regard more or less with suspicion. It must be admitted, of 

 course, that no brooder is equal to the hen as a mother; we can- 

 not improve on nature in this respect ; but we can do the work a 

 whole lot cheaper with the brooder, and this is an important con- 

 sideration. 



Were it not for artificial incubation and brooding it would be 

 impossible for commercial poultry plants to conduct their opera- 

 tions on such a vast scale. It is not practicable to raise large 

 numbers of chicks by hens. In the first place, it is virtually im- 



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