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.  The heat and circulation of air may vary a little without harm, but they must not fail altogether.  The greatest trouble with brooders in operation is the uncertainty of the lamp.  The brooder-lamp should have sufficient oil capacity and a large wick.  Brooder-lamps are often exposed to the wind, and, if cheaply constructed or poorly enclosed, the result will be a chilled brood of chicks, or perhaps a fire.

The chief thing sought in the internal arrangements of a brooder is a provision to keep the chicks from piling up and smothering each other as they crowd toward the source of heat.  This can be accomplished by having the warmest part of the brooder in the center rather than at the side or corner.  If the heat comes from above and a considerable portion of the brooder be heated to the same temperature, no crowding will take place.

The temperature given for running brooders vary with the machine and the position of the thermometer.  The one reliable guide for temperature is the action of the chicks.  If they are cold they will crowd toward the source of heat; if too warm they will wander uneasily about; but if the temperature is right, each chick will sleep stretched out on the floor.  The cold chicken does not sleep at all, but puts in its time fighting its way toward the source of heat.  In an improperly constructed or improperly run brooder the chicks go through a varying process of chilling, sweating and struggling when they should be sleeping, and the result is puny chicks that dwindle and die.

The arrangement of the brooder for the sleeping accommodations of the chicks is important, but this is not the only thing to be considered in a brooder.  The brooder used in the early season, and especially the outdoor brooder, must have ample space provided for the daytime accommodation of the chick.  In the colony house brooder such space will, of course, be the floor of the house.

When operating on a large scale it will not pay to buy complete brooders.  The lamps and hovers can be purchased separately and installed in colony houses which do both for brooders and later for houses for growing young stock.  The universal hover sold by the Prairie State Incubator people is about as perfect a lamp hover as can be made.