]VLVY 1, 1913 



321 



of them, declare that the incubator must not 

 be opened nor the eggs disturbed after they 

 begin to hatch. Another thing, my electric 

 incubator had 60 fertile eggs in it (I have 

 explained before how I manage to keep my 

 incubator full of fertile eggs), and the 

 Buckeye held only 50. What should I do 

 with the extra ten f Let me digress a little. 

 I have been all winter wanting some sit- 

 ting hens; but my cross between Buttercups 

 and white Leghorns have never offered to 

 sit. I don't think I even heard a clucking 

 hen until the first of February. Well, about 

 January' 1 I asked neighbor Rood if he 

 didn't have a sitting hen he could spare me. 

 He said he had two or three, and I was 

 quite welcome to them. They were Rhode 

 Island Red pullets; but he said he didn't 

 believe I could make them sit after they were 

 removed from their home across the way to 

 our place. It turned out just as he said. 

 I purchasied at $1.00 each three of these 

 great big beautiful pullets that wanted to 

 sit. He said he guessed 75 cents would be 

 about the right price, but I remonstrated. 

 I told him I couldn't think of taking his 

 3'oung pullets, just commencing to lay, at 

 less than $1.00. Well, true enough, when 

 I got them over to my place, in spite of all 

 the cai'e I could take, not one of the tlu'ee 

 would sit. He said I might bring them 

 back; but I told him they would want to 

 sit again pretty soon, and so I jDref erred to 

 keep them. Well, in about a week one after 

 another began to lay, and gave us a goodly 

 number of eggs; some of them every day, 

 and some of them two eggs out of three 

 days, until about the middle of Februaiy. 

 Well, one of those Rhode Island Reds (a 

 great big healthy motherly-looking hen) 

 that very Sunday morning, just a little be- 

 fore brother Rood came over, this big fluffy 

 hen was around " clucking." Just as I be- 

 gan to wonder what I should do with the 

 extra eggs that wouldn't go in any kind of 

 shape in the Buckeye incubator, I remem- 

 bered this clucking Rliode Island Red ; and 

 on going over to the poultry-house, sure 

 enough she was on her nest, and fighting 

 furiously when I attempted to interfere 

 with her. So I just took fifteen of those 

 egg-s that were ready to hatcli and put them 

 under her. I have so frequentlj' taken eggs 

 from sitting hens and put them in the in- 

 cubator, and vice versa, that I didn't antici- 

 pate any trouble; and there Avasn't any 

 trouble here so far as the hen was concern- 

 ed. The only trouble was this: She seem- 

 ed to know (or God had told her) that, 

 when slie commenced to sit, the eggs should 

 be rolled and turned; and not knowing, 

 evidently, that these eggs were almost ready 



to hatch, she kept on rolling and turning 

 them when they should not have been rolled 

 or turned at all. You know all of the incu- 

 bator-makers say that we should stop turn- 

 ing the eggs on the eighteenth day. In 

 limes past, because I couldn't see any par- 

 ticular need of this, I had kept on turning 

 them. You may know the result. Many 

 of the eggs began to hatch when the open- 

 ing the chick made was on the under side, 

 and the liquid inside of the egg ran down 

 and closed it up, and the chick suffocated. 

 And now a great and wonderful truth be- 

 gan dawning upon my mind. The reason 

 the maiuifacturers of incubatoi's say we 

 must not turn the eggs after the eighteenth 

 day is because the sitting hen, after about 

 the eighteenth day, entirely ceases from 

 rolling and turning the eggs, and leaves 

 them quiet the same side up until they 

 hatch out. I ought to have remembered 

 tliis, because once in times past I took some 

 duck eggs that were nearly ready to hatch 

 and put them under a hen that had been sit- 

 ting only about a week. The consequence 

 was, she rolled and tumbled those poor little 

 ducklings when they were just getting their 

 noses out of the shells until she killed near- 

 ly all of them. 



Well, these thi-ee Rhode Island Red pul- 

 lets have given me faith in the Rhode Is- 

 land Reds. Before, I had never fancied 

 them very much; but the sight of this hen 

 that was clucking around preparing to sit 

 Sunday morning, and had some chicks hatch- 

 ing out just twenty-four hours later, gave 

 me faith. After this, when she took the 

 chickens just hatched out in the incubator 

 as soon as they could be safely removed 

 without any objection, it gave me still more 

 faith in the Rhode Island Reds. A cold 

 rainy spell came on, perhaps the coldest we 

 have had in Florida this winter, just about 

 the time of my incubator trouble. Of the 

 forty-eight that hatched, out of the forty- 

 nine eggs that I have already told you 

 about, there are something like half a doz- 

 en that might have died had it not been for 

 this rnotherh' sitting hen that was so per- 

 fectly willing to take any thing and brood 

 it under her capacious wings, without any 

 obiection whatever. Let me explain. 



We had two or three inches of rain dur- 

 ing twenty-four or (possibly) forty-eight 

 hours, during the middle of February. This 

 is very unusual here in Florida, and al- 

 most unprecedented. Well, as all of my 

 poultry-houses had prefectly dry sand 

 inside on the floor, I hadn't as yet paid 

 much attention to drainage. However, such 

 a flood of water wet the floors of not only 

 nearly all of my poultiy-houses, but there 



