Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/369

 347 WOMAN'S WORK to bring the 'third chamber, or bottomless run, on to fresh grass daily. A great help towards hygiene in the management of the brooder is the avoidance of overcrowding. Chickens, like adult fowls, do better in small flocks, and rather than place a hundred chicks in a brooder adver- tised as holding such a number, it is safer to entrust it with only half that number, so that the birds may have ample room during the entire period that they occupy it. When the sun is shining, the hinged roofs of the brooding and second chambers should be opened, so that the rays of sunshine may enter — sunshine being a destroyer of disease germs. Exercising the Chicltens On all occasions when the weather is favourable the chickens should be induced to leave the brooding chamber as much as possible, and to find exercise in the open run. No warmth artificially applied can excel that generated by healthy exercise in the fresh air. When inclement weather prevents the chickens from taking open-air exercise they should be found employment in tha second chamber, where among the litter they should be induced to hunt for buried grain. The great thing is to keep the chickens active during wet and cold weather, and this can be done, if the youngsters are not over- fed, by making them scratch and find most of their food. According to the time of year and climatic conditions, the chickens should be allowed artificial heat until they are four or five or six weeks old. Even at the latter age, chickens, if brooded in the colder seasons of the year, are unable to do without artificial warmth during the night-time, and they should, therefore, be provided with it until climatic conditions are favourable for their removal from the warm brooder to an unheated one. The Unheated Brooder This usually consists of a sleeping chamber and a covered outer run. The former should be well ventilated, lofty, and free from draughts, with a floor space sufiiciently restricted in area, to allow the chicks to huddle close together for warmth. The floor should be covered to a depth of three inches with peat moss litter, which requires to be raked over and replenished from time to time. The outer run should be bottomless, and the earth, which forms the floor, should be covered with cut chaff, among which dry food may be scattered. This will afford the chicks exercise in in- clement weather. During the sum- mer time chickens can be safely removed from the heated brooder at a month old. The method of feeding them is the same as that adopted when chickens are reared naturally. and cleansed before being entrusted with newly hatched chickens. The heat in the brooding chamber should be kept up until all damp is driven out of it, as damp is fatal to the well-being of chickens. When the heat has been kept up sufficiently long to dry and warm the floor of the brooding chamber thoroughly, the latter should be bedded with litter, such as straw chaff, oat culms, or even dry sand, the last-nsmed being preferable when operating the brooder in warm weather. A thermometer should then be placed with its bulb lesting two inches above the litter, and in such a position as to be easily read. During the first Week the chickens occupy the brooder, the heated chamber should be kept somewhere between 85° and 90°; the temperature should be lowered gradually to 75° during the second week, and to 70'^ by the end of the third week. After this only a little heat may be needed during the day- time, but at night the temperature should be raised sufficiently to ensure comfort for the inmates. The Chiclcens are the Best Thermometers No rigid rule can be laid down respecting temperature at which to keep the brooding chamber during any season of the year, as all seasons are attended with climatic variations which may affect one's calculations. The operator must be guided by the state of the weather, and by the chickens themselves. Too much artificial heat is as bad as too little, for, if the weather is dry, chickens can bear more cold than is generally imagined. It is during spells of frosty and rainy weather that the half-naked chicks need shelter and warmth. Expert chicken rearers seldom use ther- mometers to ascertain the temperature of the brooding chamber, but are guided by the attitude of its inmates. Should the tempera- ture be too high, the chickens will show signs of it by lying about and gasping ; if it is too low, the birds will huddle into the corner and chirp in a plaintive manner. When the temperature is right, the youngsters distribute themselves about the floor and chirp contentedly. The second, or middle, chamber of the brooder should be littered thickly with chaff, among which the chickens will scratch and find much amusement hunting for fine grain scattered therein on such occasions as bad weather prevents them from going into the third chamber, or open-fronted run. During the time the brooder is in operation cleanliness is of the greatest importance. The excreta must be removed from the brooding chamber daily, or foul air will result, and this being breathed by the chickens will speedily debilitate them. The litter, too, in the second chamber must be replaced on the first signs of foulness. To provide fresh green food for the chicks, the brooder should be moved Thermometer for testing j-^^ management of the sitting hen will about when the ground is dry, so as bSnrXamber form the mbject of the next article.