Commercial Poultry Raising; A Thoroughly Practical and Complete Reference Work for the Amateur, Fancier or General Farmer, Especially Adapted to the Commercial Poultryman (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ...Not that brooder stoves will fail to perform the functions required of them, but the operator must become familiar with ways of feeding large flocks of chicks running together, so that they can be induced to exercise sufficiently, and not get into bad habits, such as toe-pecking and feather-pulling. Gradations of Heat.--In many of the earlier brooding appliances there were, generally speaking, two distinct temperatures and no gradations of heat; the interior temperature of the hover, so frequently stuffy and hot, and the outside air, which (Courtesy Prairie State Incubator Co.) Fig. 198.--Outdoor colony brooder--a complete outfit. was very apt to be too cold. Either of these the chick had to accept, and both were weakening--to be chilled or partly suffocated. The brooder stove is a high-power furnace capable of radiating a great deal of heat, which, by means of a wide-spread sheet-iron deflector, is distributed downward over the backs of the chicks, where it is most needed. See Fig. 199. When taken from the incubator direct to the brooder, the chicks instinctively learn to form a circle around the stove. In the majority of times they will gauge their distance from the base of the stove entirely by the intensity of the heat most comfortable to them. See Fig. HIGH-POWERED FURNACE 305 200. In short, the brooder stove provides a gradual decrease in temperature, from the base of the stove, which is very hot, to the farthest corners of the room, which can be kept as cool as desired by means of ventilation. This arrangement of providing warmth is thoroughly practical, for it permits every chick to seek the degree of warmth best suited to its individual comfort. The plan is in imitation of natural brooding, which is best, except that it is not economical. Fiff. 199...