A REVOLUTION IN EGG PRODUCTION 37 



chicks are placed under them. Some straw or other litter^ 

 should be spread on the floor and under the hover, and the 

 chicks should be placed under the hovers to become hover- 

 broke. 



Whatever style of brooder is used, it should be started up 

 and be got in readiness several hours before the arrival of the 

 chicks, in order that the flock of little birds will not be met 

 with a chilly reception when they appear on the scenes. 



Preparation is a sure preventative of several causes of 

 trouble. 



In trimming brooder lamps, either the wick should be 

 turned up far enough to slightly snip the corners with a pair 

 of shears, or "the charred wick should be rubbed or wiped off 

 to slightly rounded corners. A wick trimmed in this manner 

 will not smoke, even if turned up to a relatively high flame. 

 The least suspicion of a pointed flame at the side of the wick 

 is likely to cause smoking and consequent danger from over- 

 heated lamp founts. 



About the last act of the chickens before they emerge 

 from the shell, in the hatching process, is the absorbing of the 

 yolk. This yolk takes thirty-six hours or more to digest, and 

 the chickens not only do not need anything to eat or drink 

 under thirty-six hours, from the time they are excluded, but 

 it is generally harmful to feed them anything sooner than this. 

 Advantage is taken of this provision in nature to ship "day 

 old chicks" at this time. They can, at this stage, be shipped 

 with perfect safety and with no ill effects a distance of one 

 thousand miles or more. 



The "day old chick" business has grown tremendously in 

 the past three or four years. There seems to be less oppor- 

 tunity for disputes or dissatisfaction in the purchase of day 

 old chicks, than in the purchase of eggs for hatching. On the 

 arrival of the chicks, the purchaser can see and count what 

 he has received ; and on the other hand, the seller is saved the 

 annoyance and dissatisfaction of claims and disputes from 

 patrons, whose troubles are caused in a great many cases 

 through the fault of others in the handling of the eggs in 

 shipment ; or, in a great many other cases, by the carelessness 

 or ignorance of the purchaser during incubation. 



When the chicks arrive, take a coil of wire, of one inch 

 or half inch mesh poultry netting, one foot or more wide. Nail 



