VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 35 



hatches were obtained. It was the best there was at that time, 

 but the use of home-made incubators now, would be like turn- 

 ing back into the days of the wooden plow. 



There are several kinds of good incubators, but the one which 

 we have used with greatest satisfaction is the Cyphers, with its 

 capacity of 360 eggs. We have used others that hatch as well, 

 but the Cyphers requires less care. We have not tested many 

 incubators and other makes that we have not used may be as 

 good. 



The incubator room must be kept quite constant in tempera- 

 ture. A cellar is a good place in which to run incubators if it 

 is not so cold as to require the lamps to be run very high in order 

 to maintain the necessary degree of warmth inside of the ma- 

 chine. If several incubators are located in the same room, great 

 care should be taken to provide proper ventilation, so that the ma- 

 chine may be furnished with clean fresh air at all times. 



Where many machines are used, the hand turning of the eggs 

 absorbs considerable time. We have used several turning 

 devices and conducted experiments to determine the differences 

 between hand and machine turning, and have not yet received 

 better hatches from the hand turned eggs. Machines that have 

 automatic turning shelves will not hold quite as many eggs as 

 when flat shelves are used, but the saving of time is of import- 

 ance. 



A person should get thoroughly acquainted with a machine 

 before putting the eggs in and then make changes and adjust- 

 ments with great care, lest the results be extreme. We used to 

 think it necessary to have the chickens hatched in March so that 

 they might be ready for laying by November. By better meth- 

 ods of feeding and treatment we can now delay the hatching until 

 April, and the first half of May, and the pullets get to laying maturity 

 as early in the season as formerly. 



We use indoor brooders, mostly, and very much prefer them to 

 any outside brooders we have seen in use. The portable brooder 

 houses are built on runners so that they may be readily moved 

 about. The houses are 12 feet long, some of them are 6 and 

 others 7 feet wide. Seven feet is the better width. They are 6 

 feet high in front and 4 feet high at the back. The frame is of 

 2x3 inch stuff; the door is double boarded. The building is 

 boarded, papered and shingled all over. A door, 2 feet wide is 

 in the center of the front and a 6 light, sliding window is on 

 each side of it. A small slide is put in the door, near the top, 

 by which ventilation may be obtained early in the season, before 

 the windows can be kept open. Since shingles on the walls near 

 the bottom are liable to be torn off in moving the houses, double 

 boarding on the walls would be preferable. Two brooders are 

 placed in each of these houses and 50 to 60 chicks are put with 



