The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-02-27
DARK AND BRIGHT PICTURES
SHAPES the Hen Man" Writes of the
Ups and Downs of Poultry Raising.


Ups and Downs Of Poultry Raising.
sweet is an adage which holds true
no less In the chicken business than in
other walks i'm life. 1t seems as though
goodly portion of the ''bitter" has got
into our cup recently in connection with
the brooder chicks. l wonder whether
others have had a similar experience.
If so, there will be kindred feeling.
All at once we began to find good
many dead chicks under the breeders
In the morning. often two or three in
each brooder. In looking about for q
cause l started out with my thermom-
eter one evening and found that under
some of the breeders 1t would run to
ITO degrees couple of inches above
the floors. Here was cause with
vengeance. l recalled at once an ex-
perience had along this line couple
of years ago.
One hot day in summer our hens
were left shut up in the houses all day.
My intention had been in the morning
to leave them shut up till noon and
then let them out. l went off to town,
however, and forgot to leave any word
20 that effect. | was Unexpectedly de-
tanned In town until nearly night.
When l started out to gather the eggs
at night, l saw at once that there was
trouble on hand. 1t had been an I'M
usually hot day, with the thermometer
close to 100 degrees in the shade, and
those henhouses were like ovens. Many
of the hens were dead, and others were
dying from the effects of the heat. l
dropped my egg baskets and started
on run to get them out into the fresh
air. Some of the focks were affected
more than others. Those that had
bushes growing about the houses, inter-
fering with the movement of what lit
tie wind there was stirring, seemed to
be the worst. Some were dead, and
carried all such out and placed them in
the coolest spots could find, but to no
avail. They were mostly dead next
morning. When first discovered them,
their eyes were still bright, but they
seemed to be paralyZed and could nei-
Their stand nor walk. Those houses all
had an open widow on the south side
and an open door on the north side
with wire screens, and it is not likely
that the heat from, the sun made them
any warmer than 40 degrees. Still it
was hot enough to kill the hens. I
know of man who put steam radi-
ator in his hennery in winter and killed
all his hens with kindness. The first
morning after turning on the steam he
found his whole flock of sixty hens
dead. He had overcome them with
heat. If mature hens can thus easily
be killed with too much heat. is it any
wonder that our broOder chicks are
sometimes killed in the same way?
Speed the day of the practical self reg
ulating brooder. In my own case, how
ever, the lamps were already turned as
low as was consistent with perfect
combustion, so / removed some of the
hover cloths, thus allowing surplus
heat to escape.
II thought you said chicks knew
enough to move out when it got too hot
for them if they are given the chance"
Sod did. If there had only been few
chicks in each brooder, there would
have been no trouble, l think. With
ninety to hundred, however, in each
brooder it is likely that those on the
edges were comfortable. while few in
the middle, where the heat was great
est, could not get out and consequently
persisted. Right on top of this came
cold wave and frost, with more of the
bitter" in the other direction.-O. w.
Mapes in Rural New Yorker.