house. The
pipes and the partition between them is covered over with boards making
a 4 foot walk or runway directly over the pipes, which comes into most
convenient use as a place to convey, by means of a wheelbarrow, feed or
other material needed in the house, and as a convenient place from which
to care for the ducklings in the pens on each side. This board covering
over the pipes also serves to hold the heat and thus forms hovers.
It is advisable to partition off the first third of the house, that is,
the portion in which the heater is located, with a solid partition. Then
by having suitable valves in the pipes, the heat can be cut off from
the rest of the house and only the smaller partitioned off end used as a
separate and independent section of the brooder. This is especially
useful when only a small number of ducklings are being hatched early in
the spring when the weather is cold and it may be difficult to heat the
whole building properly. It is also economical in fuel under such
conditions.
If, on the other hand, the number of ducklings hatched during the cold
weather is so large that all or nearly all of the house capacity is
needed to care for them, it will usually pay to install an additional
heater, the pipes from which can be run along the rear wall of the
building, in order to keep up a proper house temperature when the
weather is severe.
_Pens._ Having the hovers in the center of the house, makes it possible
to have double sets of pens, one running from the center to the front
wall and the other from the center to the rear wall. The pens are
divided off by means of partitions made of one foot boards. These are
high enough to confine the ducklings to their own pen and at the same
time are easy to step over. In a house of this width, 20 feet, with 4
feet in the center taken up by the double hovers or walk, each pen is 8
feet long in the clear or 10 feet to the partition under the hover. The
pens in the first third of the house are made 5 feet wide, in the next
third 6 feet and in the last third 7 feet wide. When the ducklings are
first brought from the incubator cellar they are placed in the pens
nearest the heater as the temperature will run somewhat higher there
than in the portions of the house more remote from the heater. These 5 x
10 foot pens will accommodate 125 baby ducklings although better results
will be obtained by placing only 100 in a pen if sufficient room is
available. Some duck growers use boards which can be slipped into