278 AN EGG FARM. 



The warmth imparted to the eggs it is difficult to 

 ascertain with absolute precision, as eggs in different 

 parts of the nest vary, and different parts of the same 

 egg vary also. Cyphers found it 102, others place it 

 at from 103 to 105. The writer could never find a 

 temperature higher than 102 1-2. At the start, it 

 takes about forty-eight hours to heat the nest and eggs 

 through and through sufficiently to raise the latter to 

 their full temperature of say 102 or 102 1-2 or 103. 

 The air just above the eggs in an incubator must register 

 about 103 in order that the eggs may reach 102. The 

 bulb of the thermometer should touch a fertile egg, as an 

 infertile one is not a reliable indicator, and the glass 

 should be set in wood, not in metal. The germ being 

 always at the top of the egg, in close proximity to the 

 hen's body, undoubtedly reaches 103, even when the 

 average temperature of the egg is a degree or half a 

 degree less. Either 102 or 103 may be aimed at in the 

 regulation of the incubator and if secured with a fair 

 degree of precision all will go well so far as the requisite 

 of heat is concerned. Before putting in the eggs, your 

 incubator should be regulated and heated to the correct 

 degree several days in order to be thoroughly warmed 

 through. Then after putting in the eggs let the regu- 

 lator severely alone during the first week. The eggs 

 will cool off the machine at first, and then it and they 

 will gradually warm up, and thus the natural process 

 will be imitated In which, as we have seen, the eggs are 

 not brought to the full standard heat suddenly. It has 

 been recommended by some poultry men to run the tem- 

 perature at 98 the first day and increase gradually for 

 four days. But two considerations appear here : One 

 being that although the eggs, shells excepted, are such a 

 very poor conductor of heat that it takes two or three 

 days for the hen to warm them and the nest through 

 and through ; yet the important part of the germ, being 



