The poults were transferred to a
brooder house we had constructed.
Chicks in a box are well protected from drafts, but if they are in a building (such as a
brooder house), a chick guard should be placed around the brooder area to protect them from drafts.
One is set up as a
brooder house. It is well-insulated and we can usually start 200 day-old chicks in it about the middle of February.
Disease spread is by vertically through the infected breeder flocks and horizontally through contaminated incubators, hatchers, chick boxes
brooder houses equipments [2].
Soon after birth, we place chicks into
brooder houses with water, heat, and high protein feed.
The system that brought such results to these poultry raisers consists of hatching the chicks early, growing them out in portable
brooder houses on fresh range and feeding a good starting ration followed with a growing ration.
I was sure that some early-style
brooder houses were octagonal in shape, so we searched for an eight-sided plan, which brought us to a marvelous book, The Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs and Cultivator Almanac, for the Year 1861, by John J.