farmers" IXSTITUTES. 813 



tbe little cliicks are turned out of the machine free from A'ermin. Then 

 j-ou can save so much time and strength in caring for the machine. I 

 operate my machine in a small room leading from the kitchen, which had 

 been originally intended for a bath room. Here in twenty minutes in the 

 morning and less time at night I attend to filling and trimming the lamp, 

 turning and airing the eggs, etc. The brooding of the same number of 

 , eggs would require the time and attention of 14 hens, and you all know 

 something of the time it might require should some of that number be 

 inclined to fight or change their minds in regard to setting, etc. Another 

 feature yet, the whole 14 hens would be out of the laying business (which 

 we consider so profitable) for say eight weeks at least. 



One of my troubles has been infertile eggs; another to know just the 

 right amount of moisture. E'ollowing the instructions given with the 

 machine very closely, yet I find many chicks in eggs that pip but never 

 get out. I find the Plymouth Rock eggs vei"y hard shelled and often the 

 Q^^, will pip but the lining membrane being so tough it does not yield and 

 the chick dies in the shell. 



Now it is to learn how to overcome these things that I am here, and 

 to gain any other useful knowledge that I may. I do believe that the time 

 we spend in farmers' institute is well and profitably spent. A few years 

 ago I spent one day at institute at Chrisnej- and listened to Mr. Todd 

 talk on poultry. He told us how to avoid bowel trouble with young 

 chicks, which proves so fatal sometimes. This to me was a valuable 

 lesson. Now just before my incubator hatches I 'put a large bake pan 

 full of clean sand in the range oven and heat it and cover the floor of the 

 brooder with it. On this sand the chicks are iilaced and here they get 

 their first meal together with the necessary grit to digest it. I wish to 

 speak of one mistake I made in selecting a broodtr. It might save some 

 one else the same. When I bought my machine I bought a brooder, for 

 which I paid $11, and as a brooder it was worth about that many cents. 

 It sent the heat up from beneath the chicks, and that it not nature's way 

 of warming them up. You see I "didn't think," and that costs us a lot 

 of trouble sometimes. While we may use artificial means we must work 

 in accord with nature. The old hen hoovers, her chicks and warms their 

 backs, where many of the jierve centers are, and they are healthy and 

 happy thereby. This mistake necessitated the purchase of a brooder this 

 year, and I have a daisy, works like a charm. It has a tank of water 

 overhead heated by a lamp; hoovers hang from top of machine on both 

 sides of the tank, there is plenty of space outside the hoovers if they find 

 it too warm within. 



In my own case I look to the sale of eggs for my profit rather than 

 the chicken sale. .This year, however, my flock was invaded by disease, 

 such as roup, limber neck and cholera, which cut quite a figure in the 

 profits. At the beginning of the present year I had about fifteen dozen 

 liens. From .Tanuary 1 until November 1 we gathered 055 dozen eggs and 



