THE FIRST HATCH 130 



"No, but 170 fertile eggs, and that spoils 

 a twenty-dollar bill and a lot of good time. 

 What in the name of the black man ever got 

 into that lamp of mine is more than I know. 

 It's just my luck ! " 



" It's everybody's luck who tries to raise 

 chickens by wholesale, and we must copper it. 

 Don't be downed by the first accident, Sam ; 

 keep fighting and you'll win out." 



The brooder-house was ready when the first 

 chicks picked the shells on the 24th, and 

 within thirty-six hours we had 503 little 

 white balls of fluff to transfer from the four 

 incubators to the brooder-house. We put about 

 a hundred together in each of five brooders, 

 fed them cut oats and wheat with a little coarse 

 corn meal and all the fresh milk they could drink, 

 and they throve mightily. 



The incubators were filled again on the 26th, 

 and from that hatch we got 552 chicks. On the 

 21st of March they were again filled, and on 

 the 13th of April we had 477 more to add to 

 the colony in the brooder-house. For the last time 

 we started the lamps April 15th, and on the 6th 

 of May we closed the incubating cellar and found 

 that 2109 chicks had been hatched from the 

 4000 eggs. The last hatch was the best of 

 all, giving 607. I don't think we have ever had 

 as good results since, though to tell the truth I 

 have not attempted to keep an exact count of 

 eggs incubated. My opinion is that fifty per 



