The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
557 
Brooding, and Feeding, Little Chicks 
T HE OUTLOOK—This is the season for hatching 
and growing young chicks, and the indications 
are that there will be a larger number grown than 
there has been in any previous year, as prices are 
fairly high for fresh poultry products, and feed 
prices are much lower than last year, both of which 
should tend to increase the number of chicks to he 
hatched this year. There is one discouraging fea¬ 
ture about it, however, and that is the increasing 
number of eggs which are coming to the New York 
market from the West, and from other countries, 
especially China. While Chinese eggs do not com¬ 
pete directly with our fresh product, they have a 
tendency to reduce prices by flooding the country 
with cheap foreign eggs, instead of using our cold 
storage stock. The price of these eggs is often men¬ 
tioned without referring to their quality, and the 
fact that these eggs are being offered for sale at 
low prices is often used as an argument for lower 
prices by dealers in all grades of eggs, without re¬ 
gard to the facts in the case. 
ECONOMY IN PRODUCTION.—These conditions 
make it very important that we should look ahead 
and lay our plans to hatch and raise not only (lie 
proper number of chicks which can be 
CROWDED FLOCKS. — Probably one of the 
greatest ditliculties in raising chicks in brooders 
is their natural tendency to huddle or crowd when 
kept in fairly large-sized flocks. This danger is in¬ 
creased with the size of the flocks, and must be 
avoided from the beginning, as the habit is easily 
acquired, and very hard ot control after a few 
nights, or even one night may be long enough to 
cause much damage to the chicks’. The principal 
causes for crowding are first putting too many chicks 
in one brooder, and, second, insufficient heat. Many 
brooders are rated by the manufacturers to hold 
more chicks than they can accommodate successfully. 
As a rule, a medium-sized stove and hover will ac¬ 
commodate about 300 chicks. In cold weather it is 
better to run a little less than 300, and in fairly 
warm weather the number can lie somewhat in¬ 
creased. If the conditions are very favorable and 
the brooder is placed in a colony house, at least 
0x12 ft., as high as 400 chicks may be placed in it 
with good chances for success, but we do not ap¬ 
prove of more in one brooder. This number must 
be decreased when the chicks are six weeks old 
or less, which is usually done by removing the 
later over the entire floor of the colony house. At 
first, a wire fence about one foot high should be 
placed around the brooder about a foot and a half 
from the edge of the hover, to keep the chicks from 
wandering too far from the source of heat until 
they learn where to go when they get cold. This 
fence should be moved back from the hover grad¬ 
ually until about the fourth day, when it may be 
removed altogether, or only used to keep the chicks 
in their proper place when they go to bed at night. 
When chicks are properly trained from the first day 
there is much less trouble with them later than when 
allowed to stand around and peep and bunch up in 
corners for the lack of proper attention on the part 
of the attendant. I believe that fully one-third of 
the troubles which usually come to a person who 
raises chicks artificially are caused either directly 
or indirectly by chilling, so the proper temperature 
ot I lie brooder is of the utmost importance. A 
brooder must not be located in a Very large room 
where there are drafts of cold air. as it is almost 
impossible to control the temperature of a large 
room in cold weather. The ideal place for a coal- 
burning brooder and 300 chicks is in a colony house 
about 0x12 ft., and placed so that when 
cared for successfully, but this work 
must lie done as economically as pos¬ 
sible in order to meet the constantly 
increasing competition. This requires 
not only considerable knowledge and 
experience, but it also requires capital 
enough to furnish first-class material 
and equipment to work with, and am¬ 
bition enough to put this experience 
into practice, along with that eternal 
vigilance which we have heard so much 
about in the past. 
INCUBATION.—In raising chicks of 
course the first consideration is to have 
good breeding stock, and care for them 
in such a manner that the eggs will 
be fertile and, with proper treatment, 
hatch strong, healthy chicks. We have 
found that feeding heavily of wet 
mash or green cut bone tends to lower 
the percentage of fertility, and too 
close confinement of the breeders is 
another common cause for infertility. 
Eggs laid by hens kept, under artificial 
lights have hatched very unsatisfac¬ 
torily with us; so much so that we 
would not. hatch eggs from hens under 
lights except in extreme cases where 
no other eggs could be obtained. We 
do not say that it is not possible t<> 
obtain good fertile eggs from hens un¬ 
der lights, but we do say that on most 
Eastern farms where lights are used 
the fertility has been running very 
low. This condition uuiy be remedied 
or improved by changing the methods 
of lighting. It may be that with dif¬ 
ferent seasons the results may be very 
different as. for instance, the eggs 
produced this Spring after a mild open 
Winter, where the breeders have had good free 
range, may appear entirely different from what they 
were last Spring after a severe Winter, although the 
lighting conditions may be practically the same both 
years. At any rate we have considerable to learn 
along this line in the future. After we have suc¬ 
ceeded in getting good eggs the incubation is a very 
simple operation, comparatively speaking, and the 
best advice we can give is to follow the incubator 
manufacturer’s directions until some improvements 
can be suggested by experience. 
BROODERS AND BROODING.—A great, deal 
depends upon the brooder when it comes to rais¬ 
ing chicks successfully, and the coal-lieated colony 
brooder has been a great help to the commercial 
poultryman, or anyone raising 300 or more chicks 
each season, as it is the best method of brooding 
chicks that we have ever tried. A brooder should 
he selected which has automatic control of drafts by 
a sensitive thermostat, and there should be sufli- 
cient room in the stove for coal enough to last 
24 hours at least. We also prefer stoves with both 
top and bottom drafts regulated by the thermo¬ 
stats instead of top drafts only. This gives greater 
uniformity of heat and less danger of the fire going 
out in damp muggy weather. No curtain is neces¬ 
sary around the hover if the brooder is placed in 
a colony house of the proper size. 
A Basket fill of Pork. Fig. 222. 
"W ell, W ho Are You?" Fig. 222. 
broilers and fattening them up in separate quarters. 
TEMPERATURE.—The temperature to run a 
brooder depends upon the season of the year, the 
weather and the age and condition of the chicks. 
The best way to determine the proper temperature 
is to watch the chicks and furnish plenty of heat to 
keep them comfortable at all times. In cold weather 
we start the brooders about two days before we put 
in the chicks, and beat them up to about 9b deg. F., 
with tlie thermometer near the edge of the hover, 
and about two or three inches from the floor, as 
this is near the proper place for the chicks. Then 
when the chicks are placed in the brooder they will 
naturally furnish a little. extra heat from their 
bodies, so the temperature will be about right. When 
the tire is started we place about a bushel of sand 
or earth on the floor around the stove, and let it 
warm up and dry out with the brooder. When thor¬ 
oughly dry and warm this sand is spread over the 
floor at least half an inch thick, and covered with 
cut straw or hay. or hayseed and leaves which 
usually collect on the barn floor where hay is kept 
and fed to cattle. The thickness of this hay or 
straw which covers the sand on the floor is about an 
inch, or it may be a little more, as it is very impor¬ 
tant that enough should be used to cover the sand 
thoroughly, and that it should extend out from the 
brooder at. least two feet all around at first, and 
the chicks are first let out on warm 
days they will have a nice, clean grass 
range where no other chicks or fowls 
can interfere with their liberty and 
happiness. A fence about 30 in. high, 
made of inch mesh wire netting, either 
fastened to posts or 12-ft. frames, mak¬ 
ing a yard about 12 ft. square, is used 
to keep the chicks from roaming too 
far from the house until they are two 
«»r three weeks old, when they are 
given free range. 
FEEDING. — Most people seem to 
think that the feed is the principal 
part in raising young chicks, but it is 
really only one of three important fac¬ 
tors good chicks, comfortable brooders 
and proper feed, all three being of 
practically equal importance. A few 
years ago we were taught to fix up all 
sorts of mixed dishes, as first, feeds for 
young chicks, such as custard and 
johnny-cake and boiled eggs and 
cracker crumbs chopped up. and all 
sorts of things which make extra work 
just at a season of the year when poul- 
trymen are busy and must economize 
time as much as possible. All of these 
knick-knacks have, therefore, been dis¬ 
continued. and we use a very simple 
ration, which contains all the necessary 
ingredients and nutrients which young 
chicks require for their proper growth 
and development, and which, for the 
most part, can be compounded and 
mixed in quantities so as to be easily 
accessible when required. 
THE FIRST REAL MEAL.—The 
chicks are left in the incubator until 
(lie morning of tin* twenty-second day, 
when they are removed to the brooder. No food is 
given until the chicks are about 48 hours old. or 
until they show signs of being hungry. This is 
usually the afternoon of the same day that they are 
placed in the brooder, as many of (he chicks are 
hatched on the twentieth day, and are, therefore, 
leady for their rations at this time. The first feed 
is simply oatmeal or oat flakes, such as are sold com¬ 
monly for table use. Only one very light feed is 
given on the first day. and this is sprinkled on a 
shingle or paper where the chicks can get it, easily. 
Milk in some form should be given to drink as soon 
as the chicks are placed in the brooders. We prefer 
skim-milk direct from the separator, and fed sweet 
in regular water fountains, so the chicks cannot 
get wet. If sweet milk is not available, sour milk 
is the next best, but whichever is used at first should 
be continued, instead of changing from one to the 
other, and the fountains should be washed and 
scalded or disinfected every day. If neither sweet 
nor sour milk is available in cold weather, it is a 
good plan to use semi-solid buttermilk mixed with 
water to about the same consistency as the fresh 
product, but when the weather gets quite warm we 
do not use semi-solid buttermilk, as we have had 
some very bad results from its use. a part of which 
we attribute to the milk spoiling after it is placed 
in the drinking fountains. We have not had this 
