180 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



with it. If you can give me any as- 

 sistance, it will be appreciated very 

 much. Mrs. W. D. W. 



Answer Your incubator is a good 

 one. Its fault, for they all have some 

 little fault, is that the ventilation is 

 insufficient. Take the eggs out and air 

 them after the first week three times 

 a day. This will counteract the lack 

 of ventilation. This cooling and then 

 heating up again of the eggs makes 

 the shell more brittle, so that the 

 chick is able to break its way out 

 much more easily. Another thing I 

 found in using that incubator is that 

 by taking the middle eggs out of the 

 row, one in each hand, and putting 

 them at the end of the row, and then 

 pushing the others along into the 

 vacant places, I got a ten per cent 

 better hatch. I got the idea from 

 Egypt. Of course, you must be sure 

 the machine stands level and that the 

 thermometer is correct. 



Trouble with Incubators I want to 

 ask your advice about our incubator. 

 We bought it new in January. Out 

 of 200 fertile eggs we got 75 chickens, 

 and all but nine died before they were 

 10 days old. We thought it was the 

 fault of the brooder. There were 

 many cripples among them, but they, 

 all died of bowel trouble. On April 

 30th we hatched 117 out of 150 fer- 

 tile eggs, and gave the chicks to old 

 hens, as we had laid our previous 

 trouble to the brooder. But now the 

 last are going the same way. Chicks 

 hatched under hens at the same time 

 are healthy and strong. We have 

 only lost one so far. We feed pre- 

 pared chick feed and take the best 

 of care of the chicks. The incubator 

 runs perfectly, always 103, until the 

 chicks begin to work out of the shell, 

 when it runs up to 104 and 105. We 

 have set the incubator again. It will 

 hatch May 29th. We do not intend 

 to give up. W. S. R. 



Answer The trouble is in the in- 

 cubation. At some time or other the 

 heat has been too great. This is 

 shown by there being cripples. I 

 know it, because I have had the same 

 experience several times myself. Once 

 a hat was thrown on the machine; 

 just touched the regulator; was only 

 on for half a day. Another time a 

 newspaper did the same thing. My 

 big cat slept on the incubator another 

 night and lost me the hatch. Each 



of the times I worked with the little 

 chicks, giving them everything I could 

 think of, but without saving them. 

 Now, I think there is a possibility 

 that your incubator does not stand 

 level and that, therefore, one side or 

 corner of the machine is a very little 

 higher than the other. That side or 

 corner would be hotter than the other 

 side without it affecting the ther- 

 mometer and would cause all or most 

 of the trouble. Again, are you sure 

 the thermometer is correct? Borrow 

 the doctor's clinical thermometer. 

 This is what I did and put them both 

 into a bucket containing about two 

 quarts of water at 103 degrees and 

 compared the two. You do not men- 

 tion if the hatch came out on time. 

 I feel sure that the eggs have been 

 overheated, or part of them have, and 

 in this way the bowels of the chick- 

 ens have been weakened, the yolk of 

 the egg has not been digested and 

 they have dwindled and died, or 

 bowel trouble has come on from the 

 undigested yolk putrifying inside of 

 them. I have made so many post 

 mortem examinations that I feel sure 

 of what I am telling you. Examine 

 your incubator with a spirit level to 

 see that it is level. Test your ther- 

 mometer and then try again, at the 

 same time setting one or two hens, 

 and as incubation proceeds examine 

 the eggs, comparing them. I think 

 you will find that the eggs under the 

 hen dry out less quickly than those 

 in the incubator. However, if this is 

 not the case, if your incubator eggs 

 dry out too quickly (the air space be- 

 ing larger than that under the hens), 

 you will have to regulate this by; 

 the ventilators of the incubator.' 

 Keep them closed. As yours is a 

 hot-air incubator, there is no need of 

 fanning out the stale air. The fault, 

 if any, with your incubator is too 

 rapid a circulation of air, thereby dry- 

 ing the eggs out too soon. I think 

 you had better run it half a degree 

 cooler than you have been doing. I 

 say this because the cripples and 

 bowel troubles denote too high a tem- 

 perature. I hope these hints may 

 help you. Let me hear from you 

 again if you have any more trouble. 



Willing to Learn I am thinking 

 of starting in the poultry business and 

 would like to ask a few questions. Are 

 incubators a success? Why is it nee- 



