Brooder

“ Individual lamp brooders in colony houses are perhaps the most generally successful means of rearing chicks on northern poultry farms. They are troublesome and somewhat expensive, but with properly hatched chickens are more successful than hen rearing. In buying such a brooder the chief points to be observed are: A good lamp, a heating device giving off the heat from a central drum, and an arrangement which facilitates easy cleaning. The brooder should be large, having not less than nine square feet of floor space. The work demanded of a brooder is not as exacting as with an incubator. ”

“ These birds being unfastened, and ready at ten or twelve weeks, give a quick turnover with less expense and risk than older fatted birds; and this peculiar demand has largely dominated American poultry-farming, a great deal of which runs in the direction of great “broiler-plants” solely devoted to the hatching and rearing of these broilers, while large “brooder-houses,” similar to those used in that business, are prevalent on more miscellaneous farms. ”

“ The incubator and the brooder make it possible to secure chicks at any season of the year, and thus permits the development of special branches of poultry raising, such as the production of broilers and soft roasters. ”

“ I used to monopolise the summer kitchen from February to April, and then have them placed out in the orchard. Placing an outdoor brooder under cover is really only for the convenience of the attendant, for they are storm proof. If you commence with an incubator that holds one hundred and twenty to one hundred 34 and sixty eggs you will require two brooders, and if in a cold or Northern locality, some small house which can be warmed during very cold weather, if you propose commencing to incubate in January. ”

“ On the fourth day it can be opened and the chicks allowed to run into it, but the room in which the brooder stands should be 42 warm, and the little ones should be watched toward bedtime, for they are apt to remain in the outer compartment and become chilled. ”

“ For the first 24 to 72 hours after hatching, poults can live without feed, the yolk of the egg which they absorb before hatching being sufficient to maintain them for that length of time. As soon as they are put into the brooder house or with the hen they should be fed. If they are not fed for the first day or two they should be kept in a darkened coop or incubator. However, leaving the poults in a darkened incubator for only 12 to 24 hours and feeding them as soon as they are removed to the brooder seems to be better and is now becoming a general practice. ”

“ The men sleep in the room and some one is on duty continuously, making the rounds of the incubators and brooders, examining and regulating each according to its individual needs, through the management of the doors or the shifting of the quilts over the eggs in the brooder trays where the chicks leave the eggs and remain until they go to the store. In the finishing trays the eggs form rather more than one continuous layer but the second layer does not cover more than a fifth or a quarter of the area. ”

“ The brooder will not then be large enough to hold them, neither do they require the heat, in fact it would be injurious at this age; so before the birds reach the extreme end of the building I shut them off from the brooders entirely by placing a board in front of the opening. The young birds will always thrive better out of doors than in ”

“ The chickens are hatched out by incubators in a small house built for that purpose and when hatched they are moved to the brooder house. Here they are cared for until strong enough to be put out doors in brooders. Later they are sorted and put into larger colony houses out in the field. The entire responsibility and work of this is taken by my sister Isabell, so it is needless to say that her program through the spring months would show days that were more than busy. ”

“ Better keep them from one to two inches above the zinc. Keep the ventilators open.
When the eggs are hatched keep the chicks in the incubator till dried, anywhere from twelve to eighteen hours, but not longer. Put them in the brooder, or “artificial mother,” which will be described hereafter. Give them their first food when they are about 18 or 20 hours old. Use bread crumbs wet with milk, or corn meal thoroughly soaked, or hard-boiled eggs, and feed regularly at intervals of three or four hours from 5 o’clock a. m. to 9 o’clock p. m. Do not over-feed; give them only what they will eat clean. ”

“ Larger hovers and larger brooding rooms will accommodate 225 poults or more, but only an experienced operator should attempt; to raise groups larger than 150. The prevailing custom is to use brooder stoves in portable colony houses or permanent brooding quarters. ”

“ The poults may then be left in the incubators for about 24 hours or else put in the brooder and fed as soon as hatching is completed and the poults thoroughly dried off. Poults held in the incubator should be kept at about 95° F. and should have a rough surface such as 1/4-inch-mesh hardware cloth to stand on. Keeping the incubator dark helps to keep the poults quiet and tends to prevent spraddle legs. There is no good reason for withholding feed longer than 24 hours. If feed is withheld for a much longer period when the poults are in the brooder, they may eat the litter. ”

“ And continue to feed greens liberally at all times. It's good for the health and cuts feed bills, too.
Care of the Growing Chicks
As the chicks grow, provide larger quarters if the original coops are at all crowded. And teach the youngsters to roost early, especially where brooders are used, so they will not "pile up" in corners when the heat is removed. When the brood is five to six weeks of age place low roosts, lath tacked on six to eight-inch boards, in the coops. The sturdier individuals will soon learn to use them and educate the rest of the flock. ”

“ The hen will feed her brood on substances which would mean the annihilation of ones’ entire flock of youngsters, should one attempt it, and, perhaps, the most curious feature of the feeding part is the fact that one may give the brood, running with the hen, food Nature never intended a small chick to eat, and many of the brood [122] will thrive on it, and the mortality will, in most cases, be confined to the weak ones. ”

“ The ways of the broody hen are at once deep, and stupid, and annoying. No power on earth will force a broody hen to sit when she is in a revolting spirit. To take a hen from the nest of her choice and expect her to sit properly on a fresh nest, where even pheasants' eggs costing a shilling apiece await her, usually means disappointment. Yet it is as risky to put the pheasants' eggs in the broody hen's chosen nest. Other hens will disturb her, rats are likely to steal the eggs, dogs may worry- 74 - her, and she cannot be relied upon to return to her own nest after going off to feed. ”

“ With the crow also the female alone broods, and broods throughout the whole period; the male bird supports the female, bringing her food and feeding her. The female of the ring-dove begins to brood in the afternoon and broods through the entire night until breakfast-time of the following day; the male broods during the rest of the time. Partridges build a nest in two compartments; the male broods on the one and the female on the other. After hatching, each of the parent birds rears its brood. But the male, when he first takes his young out of the nest, treads them. ”

“ The brood, now come, put under a frame with a net over it, and a place for the hen, that she cannot get to the young pheasants, but that they may go to her: and feed them with boiled egg cut small, boiled milk and bread, alum curd, ants’ eggs, a little of each sort, and often.
After two or three days, they will be acquainted with the call of the hen that hatched them, may have their liberty of running on the grass-plot, or elsewhere, observing to shift them with the sun, and out of the cold winds. They should not have their liberty in the morning till the sun is up ”

“ Owing to the position of the nest, it is often most difficult to get sufficiently concealed to allow the parent birds to feed their offspring and clean the nest perfectly naturally; and in order to obtain accurate knowledge of the mysteries of their nursery, especially with regard to certain problems relating to the order of feeding the young, the actual food that is brought, the condition in which it is delivered to the young, and the possibility of different food being supplied by the male and female respectively, it is necessary to be within a few feet of the nest. ”

“ Place two boxes or little basket-nests in the cage, for the hen to lay her eggs in, because she will sometimes have a second brood before the first are fit to fly, leaving the care of them to the father-bird, who feeds and brings them up with much care, while she is sitting on her second nest of eggs. Whilst your birds are pairing, feed them, besides the usual seeds, with the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, bread that has been moistened, or, if hard, grated fine, and pounded almond-meat. ”

“ Then the female prepares to lay her eggs, and both mates plaster up the entrance, the female working from the inside, the male from the outside, until all is closed up save an opening large enough for the female to force her bill through. Shut off from the outer world in this isolated brooding-chamber, the female sits on her eggs, and the male has to feed not only his imprisoned mate, but later the quickly-growing ever hungry young ones, which remain in captivity until they are fully fledged. ”

“ At the most, when her adventurous disposition makes her prefer the perilous shelter of the hedge to the safe retreat of the poultry-yard, the hen, gleaning with her beak a few straws and leaves, and plucking, if need be, some of her own feathers, succeeds in making, for her period of brooding, a disordered heap rather than a nest. There, every day, unknown to all, she goes and lays her egg. Then for three whole weeks she is not to be seen, or only at intervals. That is the time of incubation. ”

“ Howard Saunders, in his 'Manual' (p. 518) , says:—"Two, if not three, broods are produced in the season, the young from the first nest assisting their parents in building another, and even in taking care of the second brood." The method of feeding struck me as peculiar. The old bird, on catching an insect, swam up, and presented it to the youngster, who picked it out of his (or her) bill. ”

“ Newly hatched youngsters require very small amounts of food. “Feed little and often,” is a good rule to follow. You will soon be able to judge the amount, bearing in mind that quantity should be increased as the youngsters grow. 58 When the nestlings are about six days old their eyes will have opened, and when they are around ten days old the partition can be withdrawn and the cock allowed to rejoin the hen. However, if the hen is not feeding the young as she should, or if she doesn’t stay on the nest sufficiently to keep the chicks warm, the cock should be allowed to return at once. ”

“ If the included chick be well forward, and moves about with alacrity, the egg not only rolls over but even dances in the water. And if you apply the egg to your ear for several days before the hatching, you may hear the chick within kicking, scratching, and even chirping. When the hen that is sitting hears these noises, she turns the eggs and lays them otherwise than they were, until the chicks, getting into a comfortable position, become quiet; even as watchful{222} mothers are wont to treat their infants when they are restless and cry in their cradles. ”

“ You have heard so much about the mother-bird sitting on the nest, that I am sure you will be interested in seeing a father who broods the eggs and hatches out the little ones. I have five wives. They all lay their eggs in one and the same nest, which is a hollow pit scraped out by their feet, the earth heaped up around to form a sort of wall. They lay the eggs, I have said, sometimes thirty in a nest, and I—well, I do the rest.
We are dangerous fellows if disturbed when brooding; have been known to attack a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on him. ”

“ In the early twilight, when they are less wild and the mother is not so quick to flutter away and draw you after her, I have sometimes surprised a brood of them,—wee, downy, invisible things, each with a comically long bill and a stripe down his back that seems to divide the little fellow and hide one half of him even after you have discovered the other. ”

“ The first brood there had been twelve, but of this there were fourteen—all from her own eggs, of course, and she was uncommonly proud of them. So was the Gardener, so was the mistress—who liked all young things. Such a picture as they were! fourteen soft, yellow, fluffy things, running about after their mother. It had been a most troublesome business to catch—first her, and then them, to put them under the coop. The old hen resisted, and pecked furiously at Gardener's legs, and the chickens ran about in frantic terror, chirping wildly in answer to her clucking. ”

“ But the old birds could not possibly with their utmost exertions feed a brood of their own kind and satisfy the demands made by the appetite of the voracious stranger as well. The latter consequently saves them from this impossible task, and, by appropriating to his single use the nourishment intended for a brood of four or five, not only makes provision for his own well-being, but helps them out of a difficulty. So assiduously is he taken care of that he soon becomes a portly bird and fills his nest ”

“ In about a fortnight—during which time the workers carry the eggs from higher to lower levels of the nest, and vice versa, according to the circumstances of heat, moisture, etc.—the larvæ are hatched out, and require no less careful nursing than the eggs. The workers feed them by placing mouths together—the larvæ stretching out their heads to receive the nourishment after the manner of young birds. When fully grown the larvæ spin cocoons, and are then pupæ, or the "ants' eggs" of the pheasant-rearers. ”

“ In captivity, strange to say, though by nature having a strong inclination for the flesh of chickens, she has been known to sit on the eggs of the domestic hen, to hatch a brood, and to rear them with as much solicitude as their natural mother could have shown, distributing to them morsels of raw meat, not comprehending, of course, their repugnance to such fare, and bearing with extreme patience and good humour their unaccountable preference for barley and crumbs of bread. ”