The Florida agriculturist., 1906-03-21

take great chances by having them
hatched by hens. The incubator will
care for them much better than a hen,
and they are not broken or chilled,
and the chicks are free from lice.
The use of incubators keeps down
the number of lice i'm the poultry
houses Examine a nest occupied by
a sitting hen and see the number of
lice in the nesting material. These
lice multiply very fast and the nest
affOrding splendid harbors for them
makes it very difficult to reduce the
number. If poultry house has been
occupied by a number of sitting hens
during the spring months, when sum-
mer comes they will prove fOrmid-
able enemy.
The pOultryman who engages ex-
tensively in the poultry business must
have the aid of incubatOrs. If he de-
sres to sit fifteen or twenty hundred
eggs it would take a very large num-
ber of hens. He might have trouble
i'm obtaining a sufficient number to in
cubate that many eggs but if he did
succeed i'm getting them the chicks
would undoubtedly be Matched too late
in the season. To care for that num-
ber of hens would require a great
result would be very unsatisfactory.
There have been many advances
made i'm artificial incubation and there
are now many machines on the mar
ket which are reliable. There are, of
course, improvements yet to be made,
but they have already attained a Sue
cessful degree of efficiency.
That brOoders should be used in
connection with incubators goes with
out saying. They possess many ad-
vantages over the hen in caring for
chicks.
When chicks are scarcely old enough
to walk the old hen wanders far from
the coop and fatigues them, She will
also be out early in the morning lead
ing the chicks through the wet grass
and preparing them for an early death
This is not the way with the brOoder
The chicks may be confined while the
dew is on the grass in the morning.
The brooder has the same advantage
over the hen as has the incubator.
With it there are no lice. These small
insects are great hindrances to poul-
try raising as they annually kill count
less numbers of chicks. Therefore
they should be kept down to the low
est number possible, and one of the
greatest aids in this is the incubator
and brOOder.
With brOOders the chicks have some
place to go in time of danger. When
a rain comes up they will return to it.
When chicks are very young they
should be confined in a small pen sur
rounding the brooder. This pen may
be gradually enlarged and when they
are of sufficient age it may be re-
moved altogether. They will by this
time have learned to return to the
brOOder in event of rain.
With the brOOder one is not COM
PEELED to chase an eXcitable hen
around in order to cOnfne her and the
chicks. 1t is not necessary to remain
out in the rain to capture the hen and
chicks and return them to their coop.
The brOOder saves time and money
for the pOultryman. One brOOder will
accommodate fifty or seventy-five chicks
Il never place more than this number
in one broOder) while it would require
three or four hens to care for them.
If the brOoder is caring for the chicks
the hens will be producing eggs. 1t
would require much more time to
care for three or four hens than for
one brOOder. With the brOOder, all
the chickens could be fed at once, but
not So with the hens. Three or four