Money in Broilers and Squabs. 39 



I know of no more unsatisfactory part of the poultry business than 

 doctoring sick chickens. It is seldom a success. To keep them 

 well they must be kept warm. It is the first letter of the alphabet 

 of successful chicken-raising. I lost heavily at first until I found 

 this out. Fifty per cent or more of each hatch would drop out 

 with bowel disease until three weeks old, and then many more when 

 changing from down to feathers. It was a very discouraging ex- 

 perience. I kept altering my brooders and experimenting until of 

 my last hatches I lost only i or 2 per cent, through sickness. 



"My great mistake had been in-not keeping the brooders warm 

 enough. I now keep them at 100 degrees day and night for about 

 a week until the chicks get a little strength, and then reduce to 95 

 degrees and then to 90 degrees. Until little chicks are feathered 

 they are but little better than naked, and need a tropical tempera- 

 ture to which they can resort when they feel the least chilled. After 

 they are 10 days' old they will endure a considerable degree of cold 

 if they can run at will into a warm brooder. Any attempt to save 

 kerosene by turning down the lamps is disastrous. It doesn't pay to 

 save oil at 8 cents a gallon and lose chicks that will at 10 weeks old 

 bring 25 to 50 cents a pound. At night the chicks are exposed to 

 the greatest risks, and there must be no mistake about the proper 

 amount of heat. Too low a temperature at night for only a few 

 hours may result in the loss of many chicks. 



"For the first ten days they must not be allowed to get far 

 away from the brooder. My brooder house is divided by partitions 

 into sections six feet wide. The brooders, one foot high and three 

 feet square, are set against the back wall, one foot from one parti- 

 tion and two feet from the othen These spaces are floored over 

 level with the top of the brooder, a four-inch board is in front, and 

 inch mesh netting, one foot wide, stretched and fastened to that and 

 the partitions. The chicks are not allowed to go off this platform 

 until ten days old. The first couple of days they are not allowed 

 to go more than a foot from the brooder, and then only for a little 

 time to eat, drink and exercise, and then they are put back in the 

 brooder and kept dark and quiet for a couple of hours to rest and 

 take a nap. In fact, they need much the same treatment and care 

 the babies do. I take a last look at them before I go to bed. If 

 everything is quiet and the chicks lie scattered all over the brooder 

 floor, then the heat is just right. If there is a noise of scuffling 

 and crowding, and the chicks are hugging the center of the brooder, 

 they need more heat at once, or some of them will get under foot and 

 be trampled to death, and bowel disease will put in an appearance. 

 If they lie with their heads outside the curtains, the brooder is too 

 warm, and there is danger of leg weakness. It may be objected 

 that all this watching and care takes a great deal of time, and so it 

 does; but just such watching and care, day and night, must be 

 exercised or else the artificial rearing of chickens will prove a dismal 

 and exasperating failure." ^ „„,. 



The Poultry Keeper, in taking up the subject. Why eggs do 

 not hatch," gives some very good pointers, as follows : 



