1883 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
443 
Raising Chickens by Artificial Mothers. 
BY B. S. BERWICK. 
Several artificial incubators are now extensively 
advertised, and the frequent inquiries upon the 
subject, indicate that the artificial incubation of 
chickens is a matter exciting general interest, and 
is destined to become an important industry in 
this country. When, however, the chickens are 
hatched, the work is only begun, and the question 
arises, how can these artificially-hatched chickens 
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A NURSERY FOR ARTIFICIALLY HATCHED CHICKENS. 
be raised without the aid of hens, and with less 
loss than attends the ordinary method ? When a 
fancier raises forty or fifty chickens a year, as a 
mere amusement, the amount of care which he 
gives them is never taken into account; but if the 
number of chickens be increased to several hun¬ 
dreds, some means must be provided by which so 
large a number can be taken care of without too 
much labor. For supplying warmth and protection 
to young chickens, various “artificial mothers,” or 
“ brooders,” have been devised. Those in the mar¬ 
ket are well enough adapted to the raising of a 
small number of chickens of nearly the same age, 
but it becomes a difficult matter when from two 
hundred and fifty tc five hundred are to be raised, 
and of all ages, from those just hatched to those 
large enough for broilers. Young chickens must 
have plenty of air, exercise, and wholesome green 
food; and means of protection against injury must 
be provided. Where young chickens of different 
ages are together, the elder tyrannize over the 
younger, the newly-hatched chickens being fre¬ 
quently trampled to death, or are driven away from 
their food by the stronger. Young chickens are 
wery often lost in the grass when at liberty, and 
are frequently wet and chilled. Hence, to suc¬ 
cessfully raise a large number of chickens by 
hand, some means must be provided by which 
those of different ages can be separated, and by 
which the chickens can be protected and at the 
same time have sufficient liberty for exercise and 
development in the open air. The chicken nursery, 
a plan of which is herewith given, is a low- 
priced building, made of hemlock boards and posts, 
with a double pitched roof, the ridge-tree of which 
is supported by the central line of posts seen in the 
plan, and is just high enough to permit a person to 
walk under the highest part of the roof, which, at 
each side of the ridge, slopes downward to within 
two and a half feet of the ground. This nursery is 
entered by a door at cl , and its interior is divided 
into three sections, A, B, and C, the sections being 
separated from each other by a wire net, or laths. 
Sections A and B are separated by a pit, over 
which two artificial mothers or 
brooders, F, F, are set back to 
back, as shown in the plan of the 
nursery. These brooders are kept 
warm either by means of a lamp 
or by hot water, according to the 
kind used. The ground surround¬ 
ing this nursery is divided into 
yards for the exercise of the 
young chickens; the lower part 
of each fence, for two feet from 
the ground, is made of boards 
with their lower edges sunk a lit¬ 
tle in the earth, to prevent the 
escape of the chickens. The re¬ 
mainder of the fence is of wire 
net, laths, or seine net, painted or 
soaked in oil and stretched upon 
the posts. The sections A and B 
communicate with their respec¬ 
tive yards or runs, D and E, by 
means of flap-doors at e and g, so 
that the chickens may be confined 
in the nursery or run in the yard 
according to the weather. An 
opening is left under the door at 
d of the largest section C, for 
the same purpose. Several green¬ 
house sashes are placed in the 
roof for the purpose of admit¬ 
ting light, and scuttle doors may 
be provided in the roof for ven¬ 
tilation. A nursery of this de¬ 
scription may be used to the best 
advantage in connection with a 
small artificial mother or brooder, 
such as are now found in the 
market. As soon as the chickens 
are hatched by the incubator, they 
may be placed in this small mother 
or brooder, and kept in it until 
they are four weeks old. They 
may then be transferred to sec¬ 
tion A of the nursery, in which they can be 
brooded by the artificial mother F, appropriated to 
that section, while they may be permitted to run 
in the yard D , whenever the weather permits. As 
the chickens grow older, they may be transferred to 
section i?; cover A 7 of this brooder is set higher from 
the floor than is that of the brooder for section 
A. Lastly, as the chickens get large enough to 
perch, they may be transferred to section G, which 
should be provided with low perches, all of uniform 
hight from the ground, so that there may be no 
quarreling far the highest place. As fast as the 
small chickens are transferred from the small 
mother or brooder to section A, their places may 
be supplied by those freshly hatched in the in¬ 
cubator ; and as fast as chickens are transferred 
to a larger section of the nursery, their places 
are supplied from the next smaller section, so 
that those in any section do not differ so greatly 
in size as to enable the larger to maltreat the 
smaller. Great facilities are here afforded for 
feeding the chickens on food adapted to 
their respective ages, and for protecting them 
from injury, with the expenditure of but little 
care on the part of the owner. 
One of the great advantages of the farmer’s call¬ 
ing is that he always has labor that will pay. He 
need never bo out of a profitable job. The leaves, 
which are so generally wasted, may be gathered all 
through the winter season, when the snow does not 
cover them. The best time, indeed, is ivheu they 
are first fallen ; but, in the forest, the wind does 
not drive them far. They are swept into hollows 
or under the lea of rocks and brush heaps, where 
the long-tined wooden fork, made for the purpose, 
will take them up by the bushel. It pays to gather 
them, and store them in the barn, cellar, or under 
a shed, where they can be used for bedding cattle 
and pigs, for the protection of plants, and for the 
compost heap. Cattle need no better bedding, and 
when mixed with the manure and headlands, they 
are a valuable fertilizer. No thrifty farmer can 
afford to let the leaves go to waste. 
Lumber and Rails for Making Pork. 
The difference between feeding fattening ani¬ 
mals under proper shelter, and in an open yard, 
and exposed to the weather, is strikingly shown 
by the experiments made at the Kansas State 
Agricultural College, by Prof. E. M. Shelton, Pro¬ 
fessor of Agriculture. In Kansas, as well as in 
other recently settled parts of the West, animals 
are inadequately protected during the winter—the 
shelter of a belt of timber, or that given by a 
ravine, or a sink in the prairie, being all that is, in 
many cases, given to fattening swine. Ten ani¬ 
mals, as nearly alike as possible, were selected for 
the experiments, which continued through the win¬ 
ters 1881-2, and 1882-3; the animals were kept in 
separate pens, five in the basement of a warm barn, 
and five “in an open yard, on the south side of a 
close-board fence, five feet high,” without other 
protection save the straw furnished for “ nests,” 
with which both sets of animals were provided. 
The food, Indian corn, was given twice a day, and 
that for each animal accurately weighed. The 
tables, giving in detail the gain for each pig, by 
weekly weighings, show many interesting facts; 
but we give only the results of the experiments, 
which may be summed up as follows : 
Pigs in the bara, 1 lb. of pork, cost 4 9 /, 0 lbs. of corn. 
Pigs outside, “ “ “ “ 5 7 / 10 “ “ “ 
Or expressed in other words, each bushel of corn: 
Fed in the barn, made 11 3 / 10 lbs. of pork. 
Fed outside, “ 9 7 / l0 “ “ “ 
This shows that of every bushel of corn, fed in the 
open yards, a portion, sufficient to make 1 6 / 10 
lbs. of pork, was consumed in keeping the animals 
warm, practically wasted, but which might have 
been saved by proper use of “ lumber and nails.” 
Experiments to ascertain the amount of food re¬ 
quired to maintain working animals under shelter 
and in exposure, would no doubt show an equally 
marked difference in favor of giving them proper 
shelter. 
A Sheep Shed-Rack. 
A subscriber sends us a sketch of his combina¬ 
tion feeding-rack and shed for sheep, from which 
A SHEEP SHED-RACK. 
the engraving is made. Four stout corner posts 
are first set firmly in the ground, and upon these 
the “ loft” is built. The feeding-rack occupies the 
entire center of the shed and may be made of slabs 
or strong poles. The fodder is put into the “loft” 
through a door at one end. This building may be 
constructed to hold a load of hay, or more or less 
as desired. As the fodder is eaten out, that above 
moves down into the rack to properfeedingdistance. 
