1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



651 



tained a sort of glutinous matter that seemed 

 to glue the chick fast before it could escape 

 from the shell; and the shells were, in fact, 

 so dry and hard that it seemed a wonder that 

 the chick should be able to break its way 

 out at all; in fact, I saw several with their 

 little yellow bills where they protruded 

 through the shell, glued fast to it, and the 

 chicks had died right there. My daughter, 

 Mrs. Calvert, remarked that in a dry time in 

 summer she often took the eggs from a sit- 

 ting hen just before hatching time and dip- 

 ped them in warm water. Well, I dipped 

 mine in it; but with the abundance of iresh 

 air that was the special feature of that incu- 

 bator the eggs were very soon as dry and 

 hard as before. 



I then decided I would adopt heroic meas- 

 ures. I got a big sponge and cut it up into 

 little squares, perhaps half an inch thick or 

 more, about the size of an egg. I dipped 

 each piece in water as warm as my hand 

 could bear, and put a piece between each 

 two eggs. I had lost enough eggs so there 

 was plenty of room for the sponges. There 

 was almost an instant change in the program 

 — no more germs or chickens, ready to hatch; 

 died, and no more had any difficulty in get- 

 ting out of the shell. Every chick that pip- 

 ped an egg came out strong and lusty'. 

 There are now over forty of tnem; some of 

 the oldest ones are now scampering about the 

 yard, even if it is raining a little. When 

 they get wet and cold they scamper back un- 

 der tne spread-out wings of the mother I de- 

 scribed on page 519, Aug. 15. 



So far my experiments seem to be a suc- 

 cess. Of course, the same treatment can be 

 modified to meet the wants of any incubator. 



The above was put in type a few weeks 

 ago, as you will notice, but did not find a 

 place till this issue. Since then I have made 

 two more discoveries that it seems to me are 

 very important in the matter of incubation. 

 Let me digress a little. 



SOME MORE "DISCOVERIES." 

 I told you about getting 18 or 20 chickens 

 from one hen, and sne a young pullet at that, 

 when I was on the island in Florida. Now, 

 this Leghorn could not cover all her eggs at 

 once very well. There were more or less 

 eggs outside, and comparatively cold all 

 through the sitting, and yet she brought out 

 a remarkable brood of nice strong chickens. 

 Once this summer (I think it was in July) I 

 had a sitting hen that seemed to be careless 

 about leaving her eggs exposed. I pushed 

 them under ner several times, and remon- 

 strated thus: 



"Why, you old idiot, these eggs out here 

 are as cold as a frog. Why don't you keep 

 them under your feathers, and keep them 

 warm?" 



^he did not answer me by word, but tip- 

 ped her head to one side and gave me a 

 knowing look that seemed to say to me, 

 "Well, who is running this, anyhow? Who 

 knows best how things should be managed 

 to get chickens? I know my own business; 



and if you know yours you had better get off 

 and attend to it." 



She then gave me a "cr'r'r" to emphasize 

 her last remark. Well, she too brought off 

 a very good hatch; and since then I have 

 been wondering why it was that all the in- 

 cubator manufacturers tell us to keep the 

 temperature at exactly 103, and to keep our 

 thermometer tested, saying that, if it should 

 happen to be half a degree out of the way, 

 we may spoil our hatch. Does the hen keep 

 her eggs within "half a degree " or even 

 within several degrees? Not much. After 

 speculating over this matter it occurred to 

 me that the eggs in that incubator I have de- 

 scribed to you (the one I have been using) 

 should not be in constant contact with the 

 hot-water boiler. I will explain to you that 

 a shelf holds eight eggs. This shelf slants 

 downward at the further side so that the eggs 

 roll down and hug the boiler. Well, I put 

 seven eggs on the shelf so they rolled down 

 and rested against the first eight. That made 

 15 eggs on a shelf instead of 8, thus almost 

 doubling the capacity of the incubator; and 

 in order to give them all an equal chance as 

 nearly as I could I commenced swapping 

 places with those two rows of eggs every 

 eight hours. This is not difficult, for just be- 

 fore I go to bed at nine or ten I swap the 

 eggs; then again between five and six in the 

 morning, and the last time between one and 

 two. You see this brings one change in the 

 morning before breakfast; the second after 

 dinner, and the last just before I go to bed. 



Well, there was a good deal of discussion 

 in the neighborhood about my "system," as 

 to whether the eggs would hatch. I started 

 four shelve'5 with 15 eggs each; but as it was 

 in the month of September, and my hens 

 were mostly moulting, I did not get a very 

 good fertility. '1 hree or four eggs were test- 

 ed out on the fourth day from each shelf. 

 The first shelf was run about one week, 

 with all the eggs in contact with the boiler. 

 This shelf showed an egg chipped on the 

 18th day, and I got half a dozen nice strong 

 chickens from ten fertile eggs on the nine- 

 teenth day. The eggs on the other shf^lves 

 were alternated from the start. Now, as the 

 germination the first week is slower on ac- 

 count of the "swapping," it may be best to 

 have uninterrupted contact for the first week ; 

 but the result so far has been a better hatch 

 and stronger chickens than where heat was 

 supplied by direct contact during the whole 

 three weeks. So I have made two big jumps 

 by my discovery — first, almost doubling the 

 capacity of the incubator; and, second, get- 

 ting more and better chicks. I still use the 

 pieces of sponge to keep the air moist; but 

 as I do not use so strong ventilation, a few 

 pieces of moistened sponge will answer for 

 24 hours or more. The shutter that closes 

 up the shelves is a sheet of flannel on a 

 frame, so that our incubator is ventilated 

 very much as we ventilat*' our poultry-houses 

 witn a curtain front. I have just taken ten 

 fine strong chicks from the second shelf 

 that had eleven fertile eggs. 



A thermometer placed on top of the eggs 



