Patent GB-190603433-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Poultry Brooders.
Inventor: MERKLEY STANLEY ALBERT
Filed: 1906-02-12
Granted: 1907-01-10
Abstract: 3433. Merkley, S. A., Apel, F. H., and Merkley, W. A. Feb. 20, 1905, [date applied for under Patents Act, 1901]. Foster-mothers; coops. -Relates to apparatus for rearing poultry, consisting of chambers artificially heated by means of hot air and so arranged that they may be placed in tiers one over the other. The chambers are provided with a continuous water supply, and are adapted to be fitted with extensions in which green food may be planted and which are intended to project from the building in which the brooder is placed into the open air. Fig. 1 shows the brooder in elevation, and Fig. 6 shows a section through the heater and hot chambers of the brooder. The lowest section 3 is supported on legs 4 near an opening 2 in the side of the room 1 in which the brooder is placed. The Figure shows two additional sections 5, 6 and a removable top or cover 7. The sides of the hot chambers are formed of glazed frames 17 and the ends by hinged glazed doors. The hot chambers are separated from the runs by means of hanging curtains. The sides of the runs are formed of interchangeable glazed doors 21 or wire-netting doors 22. The doors are inserted in channel-iron carriers 24 pivoted at their centres and fitted with scrapers which as the doors are swung round effect the cleaning of the floor of the run. The heating-apparatus consists of a central chamber or flue 35 with a flared lower end 38 beneath which a lamp is placed, and of a flue 34 through which the air unmixed with the products of combustion passes on its way to the brooding chambers. The flues 34, 35 in each section are made to register with the flues in the adjoining sections. The air is supplied to the flue 34 from the outside of the building by a flue 40 provided with a valve at 41. The hot chambers, which are arranged at each side of the heating-device, are provided with air passages as shown in Fig. 6 with sliding valves 50, so that the current of heated air flows in the course indicated by the arrows and leaves the brooder through the openings 55 in the cover 7. The air is drawn out of the room by an extractor 56, Fig. 1 surrounding the flue 57 from the heating-flue 35. The runs in each section are divided by a central longitudinal partition arranged in line with the heating - device. The drinking-troughs are secured in this central partition and are supplied with water from a vessel 66 through a pipe provided with a regulating-cock 68. Each trough is fitted with an overflow pipe 69, which supplies the trough in the section immediately below. The overflow pipe from the bottom section may be led outside the building. An endless cloth 80 is mounted to travel over the bottom of the runs. The cloth is carried by a wire tension device 82, which can be released to facilitate the cleaning and moving of the cloth. The green runs 73 are supported on a frame 75 outside the building. The hinged doors which form the end of the runs are turned up as shown at 23 and rest upon the central partitions of the green runs. The side spaces between the runs and the green runs are enclosed by wire-netting doors hinged to the sides 78 of the green runs. The Specification describes two modifications. In the first, there is only one hot chamber in each section and the heating-device is placed in one corner of the chamber. In the other modification, the heating-device is placed between two hot chambers and the runs are placed on the outside of the hot chambers.