POULTRY KEEPING 547 



found, thoroughly dust her once more, sponge off the eggs with a 

 damp cloth and move to a clean place. Burn everything about the 

 nest and either thoroughly disinfect or burn it. Wage constant 

 warfare against lice and mites during the period of incubation and 

 the result will be a clean lot of chicks. It has been said that three 

 lice will break up a sitting hen or kill a brood of chicks. This 

 probably is not always true, but it is certain that a hen that starts 

 to incubate with three lice on her body will probably have enough 

 by the end of the hatch, unless properly cared for, to infest all the 

 chicks and render the whole brood either very unsatisfactory, or 

 worthless. An ounce of lice powder at the beginning of the hatch 

 is worth a good many pounds after the chicks are a few weeks old. 

 (Mich. B. 245.) 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 



THE INCUBATOR. 



The machine used in artificial incubation or hatching is called 

 an Incubator. There are so many different kinds of machines used, 

 that a description of them all is quite impossible in an article of 

 this kind. At the present time they are all constructed upon similar 

 principles and along the same lines, and nearly all of them derive 

 their heat from lamps that burn kerosene. In some of the hot-air 

 machines the heat is applied through the medium of heated air, 

 while in others the hot-water machines the eggs are supplied 

 with heat from pipes filled with hot water. 



Hot-Air and Hot-Water Incubators. In the hot-air incubator 

 a common kerosene lamp is used to furnish the current of hot air 

 which passes over and around the egg chamber and which keeps 

 the eggs at the proper temperature for hatching. Like the hot- 

 water machine, it is supplied with a regulator, which, acting upon 

 a valve or damper, regulates the admission of heat to the egg 

 chamber. 



In this incubator water is heated and forced through metal 

 lubes over the eggs, thus distributing heat throughout the egg 

 chamber. It is supplied with a regulator which works upon the 

 same principle as does that of the hot-air machine. 



PARTS OF AN INCUBATOR. 



The selection of the lamp is so important that all poultry men 

 should be warned against buying a poor lamp. Manufacturers, as 

 well as purchasers, should remember that while the lamp is half 

 the incubator the burner is half the lamp. The lamp is the primary 

 source of heat in both hot-air and hot-water machines. Many kinds 

 of lamps have been tried and many patents have been granted 

 upon lamps and parts thereof for incubator use, but the tendency 

 is to discard all that are in any manner complicated and to return 

 to the plain, old-fashioned burner and chimney. The oil reservoir 

 should be made of metal, either copper or galvanized iron, as those 

 made of glass are too liable to break and are too heavy to handle 

 conveniently. This reservoir should have a flat bottom and a flat 

 top. It should have a capacity exceeding the twenty-four hours' 



