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MARCH POULTRY WORK 
Remember that this is the best month for hatching chickens. 
Don’t feed the young chicks for at least thirty-six hours after they 
hatch. 
Clean coops and brooders before putting chickens into them. 
Get the brooders warmed up to 90° before the chicks are introduced. 
Fifty are as many as should go into the ordinary brooder. 
Most of the stove brooders do best with about 250 chickens in them. 
If hens are used for hatching, set at least three at the same time. 
Select turkeys for breeding this month, and use males that are three 
years old. 
Keep clean litter in both the poultry houses and brooders. Cut alfalfa 
makes good litter for chicks. 
Watch for rats. Thousands of newly hatched chickens are lost every 
season through neglect of this warning. 
Doubtless many poultry fanciers 
who read House & Garden are plan¬ 
ning to use the new stove or colony 
brooders this season for the first 
time. Nearly a dozen of these 
brooders have been put on the mar¬ 
ket and promise to mark a long step 
forward in the brooding of chickens. 
All the different kinds have the same 
general principle. A small coal stove 
is surrounded by a metal hover, 
which deflects the heat to the backs 
of the chickens on the floor. Some 
of the brooders are made with cur¬ 
tains around the hovers, and some 
without. When curtains are used it 
is best to remove them after the 
second week, for a considerable 
amount of heat is to be felt some 
distance outside the hover, and the 
chickens instinctively move in or out 
as they feel the need for more or 
less warmth. 
Using Stove Brooders 
No kind of brooder ever devised 
makes it so easy for the chickens to 
gratify their physical needs as these 
stove brooders, and none is so eco¬ 
nomical of labor. Most makers claim 
that their brooders will accommo¬ 
date from 500 to 1,500 chickens, and 
they will—at first. The fact that the 
chickens will need twice as much 
space in two or three weeks is ap¬ 
parently not considered. Few of the 
brooders will do satisfactory work 
if more than 500 chickens are put 
into them, and with most kinds the 
best results are obtained wdien the 
number is limited to 250. 
Of course the poultry keeper who 
raises only a few chickens will have 
no use for brooders of this charac¬ 
ter, but the smaller types will prove 
very useful, even if no more than 200 
birds are raised. It will be necessary 
to get all the chickens out at once, 
of course, but that is really the best 
plan in any event, for it is much 
easier to raise one large flock than 
several small lots of different ages. 
When the number of chickens to 
be raised is limited to fifty or 100, it 
will be better to rely on one of the 
smaller brooders, or, better still, on 
one of the portable hovers, which 
can be set down in any building and 
removed when the hatching season is 
over. These hovers are found espe¬ 
cially useful by the amateur, for he 
can place them in a colony house 
and allow the chickens to grow up 
there, the brooders being taken away 
when the necessity for supplying 
artificial heat is over. Some people 
are using electric brooders with suc¬ 
cess and a great saving in both time 
and labor. The operating expense is 
much less than might be expected, 
and naturally there is much less dan¬ 
ger of fire than when oil lamps are 
depended upon for heat. 
This is the best month of the year 
to have chickens hatch, and usually 
broody hens are plentiful in March, 
making it possible to bring out a 
limited number of chickens, even 
without incubators. On some plants 
several hens are set at the same time 
the incubator is started. Then, 
about ten days before the date of 
hatching, the fertile eggs are taken 
from under the hens and transferred 
to the incubator to take the places of 
the infertile eggs which have been 
tested out. That plan gives a ma¬ 
chine full of chicks, and the latter 
will be free from vermin for some 
time, at least. When hens are relied 
upon wholly, it is best to set at least 
three at one time and to test the 
eggs after seven days. Then the 
fertile eggs can be doubled up, if 
many clear ones are removed, and a 
good-sized flock will be hatched 
out. 
Cleaning the Coops 
Brooders and coops should be well 
cleaned before the chickens are put 
into them and the brooder floors will 
need a covering of litter after two 
or three days. Cut alfalfa is excel¬ 
lent, but one of the commercial lit¬ 
ters will be found preferable to any¬ 
thing else for small brooders, and 
will keep the brooders sanitary with 
very little cleaning. 
If setting hens are being used, 
they must be dusted thoroughly with 
(Continued on page 62) 
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PuUMng !Hge 
The National Building Publica¬ 
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The information contained 
in Building Age, both in 
the editorial and advertis¬ 
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interest to home builders, 
and will enable you to in¬ 
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Building Age also contains 
data that shotild save you 
many dollars. 
Our Special Offer 
The price of these eight num¬ 
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New York City 
For enclosed $1.00 send at once 
the set of eight numbers according 
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Electric brooders can be used successfully. 
They save time and labor and almost elimi¬ 
nate danger from fire. 
