6 HOW TO HATCH, BROOD, FEED AND PREVENT 



good results from mongrel hens and good blooded cockerels. But if you 

 are going into the business for profit get a good incubator and a good 

 brooder, then buy or exchange eggs with some one that has good blooded 

 fowls, and start right. It will cost a little more at first, but will pay you 

 big dividends in the end. If you have eggs shipped to you, or if you carry 

 them in a buggy any distance, they should rest at least ten hours before 

 placing them in the incubator. If you have good blooded fowls you can 

 sell your eggs and cockerels at a good price, too, just as well as your neigh- 

 bor. Not only this, but you will get better returns for your labor, for it 

 costs just as much to raise poor fowls as it does good ones; yes more, for 

 pure breeds are stronger and more likely to live. 



Testing the Eggs to Set 



1 ALWAYS test the eggs before I place them in the machine, especially 

 if I buy them. One then has a chance to fill their machine full of good 

 eggs. Some eggs have very thin, spotted shells. The shell will look 

 very thin in some places and thick in others. These you should not set. 

 Others that look as though they had been set on awhile should be dis- 

 carded also. Do not set eggs that have bulged places on them; they 

 almost invariably make cripples, nor any eggs that are too long or too 

 round. Avoid extremes. Set only medium sized, nice, smooth, uniform 

 eggs, not too large or too small. The room where you are testing the eggs 

 should be dark. Night is the proper time to test, but if you want to 

 test in the day time, darken the windows with something heavy so as not 

 to admit any light whatever in the room. 



Testing Eggs for Fertility 



1TEST my eggs for fertility on the evening of the seventh day. Do not 

 test in a very cold room. If you think they will get too cold before 



you finish testing, carry them to a warmer room to do the work. 

 Take out one tray at a time and close the machine, turn the lamp up a lit- 

 tle so the egg chamber will be quite warm, when you return the eggs, and 

 it will not take them so long to get back to their proper temperature. 



Do not cool or turn the eggs the evening you test them. You can turn 

 each egg as you place them back in the tray after you have tested them, 

 and they will get cool enough in the operation of testing. As soon as you 

 finish testing the first tray return it to the machine at once, then test the 

 other one. Very dark brown eggs are harder to test than light colored 

 ones, consequently I test them again on the sixteenth day. Then you can 



