capacity. Ignorant parties buy them, fill them up according to
instructions, when a sad mortality is sure to follow from overcrowding
and consequent overheating. This is especially the case with chicks.
Ducklings never smother each other from overcrowding, but, of course,
will not thrive when too closely packed. These 150-duck brooders can be
run at an expense of two cents per day for oil. In extreme cold weather
artificial heat should be kept up in these brooders for three weeks; in
warm weather, a week is sufficient. The same brooders can be used over
and over as fast as the new hatches come out. When brooders are removed,
closed boxes can be used instead.
When the operator does business large enough to require the use of five
or six brooders, it would be cheaper for him to put in a heater at once,
as the original cost of the heater would be less than that of the
brooders. Years ago, when the question of heaters was first agitated,
the cost was enormous, and the consumption of coal in proportion. Large
hot-house boilers were used, often at a cost of several hundred dollars
before the thing was ready for use. Now a good heating system can be
arranged for a building one hundred feet long at an expense not
exceeding $100. This, of course, would be much less than a complement of
brooders for the same building.
Advantages of the Heating System.
The heating system has several marked advantages over the brooders. One
is, that during the extreme cold of winter the building is always warm
enough for the little birds, while with nothing but brooders it would
often freeze around them, necessitating feeding inside the brooders,
which would not be as healthy for the ducklings. Again there would be a
great saving of labor, as a self-regulating heater would require no more
care than a single brooder, while the oil consumed in the brooders would
fully equal the cost of coal required for the heater.
There is one point here which the beginner should always take into
consideration in the selection of a heater, and that is, be sure and get
one that will give you the greatest amount of heat for the fuel
consumed. The patent steam and water heaters now upon the market are too
numerous to mention. But there is a vast difference in the economy of
these heaters.
When contemplating the purchase of a heater, several years ago, I called
upon a party who was running a newly-purchased heater. He seemed very
much pleased with it, and said it ran admirably,--warmed his buildings
nicely, and only cost about one dollar per day for coal. I made up my
mind then and there that I should run my brooders a while longer. But on
interrogating another party using one of a different pattern, he assured
me that his heaters warmed both brooders and buildings in good shape at
a cost of fifteen cents per day. This was presenting the matter in a new
phase. The difference in cost of running these heaters one year would
purchase two. I am now running three heaters called the "Bramhall-Deane
Heater" and am heating two brooding houses (one 250 feet long, the other
175 feet long), at half the cost per day. Either steam or water may be
used. I prefer water for both safety and economy.
For instance, should the fire go out accidentally the heat would cease
at once where steam was used, while water would hold its heat for hours,
and would continue to circulate just so long as the water in the boiler
was hotter than that in the pipes. I do not know but there are other
heaters in the market just as economical as the "Bramhall-Deane," but I
know of several prominent poultry men who are changing their heating
principle, not because they are dissatisfied with the work done by that
now in use, but solely on account of the expense attending it.
Figure 12 represents our brooding-house as it appears outside. Its
dimensions have already been given. It is boarded in with
closely-fitting hemlock boards, the whole being covered on the outside
with the heaviest quality of "Paroid" Roofing.
[Illustration: BROODING HOUSE. (FIG. 12.)]
This roofing is manufactured by F. W. Bird & Son, East Walpole, Mass. We
have more than an acre under roofing, a large proportion of which is
covered with Paroid. We find it strong, pliable, insusceptible to either
heat or cold and to all appearances will be more durable than anything
we have ever used. I have many buildings covered with this roofing. In
applying it, begin at the eaves, lapping it 1-1/2 inches. It is so heavy
that it does not require wooden strips to hold it down, simply nails and
tin caps, which should be about an inch apart. A coat of the liquid,
which goes with it, will glaze it over in good shape. For a flat roof,
it is far better than shingles at less than half the cost.
Interior Arrangement of Brooding-House.
As the construction of this building has been already noticed, I will
proceed to describe its interior arrangement for a brooding-house. In
the first place, as in the breeding-house, there should be a walk three
feet wide the entire length of the building on the back side. Next to
the walk, and parallel with it, the brooder box should run. This box
will be thirty inches wide, and like the walk, the entire length of the
building. In my building the brooding arrangement is very simple,
being a box with two sides resting on the ground, eight inches high in
the clear, the ground being utilized as the bottom of brooder.
This brooding-box consists of two parts. The sides, seven inches wide,
are nailed securely, and constitute the sides of the pipe-stand. The
cover is portable, with cleats nailed across the top to strengthen it,
and with strips an inch wide nailed underneath, in front and in back, to
keep it in position. These strips are supposed to rest on the seven-inch
strips in the sides, and, when the cover is on, make a tight brooder.
Figure 13 represents the interior of brooding-house, with these covers
on the brooders and ready for use. Also, with two of the covers removed
showing the heating pipes. These consist of a two-inch flow and return,
running parallel with each other the entire length of the building, and
lying ten inches apart from centre to centre. These pipes rest upon
cross boards, whose length corresponds with the width of the brooder,
and to which the sides are nailed; two-inch holes are cut out in the top
of these boards into which the pipes are laid, the upper surface of
which comes flush with the top of the boards, so that when the cover of
brooders is in position it rests equally on pipes and boards.
[Illustration: _PLAN OF BROODING HOUSE._ (FIG. 13.)]
The distance between these boards corresponds with the width of pens
outside of brooder, and constitute partitions for the same. The
partitions are simply inch boards, twelve or fourteen inches wide,
fitting into ground in front of building to keep them upright and in
position. The front of the brooder leading into the pens is cut out in
centre of brooder four feet long and four inches deep to allow the free
passage of the ducklings. These openings in the first four pens are
fringed with woolen cloth, cut up every four inches, to keep the
brooder warmer in cold weather. The remaining brooders are not fringed,
for reasons which will appear hereafter. The heater can be located in
the end of building most convenient to the operator.
The bottom of the pens should consist of sand which, when it becomes
wet, and before it becomes offensive, should be covered with fine
sawdust. This is a good absorbent and disinfectant as well. The inside
of the four brooders next the heater should be filled up with hay chaff
to within four inches of the pipes, the distance being gradually
increased as you near the other end of the building, until the whole
eight inches in height will be required, using simply sawdust enough to
disinfect the bottom of brooder. This is my present brooding
arrangement, with the exception of a common door handle screwed on each
brooder cover to facilitate handling. It may not suit every one; some
may want it more ornamental, more expensive; others may wish to simplify
it still more. But such as it is, it is now all ready for use, with heat
applied.
But those little ducklings, who have been waiting all this time in the
machine, are getting both hungry and impatient, and require immediate
attention. The food which has already been prepared consists of a
formula composed of four parts wheat-bran, one part corn-meal with
enough of low grade flour to connect the mass without making it sticky
or pasty, in fact, it should be crumbly so that the little birds can eat
it readily. About five per cent. of fine, sharp grit should be mixed
into their first feed, after that, one or two per cent. is all
sufficient. This grit should be increased in size as the birds grow
older.
About the third day, a little fine beef-scrap should be introduced,
soaking it a little before mixing. When a few days old, a little green
rye, if obtainable, should be given them, or as a substitute, finely
chopped cabbage or lettuce. When the birds are two weeks old, one part
corn-meal to three parts bran should be used. This food should be
scattered upon the feeding-troughs, which are simply one-half inch
boards, nine or ten inches wide, by three or four feet long, with laths
nailed on the sides and ends. Small water-cans, inverted in tin saucers,
so that the ducklings can drink readily without getting wet, should
stand convenient to the food.
How to Remove the Ducklings Without Injury.
To facilitate the removal of ducklings from the machine, I have a square
basket some two and one-half feet long, by fifteen inches wide and one
foot high, with close covers, hinged in the centre. In order to secure
the ducklings, usually all that is necessary is to open one door of
machine, hold this basket under it and make a little chuckling noise,
and strange to say, the little fellows will run out over the pipes, over
the glass door, down into the basket in dozens as fast as their little
legs and wings can carry them. This basket will hold 100 ducklings
conveniently. When full, it should be carried to the brooding-house and
carefully inverted over the feeding-boards.
The little birds will begin eating at once. This process can be repeated
until the machine is emptied. There will be some of the later-hatched
ones that should be allowed to remain in the machine ten or twelve hours
longer, as they can be cared for better there. These can be readily
detected, as they are not as active as the others, and perhaps not
completely dried off. The ducklings should be put out, if possible,
during the middle of the day, and while the sun shines through the
windows, as they can be fed in the sun and put under the brooder later
in the day.
In event of there being no sun, it will not do to feed under the
brooding-box, as it is too dark. I then take a one-half inch board, four
feet long (to correspond with the length of opening in front of brooder)
and six inches wide. I nail two pieces of the same width and height, one
foot long, on to each end of this board, forming a parallelogram four
feet long and one foot wide, minus one side. This is set up in front of
the opening in brooder, and being of the same length, forms a little pen
in front of brooder one foot wide, in which the feeding-trough can be
placed with drinking fount.
The ducklings can then run out and in and feed when they wish. This
board will only be needed for a day or two, when it can be taken up and
reserved for the next brood. The ducklings should be fed once in two
hours, scattering a little food on the troughs. Be sure that they eat
clean before more is given. At the end of a week the regular feed should
be four meals each day.
How to Feed.
When I can get stale baker's bread I use that in connection with, and
instead of, bran. It can be profitably mixed with milk, not too sour,
when it can be had for a cent a quart. But do not give milk as
drink,--the young birds will smear themselves all over with it, their
beaks and eyes will be stuck up, the down will come off their little
bodies in large patches, and they will be a constant aggravation. I was
once called upon to visit an establishment, the owner of which
complained that his ducklings did not grow, and he was very anxious for
me to locate the trouble. I found six to eight hundred ducklings there
of all ages, and, strange to say, nearly of one size; and one lot of
nearly three hundred ducklings eight weeks old would not average one
pound each, when they should have weighed four pounds.
[Illustration]
Such a sight I never saw before, and hope never to see again. Of all the
miserable, squalid, contemptible looking objects, those ducklings took
the lead. This man had not only mixed their food with milk, but had kept
it by them in open troughs, and the birds had bathed in it and spattered
it over each other until there was hardly a feather left on their
emaciated bodies; and yet this man did not know what ailed his ducks.
Is it strange that some people fail in the poultry business?
When in full operation, we run twenty-one large machines, and as it
requires twenty-seven days to close up each hatch, of course we have a
hatch come off nearly every day. Now as each hatch is supposed to occupy
two brooder-pens with the corresponding yards, in the course of five or
six weeks that brooding-house will be filled with its complement of
3,000 ducklings. These will be of all ages, from the little puff-balls
just from the machine, to the half-grown bird of six weeks old. The
brooding pipes are supposed to radiate the same amount of heat at the
extreme end of the building as they do next the heater, consequently the
brooders are of the same temperature in all their parts. Not so the
building.
As the heater radiates a great deal of heat, the end in which this is
located is always 12 or 15 degrees warmer than the other and is thus
better adapted to the comfort of the newly hatched ducklings than the
other, so I always put the birds fresh from the machine next the heater,
while the older ones are passed down the building. This is a very simple
process. One end of the partition board is lifted up a little, food
scattered in a trough in the empty pen adjoining, the ducklings will
rush under in a moment, then the board is dropped. The same process is
continued until all are moved and the building filled.
[Illustration: INSIDE PLAN OF DOUBLE BROODING HOUSE.]
The building just described we term our nursery, and has a capacity of
about 2,500 birds. When full, the older birds are probably about two
weeks old, and of course these older ones must be removed to make room
for successive hatches of younger birds. For this purpose, we
constructed a building 125 feet long, 32 feet wide, which we style our
double brooding house. It runs east and west with a walk four feet wide
through the centre, with brooding-pens on each side. This building has
the same capacity of a single building 250 feet long, and accommodates
about 5,000 birds. On the south side of this walk our brooder boxes are
arranged.
At one end of the building is a heater, from which an inch-and-a-half
flow and return pipe runs under the brooder boxes the entire length of
the building and furnishes heat for the little birds. The brooder-boxes
are located twenty inches from the side of the walk. The ducklings are
fed and watered in this space, and are not allowed in it except for that
purpose. To effect this, the covers of the brooding-boxes, which are six
feet long by two feet wide, are cut in the centre the entire length, and
hinged with a perpendicular lip, which when closed, meets an upright
board below, some two inches high, shutting brooders tight, excluding
ducklings from feeding apartment, so that it is always sweet and clean.
By this arrangement, the ducklings are all fed and watered from the
walk, thus reducing the labor to a minimum, while there is no danger of
crushing the little birds under foot or under the troughs. The attendant
is not hampered in his movements, but can work as quickly as he likes.
All he has to do is to distribute the food and water, throwing the
covers back as he goes, when the ducklings, which are always waiting,
rush in and soon fill themselves. Twenty minutes is all that is required
for them to eat and drink.
A person of good judgment can easily determine about how much the birds
will consume, though it is well for him to pass along the walk, giving a
little more food where their wants are not satisfied, or taking up what
is left over, shutting the covers down when the birds are through.
As this building is well piped, distributing water at both ends, as well
as at the mixing-box and heater, it makes the feeding almost a pastime,
the work is done so easily. This building is just what we have been
looking for. There are none on the place that pleases us so well. Its
many advantages over a single building must be evident to all. The
increased facility for doing the work, as well as its economy in housing
many more birds for the money invested, are not the least.
When planning this building, we had some misgiving about running it east
and west as the lay of the land required, thinking that the exposure on
the north side during the inclement weather of the early spring, would
confine the young birds to the building and they would suffer for want
of exercise, but we were agreeably disappointed as we found that they
thrived equally as well, if not better, on the north side as on the
south, proving what I have always known in duck culture, that the
extreme heat of summer is more debilitating to young birds than the cold
of winter, and that early hatched birds will always be of larger size
and more robust physique than late ones.
That is why I have always made it a point to select my early hatched
birds for breeding purposes. I have never known any too good for that. I
insert cuts of this double building, with the older ducklings on the
north side and the younger ones on the south. Were I to build another, I
should duplicate it in every respect.
[Illustration]
Regulation of Heat in Brooders.
Now, as the birds grow larger, they naturally need less heat, and we
must contrive to fix it so they do not get so much. As stated before, no
fringe is used beyond the first four brooders,--the space in front being
left open; and not only that, but we gradually raise the back of the
cover next the walk until it opens an inch or more the entire length of
the pen. Those ducklings, before they reach the other end of this
brooding-house, will weigh (if well cared for) over a pound each.
The brooder will not then be large enough to hold them, neither do they
require the heat, in fact it would be injurious at this age; so before
the birds reach the extreme end of the building I shut them off from the
brooders entirely by placing a board in front of the opening. The young
birds will always thrive better out of doors than in; and when two weeks
old I always let them out during the sunny days of April, by opening the
slides in front.
At this stage of growth when the birds are from two to four weeks old,
especially with the early hatches when confined as they usually are
during the inclement weather in winter, unless extreme care is taken, a
sad mortality is sure to follow.
There is a great tendency at this stage of growth, when the birds are
confined, to overfeed as well as to overheat in the brooders. This,
coupled with too little exercise is sure to cripple the birds, weaken
their legs and render them helpless. Even experienced growers sometimes
get a little careless and lose whole hatches. We have numerous letters
from all parts of the country in which people write "My ducklings are
all crippled, cannot walk and are dying off fast. What shall I do?"
There is only one thing; feed sparingly, and give all the exercise
possible. Often, the want of grit will cause the same trouble.
(Our yards have been prepared for this the previous autumn, and are now
covered with a thick coat of green rye five or six inches high.) To
accomplish this, I make pens outside the building in front, ten feet
long, and of a width to correspond with the pens inside. I simply use
old boards a foot wide, tacking them together with wire nails, as it is
only a temporary arrangement. When snow falls it must be shoveled out at
once. Just as soon as the weather and the condition of the ground will
allow, I set up the partition wire outside to correspond with the width
of pens inside. This wire partition runs the whole length of the yard;
and as the yards are 100 feet deep, it gives the ducklings a yard 6x100
feet. I always feed outside whenever the weather will permit. It is
needless to say that the sanitary arrangements in this building are of
the utmost importance. Indeed, it will require constant watchfulness and
care on the part of the attendant.
The Sanitary Arrangements.
With several thousand ducklings confined in one building, the tendency
is decidedly filthy. The capacity of the duckling for filth is
wonderful, and he comes honestly by it. It is simply astonishing how
soon he will manage to mix the contents of his water-tank with that of
his yard and make both sloppy and offensive. The chick is nowhere in
comparison. It is true, the duck is not so easily affected by it as the
chick, but it will not do to presume too much upon that. At this stage
the attendant will be kept busy every moment from daylight to dark.
Not only the regular feeding four times a day requires his attention,
but the simple mixing of seventy-five to one hundred bushels of feed
each day is quite a little job of itself, especially when the different
ingredients should be exact. The water tanks also must be regularly
cleaned and filled. The troughs should be carefully cleaned before
feeding, as the ducks will readily eat all foreign matter together with
the food. In short, the whole business must be systematized all the way
through, and the attendant should understand that it is never safe to
neglect a single detail.
[Illustration: OUR DOUBLE BROODING HOUSE. (South side.)]
I had always made a point of doing this duty myself. A few years ago,
not feeling well and having other business requiring my attention, I
engaged a man whom I considered competent to do this business for me. I
took him over the yards, showed and told him just how the thing must be
done; watched him to see that he did the work faithfully and complied
with all its details. Things went on apparently well for a week or two,
when, going home one day, I noticed a number of dead ducklings lying
around, and looking under the brooder I found quite a number more. I at
once interviewed the man and cautioned him. He insisted that he had
followed the instructions to the letter. But the mortality did not
abate, on the contrary it increased to an alarming extent; and I had
lost more ducklings in one month than I had lost for ten years previous.
I watched him and found that the feeding-troughs were not cleaned at
all, and when the birds scattered the sawdust in them the food was
thrown on that, the ducklings consuming both. The food was thrown partly
in the trough and partly on the ground; apparently a matter of perfect
indifference to him. The water-tanks were not rinsed out. Instead of
stepping over the eighteen-inch partition wires he stepped on them,
breaking down the standards and flattening down the wire, so that the
birds were all mixed together promiscuously,--ducklings two weeks old
with those of six weeks. The little ones were trodden down by the older
ones and almost denuded of their feathers, and there was no thrift to
be seen anywhere. To say that I was indignant does not express it. I had
often seen such a condition of things elsewhere, but not before on my
own ranch; I was absolutely ashamed to show visitors around the yards as
long as this state of things existed.
[Illustration: OUR DOUBLE BROODING HOUSE. (North side.)]
That man was promptly discharged, and I undertook the feeding myself.
The birds were sorted out and returned to their own yards, the wire
replaced, the feeding-troughs cleaned, the pens carefully disinfected.
In four days double the amount of food was consumed and things were
decidedly improved. But those birds never acquired that uniformity of
size and appearance which had always characterized my market birds. The
best material to use in the pens inside the brooding-house is dry, fine
sawdust, if it can be obtained. It is by far the best thing I know of
for the purpose. The next best is finely chopped straw or hay, tanbark,
etc. The brooders, like the pens, require close attention. The top
should be scraped off before it becomes offensive, and new material
applied. This can be easily done by simply lifting the edge of the cover
next the walk and drawing it over into the walk, when it can be taken in
a barrow or basket.
The Necessity of Green Food.