Unreliable Incubators 21 



at the expense of other desirable qualities. In 

 other words, the whole energy of the fowl is devoted 

 to the one particular purpose of producing eggs. 

 That is so far as the breeders and improvers have 

 been able to direct the energies of the fowl toward 

 securing increased amount of useful products. So 

 far has this been carried that breeders are now 

 seeking to breed fowls having stronger constitutions, 

 that this specialization may be carried to a still 

 greater extreme. 



The tendency toward egg production has become 

 so great that the hen has comparatively little 

 desire to rear young and otherwise exercise her 

 maternal instincts. Almost without exception, those 

 breeds of fowls that are noted especially for egg 

 production cannot be depended upon for natural 

 incubation if any considerable number of fowls are 

 to be reared. Breeders are therefore compelled to 

 resort to artificial incubation, or to keep largely if 

 not wholly, for incubation, some fowls of another 

 breed, whose maternal instincts make them good 

 mothers. Occasionally individuals of the egg breeds 

 become "broody " and under favorable conditions 

 prove to be persistent sitters, but too frequently 

 the desire to incubate is but a fickle one and indulged 

 in at the expense of the owner who supplies the 

 "sitting of eggs." As the hens become older the 

 tendency to incubate becomes stronger. While 

 these fowls are extremely poor sitters, yet so long 



