POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10454, 20 October 1911, Page 7

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

(By Oock-of-th€->i«).--h

i I have to apologise to :.iy rouflsrs ! for .my long silence, but - t »*as o j sheer impossibility (for ;vo to \» rite owing to illness in my family, and the fact o: my assistant being seriously ill. I was thus loft with everyrthing on my hands in the height of the Ibreeding season, and, with no assistance, these things, added to the fact that I badly smashed the lingers of my right hand in a grit breaker, which was working by an. engine, and having to -attend to heavy correspondence besides classes and lectures, rendered my writing this column impossible for some weeks. Before resuming my subject at the point where i left off, I may say that 1 have received from a goodly number of readers in different parts of the North Island requests for information as to my methods of brooding chicks, etc., and have made up my otnind in response to these as near as possible' my brooder home and brooder, with method of caring for chicks.

My present brooder house is 60ft long by 14ft deep from front to back, 7ft hign in front, and Sift. lUin high at back. All these measurement's are over all. The walls are two ply ruberoid, with the edges fastened to battens 3ft apart, and also fastened to uprights, which are also 3ft apart. The roof is close board«l and covered -with one ply ruberoid, the edges being lapped two inches, and well cemented ■together with the material supplied for the purpose. The whole front is .simply enclosed by one 'nch imesh. wire netting. The internal portion,' is fitted with a series of runs 6ft 3in long (by 22in wide, thirty in all, giving accommodation for 1500 chicks, 'SO to each run. At the end of each run is a fireleas 'brood 21in. square, inside measurement, which accommodates the chicks up to six weeks of age, they having no other run, and for the first six weeks of their lives they have no other space but this. The runs are constructed by simply cutting a number of pieces of 12in x lin boards 6ft 6in long, and nailing them edge 'way up, 23 the ends ibeing nailed to other pieces of I2in x lin boards, also edge up, and running the entire length of the brooder' house, ibeing fastened end to end at the joints by .means of (pieces of 3 x 1 battens 12 inches long overlapipng the ends. The chicks are kept from flying out hy wire netted frames 3ft 2in wide and 12ft long, which are hinged to 4 x 1 fattens running the entire length and fastened to the upper edges of the 6ft 3in> pieces of 12in x lin. in the centre. These are double, thereby covering the whole top of the rims and guarding against cats and other vermin, and as they open upwards on .hinges screwed the 4in x. lin. centre piece, the chicks and runs can 'be attended to from front or back of house. Each brooder ,is built of 9in xfin boards, and is simplicity itself, as Out 7 pieces of 9in x°|in. boards each 22£ in long and two piece© 21in long; rip one of the 22£ in pieces down the centre, making each half 4£in x 22J in.; nail two of the 22£ in pieces on to the ends of each of the 21in. pieces, and on to the square, Thus pinned, nail 3 pieces of the 22£ in x Oin and, one of the x '4£ in, clamping them tightly together, Thiß makes the ibottom. Out of one of the remaining 22£ in x 9in-(pieces C a hole on one edge oin x sin square, and fasten these' two remaining pieces together and,the remaining 22£in.'k 4Jin piece edge to edge iby, ..means of narrow,;.cross,: pieoes of. almost any tintbe'r, and, .in such a jvay a? to have the sin x Sin hole'in the centre "of the lid which this is intended for; cover with rwire netting; cut a hole in one side of your box 5 inches wide by 6 inches high, and onake a square frame to slide over this opening, and cover with netting, ■which makes your brooder secure against rats or other vermin at night. The hover (or mother) of this brooder is simply a square of calico 24 inches square, and after a two inch seaan. has ibeen taken all round, leaves it 20 inches square, the ends cf two of these (the last ones .sown), should be left open* and

• slit cut in the centre of the caJieo with a flaip over it like the flap over .). pocket. On the under iside of this calico a piece of flannel 23 inches square «hould 'be fastened iby the corners to'the under side of the corners of the calico, and then gathering the flannel at the edges as stwn, and thereby allowing the centre to. bulge -downwards,! leaving a hololw space Ibetween the flannel and calico, which is! intended to.'be filled, with feathers ; and; inark you, featlier; only, and that very lightly; a strip of flannel should then he sewn around of the hover and left to "liang: down o*in., so thai when the hover is 6 inches 4'rom the ground the lower' edge of the flannel is half an uchabove the floor, a similar istrip ol calico going around on the outside oi the flannel, but only four inches down instead of 5$ inches as for the flannel. (Continued Next Week.)