16 HOW TO HATCH, BROOD, FEED AND PREVENT 



the machine only those that are lively and can toddle around. Now 

 watch the temperature of your brooder. Do not let it get too warm, for 

 just as soon as you put chicks in the brooder the temperature will begin 

 to rise. Keep turning the lamp down and kee-p the temperature at about 

 90 degrees. I place my brooder in the kitchen or dining room for the first 

 thirty-six hours, or until the hatch is all done and the time comes to feed 

 them. It makes less work for the operator and you can watch the temper- 

 ature of your brooder better. You may think it will not look well to put 

 your chicks in the kitchen or dining room. Do not think any such thing. 

 I would rather think it was an ornament even to the parlor, considering 

 the prices of poultry and eggs for the last few years. If you can save your 

 hatch by using the best room in your house for your brooder for a few 

 days, do it, for it would be just like piling up silver dollars. If you have 

 an early hatch, say in March or April, and you think it too cold to remove 

 your brooder and chicks to the brooder house, first spread a newspaper in 

 front of your brooder, and scatter a little sand and chaff over it. Nail some 

 short boards together and make a little run. Then let your little chicks 

 out for exercise and feed. If you have the room to spare keep this little 

 run in front of your brooder for a few days and let the chicks run in and 

 out at will. They will soon learn that the brooder is warm and will depend 

 upon it warming them just the same as they would a hen. Remove the 

 paper as often as it gets soiled, say twice a day. Scatter your feed, also a 

 little timothy seed on this paper. This will give them exercise, for they 

 will work and scratch and chatter and seem better contented than if they 

 had nothing to do. After a few days, when the chicks have learned that 

 the brooder is their home, and mother, remove them to the brooder house. 

 They will be stronger and can stand the cold better than they could if you 

 had removed them there just after taking them out of the incubator. 

 Sometimes in the spring, the temperature falls quite low in the night. You 

 will have to watch this closely, as your chicks will pile up and smother. 

 They will never pile up if they are warm enough. I always kill the crip- 

 ples. They never amount to anything if they live, and all the time you 

 put in on them is just wasted. Sometimes, on a rainy day, after the 

 chicks are quite large, they will pile up in the brooder and smother or 

 trample the weak ones to death. You can avoid this by making a fire in 

 the brooder house. There are old second-hand stoves one can buy very 

 reasonable that will answer the purpose. I have a stove in each one of my 

 brooder houses and in the early spring I keep a fire all day so the chicks 

 will not become chilled and take cold. They seem better contented, too. 

 I cover the floor of the brooder house with dry dirt in the early spring; it 

 keeps out the wind and makes it much warmer. I sprinkle ashes and a 

 little lime over this floor and when the house is warm and the sun shines 

 in on the floor the chicks will just make the dust fly. When this becomes 



