Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-04-17
INCUBATORS AND BROODERS BIG
FACTOR IN POULTRY SUCCESS
Practical Equipment Neces-
sary For Proper Raising of
Chicks to Maturity
Size of Flock Should Govern
the Style of House TO Be
Used
BY James p. Hopkins
Poultry Judge, Lecturer and Author.
COPYRIGHT. 1915.

Poultry Judge, Lecturer and Author.
COPYRIGHT. 1915.
Poultry raising is becoming more
scientific every day. The demand for
quantity production of eggs and table
fowl is compelling poultry raiSers to
adopt improved methods. He cannot
RELY wholly on the whiI1s of II hen
or trust to variable weather conditions.
To this end. man invented the incu-
bator as an artificial hatcher. Then
he had to provide for the rearing of
young chicks in quantities. Hence the
bgooderhouse. which will mother the
chicks in really remarkable fashion
doing practically every thing but
"ciucking."
The following article tells how to
use these important articles OF equip
ment.
Many of those starting in poultry
raising do not seem to heed the inn
portance of equipment to the success
of rearing chicks.
Iucubation has made wonderful
progress during the last few years. To-
de- here are standard machines that
i: n good eggs from strong breed
in. took will hatch rs large a per-
cei axe as the hen, but the brooder
is Il different proposition. In the
hrooding of chicks lies the cause of
the failure of many beginners and this
has been due to many different things.
one of the mistakes that is most COM
mon is the neglect to have proper
broodng capacity as well as the
proper hrooder equipment. for the
man who wishes to raise only few
chicks that will mature into winter
egg-producers for family use tand
there are thousands of poultry keep
ers in this classl the small 60 or 100
aer I'M ln fOr &c a
to use in conjunction with two out
door or indoor brooders to properly
care for the chicks. These small
brooders are rated from so to 65
chicks. but better success will be OBJ
tained when only so chicks are placed
in each brooder., Crowding is an evil
that has caused great loss amoung
chicks if not in a death rate, in the
lack of proper development, which
should be studiously avoided. And it
can be avoided by having large enough
brooder quarters. Better too much
room than too little.
Outdoor Breeders
The large size of outdoor brooders
may be used for April and Nav broods
While they can maintain heat enough
for early Spring work the disadvan-
tage of attending the brooder out of
doors in the bad weather of early
Spring makes the iAdoor hrooder
placed in nEnt ColOuEnOuSe Ine bel-
ter method. Two indor brooders with
a capacity each of so chicks can be
placed in 6xS colonyhouse. dividing
the two brooders by a low board par
tition or wire netting and cutting two
small openings IN the front of the col
ony house, which allows the two
broods to have yard range and Vet
keeps each brood separate so each
hover may contain the proper num-
ber of chicks. After they have be-
come old enough to require no arti-
fetal heat, the two broods can run
together and the same colony house
can quarter the growing fowls until
the cockerels are sold. the pullets be-
ing retained until ready for winter
quarters. The ideal colony house to
quarter 100 chicks is feet by feet
and 6Is feet high in front and feet
high in the rear. This gives head room
and plenty of ventilation. Two feet
from the floor the muslin frame should
start and go up to the plate rail one
small window of glass NAV he placed
in the house to give additional light on