CHAPTER XIX 



Rearing Chicks in Brooder House — The Follow- 

 ing Two Years Results Depend Upon Success 

 in Brooding 



The Brooder House is built over the Sprouted Oats 

 Cellar and the Incubator Cellar. Its total length is 

 264 feet. 118 feet of this is 16 feet wide, and the 

 balance is 22 feet wide. 



Incubation might be termed a mechanical opera- 

 tion, and, as outlined in the previous chapter, a very 

 fair hatch is usually obtained. But after all is said 

 and done artificial rearing of young chicks is the most 

 difficult problem which a poultryman has to solve. 



Chicks running with a hen will stand climatic con- 

 ditions, and in fact thrive under conditions, which, if 

 they were being handled in a Brooder House, would 

 mean a tremendous mortality. The hen will feed her 

 brood on substances which would mean the annihila- 

 tion of ones' entire flock of youngsters, should one 

 attempt it, and, perhaps, the most curious feature of 

 the feeding part is the fact that one may give the 

 brood, running with the hen, food Nature never in- 

 tended a small chick to eat, and many of the brood 



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