Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-05-07
ROCKING THE cHIckLET CRADLE


ROCKING THE CHIckLET CRADLE.
When twinlets arrive, order Il cradle
for two When it's triplets, with an
air of becoming Importance, order MT
for three. But when it's chicklets you
generally order a chick Kid cradle for
100 or one to fit the incubator capac
ity 1t is then the chicken furniture
man often violates his guarantee and
sends a cradle that is too small for
those bouncing baby boys and girls,
and there come sad days to chick baby
dom. The undertaken gets busy. You
become parents to 100 chicllets. You
cuddle them to sleep in brooder era
die that should rock only seventy-tive.
The next morning twenty-five lie out
side the cradle in the cold. The sew
cnty-Gve left is the capacity of the
cradle and you should lose 20 per cent
naturally, but they have been weak
cucd by overcrowding, overheating and
bad air, and in a few days most of
your chickIets will decease. You are
ready to hang the murderer of your
pretty fluffy birds, but take the lesson
that all must learn-never crowd chicks
under. hens or hovcrs.
We gave n hen forty peeps. She
raised thirty-uine. Gave her the same
number the second season. She raised
six. Tell US why. "Womau's contrari-
uoss?' No. Too much family. First
season was warm and dry: second sea-
son. cold and wet The old hens heart
was big enough, but her white wings
and warm breast and biz fluff couldn't
cradle them all
Chicks need air under hover. Room
needed. They develop rapidly. More
room still. Fill the cradle Mt the start;
in week it is one and a quarter full
and the next week worse. You may be
able to carry that much. but a chick
cradle can't. If you're bound to hatch
more than your cradle capacity, let
your wife bring the surplus up on the
bottle. The next spring she will glad
ly give you all her Easter hat money
for more brooders and sympathize
more when you brood.
4 brooder run in a brooder house
uses less oil, and chicks generate heat.
Keep a thermometer in your house and
watch the one on your hover, but be
sure they are true We taper down
the heat in the incubator nursery to
90 degrees. After thirty hours we re-
move them to the hover. The first
week brooders should be run from 50
to 1O5 degrees. or according to the
height of the hover and the position
of the thermometer. After that taper
down. Follow the brooder rules unless
YOU find them impractical, and use
your own think Watch the thermome-
ter. but watch the chicks. If they pile
in a heap, not sufficient warmth. If
they stand up with their mouths open,
too hot If they huddle outside in 4
corner the hover is too hot or not
warm enough to be inviting. If they
lie down like lambs, with their bright
eyes peeping out from beneath the
hover, it's about perfect. If they are
lively as cricketS at the dawn, you are
master, but if dumpy and not ready
for breakfast the ventilation is not
right, there is SCOT under the hover or
they had too much supper or got
chilled.
Important Pointer.-Put ten-day
old louscless chick in with the new
hatch and he will adopt them, teach
them to eat and drink and put them to
bed. High, round, drumless hovers, with
lamp box and chimney outside the
brooder. are best. Hot water brooders
are hot water breeders. If lamp goes
out easily and often or continually
smokes, discard machine.
Ventilate the broodcr according to
rules. but use your own think. Keep
the smoke vents open. Breeders with
lamp underneath sometimes have hot
floors Prevent with a thick layer of
dry loamy sand. Use this until chicks
know what not to eat; then run dry
wheat straw through the clover cut
ter for bedding and scratch floor. But
be sure sand and straw bedding are
warm and dry. Set in n box of moist
earth for playground to relieve dry
ness of shanks and feet that comes
from brooder heat. When chicks pa
rade to sun parlor change water vessel
to keep cool If SCOT leaks up into
hover, turn broudcr over on side. brush
Off and cover joints with stove cement.
Keeping chicks ON n board scratching
floor for two wcels will prevent gapes.
We have scratching playground for Il
thousand. They are all white. When
they tumble into that wonderful
scratching stunt for their breakfast
they are tHe prettiesl and liyeliest