Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1908-05-14
ROCKING THE cAIckLET CRADLE.

ROCKING THE CHickLET CRADLE.
When twinlets arrive. order a cradle
for two. When it's triplets. with an
air Of becoming Importance. order a fit
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 chicklets. You
cuddle them to sleep in brooder era
die that should rock only seventy-fve.
The next morning twenty-five lie out
side the cradle In the cold The sew
enty-five left is the capacity of the
cradle, and you should lose 20 per cent
naturally, but they have been weak
ened by overcrowding. overheating and
bad air, and in a few days most of
your chicklets 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 hovers.
raised thirty mine. Gave her the same
number the second season. She raised
six. Tell US why. "Womans contrari-
ness?" 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 big fluff couldn't
cradle them all.
Chicks need air under hover Room
needed. They develop rapidly More
room STILL Fill the cradle at the start:
in a week 1t 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 breeders and sympathize
more when you brood
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 SO
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. II
they stand up with their mouths open
too hot. If they huddle outside in q
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 OF
they had too much supper or got
chilled
Important Pointer.-Put a ten-day
old louseless chick in with the new
hatch and he will adopt them. teach
them to eat and drink and put them tc
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 brooder according tc
rules, but use your own think. KeeI
the smoke vents open. Breeders witt
lamp underneath sometimes have ho
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. Blu
be sure sand and straw bedding are
warm and dry, Set In box of mois
earth for playground to relieve dry
ness of shanks and feet that come:
from brooder heat When chicks pa
rade to sun parlor change water vesse
to keep cool If SCOT leaks up into
hover. turn brooder over on side. brush
off and cover joints with stove cement
Keeping chicks on a board scratching
floor for two weeks will prevent gapes
We have scratching playground for {
thousand They are all white. WbeI
they tumble into that wonderful
scratching stunt for their breakfas
they are the prettiest and livelies
moving picture ever
DON'TS