CHAPTER XXX. 



THE INCUBATOR ROOM. 



The best place for incubators is in a room part 

 of which is underground. it may be excavated in 

 the side of a bank so as to have earth outside the 

 walls on three of its sides, and may also be covered with 

 earth on top of a waterproof roof. On level ground, a 

 good way is to excavate two or three feet, so that the 

 floor of your cellar may be reached by steps outside, the 

 walls being of stone or hard-baked brick laid in cement 

 mortar, and banked up with earth to the eaves, where 

 there should be good eave troughs. The roof may be of 

 any usual pitch and shingled, and instead of being cov- 

 ered with earth the building inside may be kept free 

 from the effects of the sun in summer and from cold in 

 winter by making a tight, level floor over the main room 

 from plate to plate so that there will be a V-shaped attic 

 apartment, which should be first made rat-proof and 

 mouse-proof, and then packed closely from top to bot- 

 tom with hay or straw. This style the writer has found 

 preferable to an earth-covered roof, because the cost is 

 considerable if you make the latter water-tight, as it 

 must be, and strong enough to support the weight of 

 earth with an added burden of rain or snow. 



The ideal incubator cellar should never be warmer 

 than 60, nor cooler than 40. In a room above ground 

 with a liability of the weather temperature crowding 

 100, and chicks or ducklings nearly ready to- break the 

 shell, the animal heat will sometimes run the tempera- 

 ture up to 108 or 110, even with the lights out, neces- 



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