FIRELESS BROODERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15048, 18 July 1912, Page 11

FIRELESS BROODERS

The fireless brooder as very generally construed to-day depends upon an arrangement of one or more " quilts ' so adjusted that there is a depression in the centre, w-h'-rp the birds group instead of crowding into ( orners, the chicks being ke{Jt warm by contact and the conservation of the heat of their own bodies. A well-known American authority, Mr. John H. Robinson, writing onlv last year, stilted that " the fireless brooder, as developed to date, is not adapted to regular use on an extended scale;" and he added that in a heated room or brooder house, or elsewhere in moderate weather, these brooders may work very well, but that birds in'.hem require close attention at first, and they are net adapted to low temperatures. Subject to the venous modifications of differ?; : makers, the tireless brooder described and advocated by Major -Mansfield an his " Poultry on Small Areas of Ground" is fairly typical of the principle of the appliances used in the American system. It consists merely of a shallow bos, some Bin high, with an opening at one end to serve as an entrance. The top is a movable frame for the support of a piece of muslin or thin sacking, so tacked to the frame that it sags about 2in in the centre. Three quilts, stuffed with cottonwool about lin thick, are made to cover the frame, all being- used at first, but the number reduced as the chicks grow and require less brooding. The floor is covered with a damp-resisting material, such as roofing felt, and the beading material (hay (haff) is pres.-ed well into the cornel's, leaving a nej»t in the centre. Such a box is piai-ed in a suitably-constructed coop or shed. Sun© such contrivance may prove very useful in some circumstances, but it does not appear that the method is equally suitable at all seasons, or for ceneral adoption m preference to the natural or other artificial means of brooding. a-'.d 'inless ventilation and cleanliness receive very particular attention, the requires "nts of hygiene woujd seem to sug jest di.«advant:i^es.