Avoid Moving Chicks Often
The removal of the chicks from the hover runs into the nurseries, as formerly practiced on The Corning Egg Farm, has been entirely discontinued. A chick in many respects resembles a flower; every time it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain setback. For this reason the great Brooder House has all been turned into hover runs, and the chicks make one move from the Brooder House to the Colony House. A moving generally represents not only a slight setback, but some mortality through accident and the change itself.
The small chick doors into the outside runs are opened, if the weather is propitious, about the fifth or sixth day in the early part of the hatching season, and on the third or fourth day later on. The chicks are never driven into the yard, any more than they are driven down the inclined plane, but it is always our method to allow the youngsters to seek a new field for themselves, and slowly. When they go out into the yard they are watched, and if there is any inclination to huddle up against the warm side of the building they are driven back into the Brooder House.
Another great advantage of the heated Brooder House (and we speak of this as entirely separate from the heat under the hovers) is that it allows the chick to seek different degrees of temperature. There is one temperature under the hover; another temperature outside of the hover, on the hover floor; still another degree on the main floor of the Brooder House; and, then, there is the outdoor temperature.
When the chicks are first placed under the hovers, during the first day, we carry the temperature at 95 degrees, and then slowly decrease this by raising the hover. Where an adjustable hover is not used this may be accomplished by turning down the lamp.
CHAPTER XX
Handling Birds on Range—The Youngsters Must Be Kept Growing All the Time
The birds leave the Brooder House for their permanent Summer home on the Colony Range, so far as the pullets in the flock go, at eight to nine weeks of age.
The Colony Houses are prepared for the new tenants by being thoroughly sprayed with a solution of Kerosene and Carbolic Acid, in a proportion of one to five—one Carbolic and five Kerosene. Before spraying, the canvas drops to the windows are let down, and after spraying the House is left twenty-four hours in a perfectly closed condition, before the drops are raised. The floor is then covered with straw litter to the depth of four inches; the five gallon drinking fountain is filled and placed on its stand close to the door; the feed box receives its quantity of mash, and the grain is scattered over the litter.
We practice the filling of from six to eight Colony Houses at a time, and with this coming season of 1912 we shall increase that number to ten.
The Colony Houses are raised about eight inches from the ground, by blocks, and, as it is not advisable for the small birds to get under the House for the first few days, we have sets of boards which fit around the House to prevent their making the mistake of huddling under the House at night, instead of going up into it.