276 



POULTRY CULTURE 



Fig. 311. Brooder house at Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College. (Pho- 

 tograph from the college) 



of a temperature which quickly warms and dries them. Except for 

 what are called (perhaps erroneously) low-temperature ^ hens, the 

 temperature in natural brooding, with suitable-sized broods, is never 

 injuriously wrong. The regulation of temperature is automatic and 



nearly perfect. 



Regulation of heat in artificial 

 brooding. The operation of a 

 brooder presents problems similar 

 to the problems of artificial in- 

 cubation. The general problem 

 is to provide a substitute for the 

 heat of the parent bird. It is 

 economically necessary that this 

 be done at a cost for equipment 

 and labor that will leave a profit on the work. While it is not 

 required that a uniform temperature be as steadily maintained as 

 in incubation, the artificial brooder must be in a measure auto- 

 matically regulating for temperature, and fresh air must be supplied 

 to the young birds in the hover in much larger quantities than to 

 the eggs in the egg chamber of the incubator. The difficult point 

 is to secure free ventilation while maintaining a sufficiently high 

 temperature. This is commonly 

 made more difficult in practice 

 through the tendency of poultry- 

 men to economize capital, space, 

 and labor by putting into each 

 brooder compartment the largest 

 number of chicks or ducklings 

 that it is considered possible 

 to keep in it. To effect sales. 



Fig. 312. Brooder house at Goodrich 



Farm, West Duxbury, Massachusetts 



(Photograph from Goodrich Farm) 



manufacturers often overrate the capacity of a brooder. The capacity 

 of a brooder of fixed size to contain growing birds is obviously 



1 This is one of many points not experimentally determined. The " low-tem- 

 perature " fowl seems so to the touch. She lacks vitality and may be sick. She 

 may be nervous and irritable, and worry or neglect her young. Her temperature is 

 certainly not so far below normal that it alone would seriously affect the young 

 birds, but as young birds with such mothers do quite regularly show bad effects, 

 it is assumed that this is due to a wrong attitude of the mother toward them, or 

 that such a mother draws vitality from her young instead of conserving theirs. 



