The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-18
HOW TO BUILD A CON-
 VERTIBLE BROODER HOUSE
Rearing Young Stock Is Troublesome Unless the Proper Facilities Are Pro- vided-Design for a Com bination BroOder-C Colony Laying House of Simple Ideas
By ROBERT ARMSTRONG Exuerf Poultrymau and Write

b1HCEt dhW ''AAtCA
 It has been conclusively proven that if chickens are to be raised in large numbers on 8 really profitable basis, they must be matched artificially. If incubated artificially then they must be brooded by artificial heat; for a chick requires temperature of from 90 to 100 degrees for the first month or six weeks of it's life. The success of a poultry plant depends upon these two processes. more especially brood ing Most of the difficulties are due to impropefs breeding facilities-either defective bFeoding apparatus or the brooder housH is. to blame This ar ticle has to tl0 with the design for a
 brooder house ofztznown practicabil- ity.
 Matching fsy syeomp paratively simple. If given strong fertile eggs, reliable in- :: cubators are almost certain to bring off satisfactory matches. The machines are usually operated in cellar, where the temperature is fairly uni- form, and they are probably closely assembled so that 1t is easy to care for them. But after the matching from the time the chicks leave the shelter of the incubator until they are 10 days old; in fact. until they are weaned from the brooder come en- tirely different circumstances The poultryman is likely to regard life as a very serious proposition during this period. If things do not break right, no phase of poultry raising is likely to prove so distressing and trouble some as the rearing of young chicks. Yet, if this part of the work can be accomplished without serious mishap. it is a truly delightful, interesting task.
 Chicks require warmth, sunshine, fresh air, exercise and stimulating food With the exception of the latter, all of these essentials are obtained by the brooder. Yes. even exercise is gov erned by the conditions found in the 1 bfooder. without which leg weakness l and countless other troubles result. Methods of Chick Rearing There are many kinds of breeding apparatus and a wide variety of brood- CT houses: lack of space forbids a de- | tailed description of them. In the main they are divided into three general l classes: CD the small outdoor brood ! CT, of about 50-chick capacity; CD the lcng brooder house with narrow pens and yards, heated by overhead hot wa ! ter pipes or individual lamps, (3) the colony brooder of 500 to 1900 0-chick capacity, heated by liqud-fuel burn l ing or coal-burning hot air stoves. ! In the small outdoor brooder we find the great trouble lies in taking care of
 so many small units scattered over a large aera, especially in stormy weather. Furthermore instead of an even tenn perature, or one with considerable re- serve, in the small brooder we find a l variation of perhaps 50 degrees between noon and midnight. with nothing but the close supervision and untiring ef- forts of the attendant to meet this ir- I r6 onoff cf weakening the brood by having them overloaded. or having them chilled which is still worse for them. Unques- tiona bly,. this method is productive fof
 excellent results, if one has the time and patience to devote to it. Large units | do not raise quite so many chicks as the
 smaller ones, because the mortality due I to accident is greater in the larger units but, commercial pouItrymen figure, an6 l correctly so that it is easier and cheap CT to provide extra chicks than extra 1 labor.
 The long brooder house is the easiest way to care for little chicks. All the work is done on the inside, storms hold
 no dread for the caretaker, the tempera- | ture is more uniform, and it has big reserve heat But, because the chicks are
 | necessarily yarded so close together. and because such large numbers are reared on the same ground year after year. ii I
 disease. Moreover, this sort of a broodei
 house is the most expensive building or
 the farm, and because it cannot be used
 l for other purposes, it must lie idle fol
 six months of each year. Hot water-pipe6
 brooder houses were extensively used a,
 one time, but they are now rarely built
 except upon plants where expense is
 l secondary consideration, and where il l Is desired to hatch the greater part of thu year.
 l Thus, there was a demand for a brood
 ling device which would perform its worl
 on large scale, at the least possible
 cost for buildings, for fuel, for operating costs and so on. The brooder stove wal
 the outcome of this demand. It didn
 just happen; it evolved. The large stoves
 those having a capacity of 800 chicks ol more. and using coal for fuel, have com,
 into general use in the east in the past
 four years, whereas in the poultry grow
 ling districts of California oil burnins
 stoves of this character have been uset
 for sometime.
 ] Ten years ago, if one had advocated
 breeding chicks in flocks of 1000 or 15O0 1 the sanity of such an exponent would
 have been severely questioned. The ides seems radical to some people today, bu lit has proven entirely practicable.
 J In many of the earlier breeding appli