1 288 
THE RURAL, NEW-VOKKER 
November 2U, 
BROODING CHICKS IN LARGE FLOCKS. 
“Big Flock” systems economize in 
fuel, in labor, and in first cost. To get 
heat sufficient to heat a room for a large 
flock and not have them tread has been 
expensive when the old type of oil burn¬ 
ers were used, and since gasoline has ad¬ 
vanced in price. Good oil and gasoline 
burners can now be bought, and coal- 
burning heaters are a success. All of 
these methods of heating lessen the labor 
and the first cost very much. The fuel 
cost is also lessened in proportion to the 
size of the flock. All systems having large 
numbers in one flock will develop weak 
points if constant care cannot be given. 
\Veak chicks must be removed and placed 
in a warm corner or another small brood- 
er by themselves. If for any reason the 
heat is too low it does not take long to 
to lose 50 or more when they pile up. 
They will get habits of bunching in corn¬ 
ers if not educated while day-old chicks 
by being close to the heat, and taught 
where to go for it. All these little de¬ 
tails are not faults of the system. Chicks 
will bunch in lots of 50, but when the 
flock is 20 times fifty the loss will be in 
proportion. Constant care for the first 
five days of a chick’s life is the price of 
an educated chick. 
Even distribution of heat is necessary 
with any “big flock” system. When a 
chick is hatched it needs, first of all, 
heat that it may be comfortable and sleep 
the most part of the first 72 hours after 
leaving the shell. Place 1,000 chicks 
around the source of heat and if they 
will sprawl out flat and sleep the heat 
conditions are right, provided the air is 
fresh. If the chick is stupefied by im¬ 
pure air it will sleep too much, and with 
a lower temperature than with pure warm 
air. The chicks should be at some dis¬ 
tance from the source of heat when set¬ 
tling down for the night so that as the 
room becomes colder they have an extra 
reserve of heat, and can creep closer to 
the heat. A self-regulated device to con¬ 
trol the fire gives a sense of safety from 
worry on leaving for the night. Heat 
nay be distributed by direct radiation, 
1 ut if the ventilation is perfect it is dis¬ 
tributed more evenly by the air changes. 
Pure warm air is of more importance 
than food. While the chick is sleeping 
most of the first 72 hours of its life it 
is using up the food content of the egg 
from which it came. In doing this it 
passes off by breathing carbon dioxide, a 
product of the union of oxygen with the 
carbons of the food. Fresh air must 
be warmed in some way before coming 
to the chick. After being breathed some 
way must be provided to remove the re¬ 
sultant carbon dioxide. Air laden with 
carbon dioxide is heavier than pure air. 
and will remain near the floor. If this 
is not sucked up away from the chick 
a loss of growth will be the result. With 
sufficient heat and pure air the chick will 
grow at night under the hover as fast as 
in the daytime sun. There should be cir¬ 
culation of air enough under any hover 
to prevent chicks from “sweating” and 
coming out in the morning hardly able 
(o stand. 
The building we use was first used for 
a pipe system in flocks of 50 each. We 
divided it into rooms 12x28 feet. The 
1 over is made three inches thick, double- 
boarded and hollow. It is filled with 
cut cornstalks to retain the heat. It is 
! uilt 5*4x8 feet and 34 inches from floor 
1o under side. Roofing material is used 
for curtains, having a loose flap 30 inches 
wide on three sides for convenience in 
( leaning. Fifteen inches from the floor 
is a three-inch strip nailed to the legs 
of the hover all the way around. On this 
strip muslin is nailed, coming 1*4 inches 
from the floor. The roofing comes four 
inches from the floor. The hover sets 
l ack against the wall. The heating sys¬ 
tem is similar to the one described bv 
Mr. O. W. Mapes, March 8, 1013. The 
1’.eater is self-regulating. The flow pipe 
is carried along the north wall all the 
time <m the rise from the heater. At the 
upper end of the flow pipe a *4 inch air 
pipe should be placed or the system will 
not work. The radiators are two small 
ones with 30 feet radiation each. They 
are placed at the back of the hover and 
six inches apart. A branch pipe is run 
to each set of radiators and returned to 
the main return pipe near the floor. The 
return pipe should incline downward all 
the way to the heater. A rise in the 
floor of one inch in 10 feet will insure a 
better flow than if on the level. 
The King system of ventilation is used. 
The King system consists in bringing air 
into a compartment in its warmest part 
and taking out the foul air from near 
the floor where the coldest air is more 
likely to be. At the same time the car¬ 
bon dioxide from the breath of the ani¬ 
mals is taken out, as it is heavier than 
air. To apply this system to the brooder 
already described we must consider the 
hover as a room by itself. Air is brought 
into the hover between the radiators from 
under the floor through a six-inch pipe 
which extends to each end of the building, 
and air is admitted from either end, ac¬ 
cording to the direction of the wind. The 
pipe between the radiators extends up 
to within four inches of the top of hover 
to the warmest part of the hover. It is 
warmed in passing up the pipe and over 
the radiators, then comes down over the 
chicks and out at the bottom of the hover 
under the curtain. When the air comes 
from under the hover, being warmer, it 
immediately rises to the top of the room. 
The portion of the air which has been 
breathed being charged with carbon diox¬ 
ide stays near the floor, and is sucked up 
through the ventilating shaft. This ven¬ 
tilator comes to within three inches of the 
floor, and has a flap near the wall for 
ventilation on very warm days. Systems 
that depend on the chick itself for heat 
cannot supply fresh air enough for 
growth under the hover. Fireless brood¬ 
er's and hot-water jugs will not do with 
large flocks. Plenty of heat must be 
supplied, but the source does not matter 
as long as the ventilation is where it 
should be. There is one advantage of 
radiator heat over oil and coal heaters 
in the room. No air is required from the 
FOR 3,000 BIRDS. Fig. 503. 
room to feed the fire. A neighbor is 
planning to use a store room joining his 
house to brood a large flock of checks 
in. lie ventilates properly and brings 
hot water from his heating plant in the 
house. II. E. MATTHEWS. 
Shepherd Dog for Poultry. 
On page 930 A. W. Littlefield asks for 
information on the protection of poultry 
by dogs. We have our poultry on free 
range directly in the woods; some is un¬ 
derbrushed and some is not. For the 
last two years it has been almost impos¬ 
sible to raise young chickens owing to 
trouble with foxes, skunks, raccoons, 
catamounts, chipmonks and hawks. We 
have tried several different breeds of 
dogs, including bulldog, collie and hound. 
None of them was of the least use, how¬ 
ever; the animals were bound to get our 
chickens, until a year ago we got a shep¬ 
herd pup, and this season we are having 
wonderful success in raising young and 
keeping the hens. A hawk, fox or any¬ 
thing else, cannot get near the place day 
or night but that dog hears them 
and is after them. Since lie knows what 
is wanted of him it is impossible for an 
animal to kill or get away with a fowl, 
he is so quick and his ears so acute and 
he does all of this without being told to 
do it. We never knew what peace of 
mind was until we had him. You must 
not expect too much of the dog until he 
is a year old ; and above all, you must not 
whip him or abuse him in any way. The 
dog was given but one lesson ; after that 
he paid strict attention to business. This 
is the second shepherd we have had and 
find them ideal stock dogs. 
A. J. DEVEREAUX. 
First English Militant : “Do you be¬ 
lieve in rocking the cradle?” Second 
English Militant: “Sure; where are the 
rocks?”—Winnipeg Telegram. 
Qttizzer : “What’s the matter, old 
man? You look worried.” Sizzer: “I 
have cause to. 1 hired a man to trace 
my pedigree.” Quizzer: “Well, what’s 
the trouble? Hasn’t he been successful?” 
Sizzer: “Successful! I should say he has! 
I’m paying him hush-money.”—Melbourne 
Australasian. 
AILING ANIMALS. 
Lameness. 
Will you advise me how to treat a 
horse with these symptoms? When walk¬ 
ing on level roads he goes all right, but 
when drawing a load up a hill or when 
backing, he throws his hind legs wide 
apart and makes hard work of it. In 
backing he almost drags one foot, and 
leading him through a door when he has 
to step down a little, he throws one hind 
foot so far out as to hit the side of the 
door. lie eats well and is regular in 
his evacuations, .shows no tenderness over 
kidneys. A short time ago while in pas¬ 
ture he tried to roll over and went into 
a little hollow almost on his back, and had 
to be helped to get where he could get up. 
1 am giving him a rest and using lini¬ 
ment on his hind legs. c. L. L. 
Vermont. 
This apparently is a high lameness of 
the muscles of the loins and hips, or it 
is barely possible that the stifles are af¬ 
fected. A sprain of the muscles (psoas I 
under the loins might cause such symp¬ 
toms and unfortunately there is no lo¬ 
cal treatment that will help. It would be 
best to turn the horse out on grass, as 
much as the weather will allow, from 
now to Winter, and let him have a box 
stall when he has to occupy the stable, at 
night. If further examination shows 
that the trouble is located in the stifle a 
blister applied there, one or more times, 
may prove beneficial; but stifle lameness 
often proves practically incurable. The 
stifle is the joint at the flank and cor¬ 
responds with the human knee, having a 
patella or knee cap. in front of the 
joint. A. 8. A. 
Knuckling. 
I own a mule that walks on his toes be¬ 
hind. Trouble commenced last Spring, 
and seems to get worse. What causes 
it and what can I do for it? H. A. 8. 
When thickening and shortening of 
the back tendons causes the knuckling, 
nothing short of the operation of teno¬ 
tomy (cutting of the tendons) by a quali¬ 
fied veterinarian will be likely to give re¬ 
lief. Have an examination made by such 
an expert and he possibly may find that 
bone spavin is present in the hock joints, 
as this tends to make a horse go on his 
toes. If spavin is present the joints 
will have to be fired and blistered and 
the mule given six weeks’ rest, tied up 
in stall. A. 8. A. 
Fits. 
What ails my cow? She reels and 
falls down with violent twitching of mus¬ 
cles in legs, neck, and shoulders: head 
bends back, her eyes roll and she thrusts 
out tongue. She has a good appetite, 
drinks well and chews her cud; her water 
seems to be all right. J. 8. R. 
Vermont. 
The cow takes epileptic fits, or the 
trouble, if just started, may be due to 
indigestion or the eating of some poison¬ 
ous plant, such as “white suakeroot.” 
which is fairly common in some wood 
pastures at this time of the year. This 
poison makes the milk and butter of an 
affected cows poisonous to people. Bi¬ 
carbonate of soda (baking soda) in table- 
spoonful doses three times a day is a 
remedy, in addition to keeping the cattle 
off infested pasture. The weed mentioned 
causes “milk sickness” or “trembles.” 
There is no cure for epilepsy. On gen¬ 
eral principles we would advise you to 
keep tlie cow off pasture for the present 
and give her a full dose of physic, con¬ 
sisting of one and one-quarter pounds of 
Epsom salts (if she is 1,000 pounds or 
over in weight) along with half an 
ounce of ground ginger root and a cup¬ 
ful of blackstrap molasses in three pints 
of warm water, administered slowly and 
carefully from a long-necked bottle. At 
time of each fit give half an ounce of 
bromide of potash in a half pint of water 
and repeat in twenty minutes if found 
necessary. Feed lightly and keep the 
bowels active. Do not give this treat¬ 
ment if it is a chronic trouble. In that 
case let the cow go to the butcher. 
A. 8. A. 
Canker of Mouth in Dog. 
I have a dog that is sick; some say it 
has red canker. His mouth is very red 
and a drool runs out of his mouth ; it is 
sticky and smells bad. lie eats very 
little. If his mouth is opened it is very 
red and seems very full of mucus. What 
is the trouble? c. E. R. 
Connecticut. 
In such eases it always is of first im¬ 
portance to make sure that rabies is not 
present. In that disease the tongue is 
apt to be partially protruded from the 
mouth, dry, swollen and dark red in 
color and saliva may also run from the 
mouth in strings. The lower jaw is para¬ 
lyzed and the dog has a half bark half 
howl voice. If rabies is present it ends 
in death inside of a week. An affected 
dog should be kept chained. If rabies 
is not present the dog may be affected 
with canker of the mouth. This is most 
common in old dogs and the teeth 
may be found diseased and some of them 
SO loose that they will be easily extract¬ 
ed. Remove loose diseased teeth. Scrape 
ulcers and paint them lightly with tinc¬ 
ture of iodine. Twice daily swab mouth 
with a one per cent solution of perman¬ 
ganate of potash. Feed dog on milk and 
soup. A. 8. A. 
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