544 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



In spite of all notions to the contrary, the process of hatching 

 can be suspended and held in check for several days without total 

 destruction of the germ. This fact is of practical importance, and, 

 if remembered, may save the breeder a good hatch when, because of 

 some accident or oversight, a lot of eggs has been left without out- 

 side heat and allowed to cool. Such eggs, if placed at a proper 

 temperature, may hatch fairly well, provided this temperature is 

 maintained a few days longer than the usual period of incubation. 

 The writer has known hatching to be delayed to the twenty-second, 

 in one instance, until the twenty-fourth day by accidents to his 

 incubators. Hence, where accidents of this kind occur it is wise to 

 keep the eggs warm a day or two overtime, with the expectation 

 that, while incubation may be delayed, the germ is still alive and 

 will develop. This brings to mind one of the greatest advantages 

 of the incubator to the farmer or the farmer's wife to people who 

 are accustomed to rely upon the mother hen and prefer to raise 

 chickens by natural incubation. Many times the hen will get sick, 

 will die, or without any apparent excuse will leave the nest, and 

 unless another hen is ready to take her place the eggs will spoil. 

 A small incubator in the house will be found useful upon such 

 occasions. The eggs can be removed from the nest and placed in 

 the warm incubator and hatched or kept there until another hen 

 is ready to take up the work. For this purpose alone an incubator 

 is worth its price to any farmer who raises poultry. Many times 

 has the writer saved valuable clutches of eggs by the use of one of 

 these machines when it was found some perverse hen had deliber- 

 ately abandoned her nest. 



Natural Incubation. After selecting the eggs they must either 

 ibe entrusted to hens or an incubator; this must be decided according 

 to circumstances. If it is not the intention to keep many hens or 

 raise early chicks, by using one of the heavier breeds of fowls, one 

 can get along very well without an incubator. Some poultry raisers 

 claim they can care for a machine with less trouble and expense 

 than the necessary hens, no matter what breed they may keep. One 

 thing is certain, however, the machine will bring off chicks at any 

 season of the year that may be desired, while one must wait until 

 the hens get ready to sit. If Leghorns or other nonsitting breeds 

 are kept, an incubator is an almost indispensable part of the equip- 

 ment. Some individuals of nonsitting breeds may make good 

 mothers, but so many of them cease sitting after the first few days 

 that they are very unsatisfactory, as a rule. If individuals of other 

 breeds as Cochins, Wyandottes, etc., seem inclined to sit and would 

 make good mothers, they may be used, providing chickens are 

 wanted at that time. It is claimed that the hen's time is too valu- 

 able to waste in sitting, but if she is properly cared for while 

 broody, it will serve as a resting period, and she will probably lay 

 about as many eggs in the year as she would if confined to the coop 

 for a few days to break up the desire to incubate. After a hen hag 

 hatched and reared a brood of chicks she will usually begin laying 

 again and apparently seem to try to make up for lost time. It is a 



