If the eggs are from your own stock, and you 

 know that they are fresh, and they prove unfertile 

 or lack strength, you will know it, and can pro- 

 ceed at once to remove the cause, and thus save 

 time, eggs, and complaints from your customers to 

 whom you sell eggs for hatching. 



If you have several yards, you should mark the 

 eggs from each yard so that you can tell which are 

 the best and which the poorest, and then treat the 

 stock in each yard according to the requirements 

 indicated by the testing of their eggs. There is a 

 cause for each imperfection, and you should dis- 

 cover and remove it. 



You may test your eggs this month and find 

 them all right ; next month they may be all wrong, 

 suppose that you wish to set two hundred eggs, 

 and get several lots of eggs from different yards or 

 persons, to make up the number. One or two lots 

 may be first-class, while of other lots nine-tenths 

 are unfertile and the balance too weak to hatch. 

 If the separate lots were not marked you would 

 condemn the whole lot and the parties from whom 

 you bought them ; and if you did not test them, . 

 you would probably condemn the incubator or the 

 hens. 



In selecting and marking eggs it is well to avoid 

 extremely large or very small ones, odd shaped 

 ones and those with cracked shells. 



In testing you can very often trace a number 



of unfertile eggs to a particular hen by a peculiarity 



in shape and a uniformity of size that is where a 



considerable number of eggs of a uniform size all 



36 



