In order to operate an incubator successfully, we shall also need a brooder, which is really an artificial mother.  There is a standard make of brooder costing five dollars that will accommodate fifty chicks.  Brooders are very simple in construction and can be made at home.  A tinsmith will have to make the heating drum.  The rest of it is simply a wooden box with a curtain partition to separate the hot room from the feeding space.  Ventilating holes must be provided for a supply of fresh air and a box placed at the bottom to prevent a draught from blowing out the lamp.  In a very few days after we place the chicks in a brooder they should be allowed to go in and out at will.  In a week or two we shall be able to teach them the way in, and then by lowering the platform to the ground for a runway we can permit them to run on the ground in an enclosed runway.  On rainy days we must shut them in.

There is always a temptation to feed chicks too soon after they are hatched.  We should always wait at least twenty-four hours to give them a chance to become thoroughly dry.  The general custom of giving wet cornmeal for the first feed is wrong.  Always feed chicks on dry food and you will avoid a great deal of sickness.  An excellent first food is hard-boiled egg and corn bread made from cornmeal and water without salt and thoroughly baked until it may be crumbled.  Only feed a little at a time, but feed often.  Five times a day is none too much for two-week-old chicks.

One successful poultryman I am acquainted with gives, as the first feed, dog biscuit crushed.  All the small grains are good if they are cracked so that the chicks can eat them.  The standard mixture sold by poultry men under the name “chick food” is probably the best.  It consists of cracked wheat, rye, and corn, millet seed, pinhead oatmeal, grit, and oyster shells.  Do not feed meat to chicks until their pin feathers begin to show, when they may have some well-cooked lean meat, three times a week.

There is quite an art in setting a hen properly.  They always prefer a dry, dark place.  If we are sure that there are no rats around, there is no better place to set a hen than on the ground.  This is as they sit in nature and it usually seems to be the case that a hen that steals her nest will bring out more chicks than one that we have coddled.  Eggs that we are saving for hatching should be kept in a cool place but never allowed to freeze.  They should be turned every day until they are set.  Hens’ eggs will hatch in about twenty-one days.  The eggs that have failed to hatch at this time may be discarded.  When we move a broody hen we must be sure that she will stay on her new nest before we give her any eggs.  Test her with a china egg or a doorknob.  If she stays on for two nights we may safely give her the setting.  It is always better when convenient to set a hen where she first makes her nest.  If she must be moved, do it at night with as little disturbance as possible.  It is always a good plan to shut in a sitting hen and let her out once a day for feed and exercise.  Do not worry if in your judgment she remains off the nest too long.  The eggs require cooling to develop the air chamber properly, and as a rule the hen knows best.