INDIVIDUAL HOVERS AND BROODERS 



301 



have never been widely used ; the whole principle is against them. 

 Adequate ventilation is impossible, since to ventilate the hovers 

 means to lose the warmth created by the chicks. 



As a matter of fact, all long brooder house systems are rapidly 

 disappearing in favor of large flock systems reared with brooder 

 stoves. The long brooder house usually represented the most 

 expensive building on a poultry farm, and because of its equip- 

 ment it could not be used for any other purpose, consequently 

 for six months each year it was idle. See Fig. 192. And capital 

 invested in idle equip- 

 ment is unprofitable. 



Individual Hovers. — 

 For farmers and back- 

 yard flocks, where but a 

 hundred or so chicks are 

 raised each year, the in- 

 dividual hover, heated 

 by hot air or hot water, 

 with a kerosene lamp as 

 the source of heat, seems 

 to be the most popular 

 device. See Fig. 196. 

 Most of these hovers can 

 be installed in any sort of 



a coop or building without alterations, or with some minor prepara- 

 tion, such as cutting a hole for the exhaust pipe from the lamp. 

 Some makes have the lamp in the center and are entirely portable, 

 others have the lamp on one side, which is housed in a separate 

 box fastened to the outside of the house. They are called uni- 

 versal or adaptable hovers, and practically all makes can be de- 

 pended upon to give satisfactory results. 



Colony Brooders. — Some manufacturers of portable hovers 

 make a brooder coop in connection with the hover. The coop 

 is built in sections, screwed together and easily handled. See 

 Fig. 197. The coop is about six feet long, three feet wide and 

 about three feet high at the front; it has a shed roof, which is 



{Courtesy Wisconsin Experiment Station) 



Fig. 195. — Homemade fireless brooder. The 

 principle is that of conserving the warmth 

 given off by the chicks' bodies. 



