550 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



sometimes required to carry weight, and they should furnish them 

 with legs for utility rather than for ornament. The body of an 

 incubator should be made of nonshrinkable material and should 

 be air-tight and have well-fitted joints. None but the very best of 

 workmen should be allowed to work upon an incubator. More de- 

 pends upon a good carpenter than upon a good painter, and the 

 value of any incubator lies, not in how well does it look, but in how 

 well it is made. The walls of the body should be three in number, 

 making two air spaces, and each of these three walls should be well 

 constructed and with good tight joints. If each of these walls is 

 not tightly made, then the manufacturer should not boast of his 

 air spaces, for an open space can not be called an air space. The 

 outside surface of the body should be of smooth finish. Seams, flut- 

 ing, beadwork, and unnecessary ornamentation should be avoided. 

 It is easy to see how vermin can infest an incubator that is made 

 of beaded matching. The top of an incubator should be smooth 

 and unincumbered. It is useful as a work table in testing, cooling, 

 or turning eggs, and it should be a clear, free surface. It is quite 

 an inconvenience to have part of the regulator upon the top of the 

 machine. A good feature of some incubators is that they have the 

 regulator either at the end of the machine or under cover, if at the 

 top of the table. 



The inside of an incubator, or the space known as the egg 

 chamber, should be well finished. No bad joints and no slivers or 

 other evidences of bad workmanship are allowable. The trays 

 should be smooth, well made, and should slide easily upon the 

 tracks. If the trays stick or hang when being drawn out or pushed 

 in, the machine is defective and should not be accepted by the pur- 

 chaser. Such a defect will not cause loss of time and patience merely, 

 but it may cause the loss of a trayful of eggs. The space called the 

 "egg chamber" should be deep enough from above downward, or, as 

 carpenters express it, "high enough between joints," that the trays 

 and eggs have plenty of space, and so that when necessary the hand 

 or thermometer can be passed back over the eggs. This is impor- 

 tant. There should be at least S 1 /^ inches space between the top of 

 the eggs and the heating tank. Convenience and evenness of tem- 

 perature both demand that the top of the eggs should not be too 

 near the source of heat. Besides this point, the air around the eggs 

 will be better because of this space. 



Nursery. The nursery, or chick, space below the trays should 

 be ample. From the bottom of the tray to the floor of the nursery 

 should be a space of nearly 4 inches. This space will give the chicks 

 in the nursery a chance to stand erect and also allow the trays to 

 be moved in or out without danger to the youngsters below. One 

 of our best incubators is faulty in this respect, and, while it is a 

 very successful hatcher, it decapitates or otherwise injures several 

 of the chicks every time the tray is drawn out or replaced. Better 

 no space below than a space that is too limited. The removable 

 nursery is one of the most valuable improvements that has been 

 made in incubator attachments for many years, and all who have 



