CHICKS FROM DYING IN THE SHELL 13 



water. Leave them out of your incubator until the eggs are cool. Once I 

 saved 167 chicks from 208 eggs, after my thermometer registered 113 de- 

 grees, by showering them in this way. I turned the flame of my lamp up 

 and forgot it, as we all do sometimes, you know. Do not let this occur 

 very often for they will take up a great deal of moisture when they are 

 quite warm. This sprinkling is to lower the temperature quickly. If they 

 were left to cool of themselves after the thermometer registers 113, 

 not many would survive without this bath. I used to moisten my eggs 

 every day. The consequence was I drowned my chicks or a great many 

 of them. I have learned by experience that the eggs need drying out 

 instead of moisture, so the chick will have room to pip. 



You will observe during the last few days of incubation that your trays 

 are much lighter than they were the first week of incubation. Sometimes 

 chicks have a tendency to stick to the shell. This is why you should put 

 this steaming burlap in the bottom of your incubator. It penetrates the 

 egg at once, loosens the chick so it can turn and pip the shell clear around 

 and come out. The pans which the Incubator Companies furnish with 

 their incubators are a perfect nuisance. Tljey moisten a few eggs, that's 

 true, but only those that are just above the pan. For best results and an 

 even hatch you want your eggs all moistened at the same time. If you 

 would have success do not fail to do as I have told you in every detail. 

 This damp burlap may have a tendency to lower the temperature a little. 

 If so turn up your lamp until your thermometer registers 103 or 104. Be 

 sure that you do not cover up the ventilators in the bottom of you incuba- 

 tor with the burlap, but place the openings in the burlap directly over the 

 ventilators in your incubator so the air can come through the ventilators in 

 the egg chamber and you will not smother your chicks. 



How to Pip the Egg 



AFTER the chicks are all hatched that you think are going to hatch 

 you can save a great many by pipping the shell yourself, by doing 

 as I will tell you. I have saved as many as twenty in one hatch. 

 First, break the egg at A. Strike it gently on the head of a nail or some- 

 thing very solid. Kemove enough of the shell so you can see the position 

 of the chick in the shell. If the chick is alive you may find the membrane 

 broken at B and the chick's bill protruding. If so place it in the incuba- 

 tor again till the blood has all been taken up by the chick and it begins to 

 make exertions to get out, then remove the shell, providing it does not bleed. 

 If you do not find the bill at B, then pip the shell at C. If the membrane 

 or lining of the egg resembles greased paper open it with a pin to give the 

 chick air till it is all finished up. You can remove a great deal of the shell 



