132 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 



Avoid Moving Chicks Often 



The removal of the chicks from the hover runs 

 into the nurseries, as formerly practiced on The 

 Corning Egg Farm, has been entirely discontinued. 

 A chick in many respects resembles a flower'; every 

 time it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain 

 setback. For this reason the great Brooder House 

 has all been turned into hover runs, and the chicks 

 make one move from the Brooder House to the Colony 

 House. A moving generally represents not only a 

 slight setback, but some mortality through accident 

 and the change itself. 



The small chick doors into the outside runs are 

 opened, if the weather is propitious, about the fifth or 

 sixth day in the early part of the hatching season, 

 and on the third or fourth day later on. The chicks 

 are never driven into the yard, any more than they 

 are driven down the inclined plane, but it is always 

 our method to allow the youngsters to seek a new 

 field for themselves, and slowly. When they go out 

 into the yard they are watched, and if there is any 

 inclination to huddle up against the warm side of the 

 building they are driven back into the Brooder House. 



Another great advantage of the heated Brooder 

 House (and we speak of this as entirely separate 

 from the heat under the hovers) is that it allows the 

 chick to seek different degrees of temperature. There 

 is one temperature under the hover; another tem- 



