Each hover is numbered, and directly back, on the north wall of the Brooder House, is a corresponding number, and a nail, on which is hung the record card. When the chicks are carried up in baskets from the Incubator Cellar, they are carefully examined, all weaklings being excluded, and counted into the hover compartments. Careful selection and the “survival of the fittest” begin at this point with the stock on The Corning Egg Farm. Before speaking of the number of chicks carried in the hover compartments, it must be understood that running along the north wall of the Brooder House is a coil of hot water pipes, capable of maintaining a temperature of 85 degrees, three feet from the floor, and in zero weather. Corning Heated Brooder House The Corning Egg Farm believes absolutely in Brooder Houses heated beyond what is supplied by the hovers, and this is the reason it is possible to carry such a large number of youngsters in each hover compartment. In large hatches, when we have been crowded for room, two hundred chicks have frequently been carried in one compartment of four feet in width. [Illustration: CHICKS SIX WEEKS OLD IN BROODER HOUSE RUNS] Corning Feeds Dry Food Only When the chicks are first placed in the hover compartment the inclined plane is drawn up and they find two drinking cups ready--the style that feeds itself into a small cup, into which it is not possible for the youngsters to get. They also find waiting for them their first meal of Corning Chick Food. For the first twenty-four hours the inclined plane remains up, and the hovers are visited every two hours. If the amount of Chick Food has been well cleaned up, another feeding is evenly distributed over the boards. It must be understood that litter is never placed on the hover floor, though it is kept two inches deep on the floor of the pen. Three Feeds Daily The following morning the inclined plane is let down, about five handfuls of Corning Chick Food to every hundred chicks is thrown into the litter, and a little is scattered just at the top of the inclined plane to entice the youngsters down. No more food is given until the noon hour, when, into the litter is thrown two handfuls to every hundred chicks, and again a small quantity is placed at the top. No more feeding is done until four o’clock when five handfuls of Corning Chick Food are again thrown into the litter. For the first two or three nights, or more if necessary, the chicks are quietly driven up to the hover, and the inclined plane pulled up after them, it being let down the first thing in the morning. Fresh water is supplied in the drinking cups each day, morning, noon, and night, and, with the night filling, a brush on the plan of those made for the cleansing of milk bottles, is used to give the cups a proper cleaning. On the back of the record cards, hung behind each hover, the mortality is kept.