ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 67 



Infertile eggs will be of a clear, uniform color throughout, except 

 a slight darkening where the yolk lies. In the fertile eggs will be 

 seen a small dark spot, and in a white egg the blood vessels can be 

 seen branching out from it. Eggs should be tested aHout the sev- 

 enth day. A second test for removing the dead germs should be 

 made on the fifteenth day, they being easily detected at that time. 

 The chicks in fertile eggs will be seen to fill the shell nearly, except 

 a small space at the small end, and the air space at the large end. 

 All eggs containing dead germs should be removed from the ma- 

 chine and buried. On the eighteenth day the chicks fill the entire 

 shell except the air cell, and, .the egg will be quite opaque, as if 

 nearly full of ink. To become accurate in egg testing requires 

 practice and a brilliant light. 



Operating the Incubator 



Follow exactly the directions given with whatever incubator 

 you may purchase. The makers of the incubators are anxious for 

 you to succeed and have good hatches; it is to their interest for 

 you to be successful. They have spent time and money in per- 

 fecting and understand how to manage their own machines better 

 than any one else. 



On the morning of the nineteenth day the eggs should be turned 

 for the last time. The machine should then be closed and kept 

 closed until the hatch is over. Opening the door during the process 

 of hatching may spoil or seriously injure the hatch, as by such 

 action a large amount of heat and moisture escapes and cold air is 

 admitted. This dries up the lining skin of the eggs that are pipped 

 and checks or prevents their hatching. It also chills the half- 

 hatched or newly hatched chicks and is detrimental to all of them. 

 When the chicks are coming out lively, the temperature will rise ; 

 should it go above 105 degrees, the lamp may be turned down a 

 little. 



Leave the chicks in the machine without opening it until they 

 are thoroughly dry. The chicks should not be moved from the in- 

 cubator until the twenty-second day and should not be fed until 

 twenty-four hours after hatching. 



General Remarks 



Should the hatch not come off until after the twenty-first day, it 

 shows that the heat has been insufficient ; if it comes off earlier, the 

 heat during part of the time has been too high. Too low a tem- 

 perature will give a weak hatch, many chickens will die in the shell, 

 and those that are hatched will be weakly and never amount to 

 anything. Too high temperature at the commencement of incu- 

 bation will cook and kill the germ. One hundred and six degrees is 

 danger point up to the tenth day. Germs which died between the 

 first and second testing are frequently the result of overheating. 

 Too high a temperature during the last week will so weaken the 

 bowels of the chicks that they will be unable to assimilate the yolk 

 of the egg. The yolk of the egg is Nature's perfect nourishment, 

 which feeds and nourishes the embryo. 



