Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-18
BIG FACTOR
IN POULTRY SUCCESS
Incubator and Brooder Necessary for
Proper Raising Of Chicks
to Maturity.
BY JAMES P. HOPKINS.
Copyright, 1915,

Many of those starting III poultry
raising do not seem to heed the i'm
portance of equipment to the success
of rearing chicks.
Incubation has made wonderful prog
ress during the last few years. Today
there are standard machines that if
given good eggs from strong breeding
stock will hatch as large a percentage
as the hen. In the brooding of chicks
lies the cause of the failure OF many
beginners and this has been due to
many different things. The man who
wishes to raise only a few chicks that
will mature into winter egg-producers
for family use will find the small
sixty or hundred egg incubator the
proper machine to use in conjunction
with two outdoor or indoor breeders.
These small breeders are rated from
fifty to sixty-flve chicks but better sue
cess will be obtained when only fifty
chicks are placed in each brooder.
Outdoor Breeders.
The large size outdoor brooders may
be used for April and May broods.
While they can maintain heat enough
for early spring work, the disadvan-
VI
doors in the bad weather of early
spring makes the indoor brooder
placed in light colony house the bet
ter method. Two indoor brooders with
d capacity each of fifty chicks can be
placed III a 6xS colony house, dividing
the two breeders by a low board par
tition or wire netting and cutting two
small openings In the front OF the
colony house, which allows the two
broods to have yard range and yet
keeps each brood separate so each
hover may contain the proper number
of chicks
The ideal colony house to quarter
100 chicks is six feet by eight feet
and six and one-half feet high in front
and five feet high i'll the rear. This
gives head room and plenty of venti-
lation.
For the poultry keeper who rears
more than several hundred chicks dur
ing the season a different system must
be used. There are now two systems
In general use on the large poultry
farms. The older of the two is the
long brooder house with its hot-water
system; the other is the long brooder
house with the newer coal or oil burn
ing big hovers. Both have advocates
and both improved systems have ac-
complished good work. The third, but
as yet not so much in general use. Is
the colony system. The coal or oil
and in some cases gas is used for
colony house brooding from 200 to
1900 chicks at one time. This last sys-
TEN has much to recommend it, mas
much as 1t gives the required heat with
plenty of ventilation in quarters where
growing chicks can be accommoda ed
until artificial heat is no longer re-
quired.
All brooder chicks. to do their best
must be taken from the brooder house
to the colony system on free range.
1t is here the colony brooding system
shows advantage. The chicks are OBJ
tanning the proper heat and above all
Il better ventilation than ever secured
under the old pipe system. The cost is
less than in the long brooder house
and the capacity of the brooder great
er. The colony house is one that can
be moved to new ground IL found
necessary. whereas the long brooder
house was stationary. There is no
danger of sour runs and it seems to be
the ideal system for the one-man or
the tWO-man plant