10 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
claims it pays as he has very little trouble with broken eggs, restless 
hens, etc., and has uniformly good hatches. A row of nests on the 
floor of an isolated 1 room or building with the center of the floor left 
free and covered with loose dirt for the use of the hens, is a common and 
good way of caring for the setting hens. Nests should be about fourteen 
inches square, ten or twelve inches high, and covered so the hens can¬ 
not fight each other when on the eggs. The hen should be allowed to 
walk into the nest rather than jump down from a height, and loose 
dirt covered with a little straw or chaff should be placed in the bottom. 
Remove the setting hen after dark and try her with a few eggs before 
giving her those for hatching; fasten her in securely; in the morning 
lift her out to eat and drink and fasten her in until the second morning; 
then give her twelve to fifteen eggs and see that she has plenty of fresh 
water and food, preferably corn. She will probably return to her own 
nest now and need not be fastened in. Besides a dusting place for the 
hen she should be thoroughly dusted with prepared lice powder during 
her time on the nest, but care should be taken not to use too much pow¬ 
der, just a light sprinkling well into the feathers. 
Hens, like incubators, should not be disturbed at time of hatching. 
Some hens will kill their chicks and such should be removed and the 
eggs given to another if possible. It will not be found profitable to help 
chicks out of the shell. The breeding stock should have enough vigor 
to produce eggs that will hatch good lively chicks on time. 
Brooders .—The fireless brooder seems very successful and 
popular with our poultrymen, especially where chicks are 
kept in heated brooders the first two or three weeks, and 
are then placed in fireless brooders. This plan works very 
well where a comparatively small number of chicks are 
raised, but we would advise beginners to provide heated brooders, and 
only transfer the chicks to the fireless brooder when large enough to 
readily go in and out of their own free will, and then have the brooder 
in a good comfortable building. We believe there will be very little 
bowel trouble in the little chicks if they are never chilled, and we know 
the fireless brooder is responsible for many deaths among our chicks on 
account of chilling. When many chicks are raised a stove heating system 
should be installed to lessen expense and labor. 
Rearing Chicks With Hens .—We do not like to give hens 
with chicks unlimited range. Certainly for a week or two 
after the hatch the hen should be confined to her coop or 
a small run attached to the coop to give the chicks time to gain 
strength. The chicks can be given their liberty as they \vill not stray 
far away from the mother hen. A floor or a platform of boards on 
which a bottomless coop is placed is necessary on account of heavy 
showers which are at any time possible, and which often flood the 
coops and drown the chicks where no floors are provided. A packing 
case covered with roofing paper, makes a cheap, comfortable coop. 
Where straw is scarce dry sifted earth makes a good covering for the 
