10 HOW TO HATCH, BROOD, FEED AND PREVENT 



and as the hatch advances you will observe there is more animal heat in 

 the eggs, consequently it will take longer to cool them than it did in the 

 first of the hatch. If you want strong, healthy chicks, get them used to 

 the cold while in the shell. They can stand more cold without injury while 

 in the shell than they can after they are hatched, and it is better for them 

 to get used to the changes of temperature while in the embryo state than 

 to wait until after they are hatched. If you keep a high temperature dur- 

 ing incubation, with little or no cooling, then place your chicks in a brooder 

 with the temperature twenty degrees below that of your incubators; the 

 change is too great, and your chicks will contract disease at once, and you 

 will lose half or two-thirds of them. This sudden change is often the cause 

 of bowel trouble and pneumonia in brooder chicks. I have left the trays 

 out of my incubator all night several times after the eggs had been under 

 the process of incubation two weeks. The first time I did this it was a mis- 

 take. I had forgotten them, and I thought of course my eggs were ruined, 

 but they hatched just as good as those in the rest of my incubators, and 

 the chicks seemed stronger, but the hatch was retarded one-half day. I 

 have left them out purposely since that time, just to experiment, and 

 learned that eggs will stand all sorts of cold, just so it is not freezing 

 weather. If you will take lessons from your hens you will learn just how 

 cool your eggs should be and it will be a wonderful help to you. 



If you will always turn the eggs one way you will have less cripples. 

 What I mean is, do not turn them backward one time and forward the 

 next. Remove the first egg from each row, which will allow the eggs to 

 move forward. Now with your hand move them forward gently. You will 

 note that the eggs are turned about half over. Next place the eggs you 

 have removed in the vacant space in the rear of the tray. This also 

 changes their location in the incubator at each time of turning. For 

 instance, after you have turned the eggs to the number of times you have 

 eggs in each row you will then have the eggs that were first placed in the 

 rear end of the tray back again to the front end of the tray. If you will 

 always turn them toward the little opening where the chicks drop into the 

 nursery you cannot make a mistake. I would advise the operator to shift 

 the trays from end to end and from side to side in their machine every 

 time they turn the eggs, providing their machine has two trays. If they 

 are operating a small incubator with but one tray, then all that is necessary 

 is to turn the tray end for end. You will find this is quite a help in operat- 

 ing and will overcome difficulties that are bound to exist where you set so 

 many eggs together. You will avoid a lingering hatch by following the 

 rules given above. 



