The independent., 1907-04-11
Notes About Brooding.

ing chicks is the fault of the brooder
operator in over-crowding his machine.
There are but very few machines built
for brooding on the market which will
successfully hover 50 per cent of their
rated capacity. We have In mind
particular machine used by a poultry
breeder who puts in but about thirty
five chicks. He operates a small hun
dred egg incubator and with high de-
gree Of fertility had ordinary success ,n
brooding. The hatch in such an incu-
bator just about filed two brooders
rated at seventy-ffve chicks each. Some
chicks like the brooder better than
others. The sickly ones will always ruiz
in where 1t is warm and begin to nestle
down for the night long before the
hardy and thrifty chicks think of COM
Ing in from the range. 1t is because
OF this that the smaller ones always
get to the center and are crushed by
the larger chicks and before morning
they are smothered and trampled al
most as fiat as the floor itself.
Some years ago there was a very
small brooder put on the market called
the Ellen West, being named after
wor1ar who made an invention in the
way of brooder appliance. She rated
her brooder at fifty chick capacity
but wo placed only twenty-five in each
one They even seemed to be too small :
to hover that many They were very
successful in our hands and all who
have used them repc rted success. My
experience in handling those brooders
taught me that crowding was the cause
of nearly half Of the trouble in hatch
Ing the chicks which were being raised
artificially
1t Is a good plan to take a lantern
on the arm and go along the brooders
after nightfall and see that the chicks
are not too crowded. Very often there
are too many in hover, they not go
ing to their own brooder when night
tine comes. A poultryman who lives
close to this city makes a hobby of
Matching and brooding chicks by arti-
fetal means and the little convenences
which he has placed inside of each
brcoder hover have done away with
the crowdilg trouble as far as he is
concerned, so he informed me, He has
built 4 little three-sided frame three
inches tall and put a leg under each
corner. over the frame work of the |
iop IS stretched a tight piece of OLD |
Woolen cloth and around the sides is
dropped piece Of slit flannel such as
Is ordinarily used OF brooder hovers. He !
sets two or three of these little dummy
mems IT. his brooders and the chicks pre- |
fer To nestle together under these ap-
pllances than to star in the draft |
which ordinarily goes through the |
machine in the process of bringing in |
warm fresh air and casting off the old
foul odors. The sides of this little tri-
angular dummy are about ten or
eleven inches long. Each one will t
nicely cover fifteen or sixteen newly
hatched chicks. I noted that his chicks I
were very strong and vigorous and
that he fed them in only about the
same proportion and kind Of feed that
other chick growers fed theirs but his
chicks were doing SO we'll that I cam
not help but attribute it to the system
that he is using to prevent crowding
in his machine.
Well dried sand is the best thing TO
put On the floor OF the brooder. we
have tried cut straw, cut hay, clover
and NOV Sweepings but none have
done as well as good, clean sand which
is perfectly dry. Above all things 10
not use bran on the floors OF the
brooder. The feeding of brooder chicks
should not be a great problem these
days Tor the simple reason that there
aiS So ludnN ilFSl class Cflick foods on |
the market that will supply them well
with, nutritious seeds and grain and
at the same time they are proportioned
so exactly that the chicks cat up all
the feed clean
Fresh AIR Housrng.
Many poultry keepers Who have
studied the problem OF roup m the
flock have come TO the conclusion that
II IN caused primarily by too close
house confinement which weaisens the
system of tho fowls 80 that they can
not withstand the cold when subjected
TO II. A man by the name OF Tolman
has given MS a good deal of informa-
ton lately concerning tho problem OF
housing fowls SO that they would be
FREQ from colds and roup. We know
that rcun Ia plentiful la any flock
where the house floors are damp ana
the walls of lllmslncss that permits
Of cold drafts from one aide TO the
other. Add 20 this filthy dropping
boards which are never cleaned and
vou havN "A houaa fhat La On A.arfn 1