CHAPTER VI 



INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 



EVERY poultry keeper who raises more than 

 two or three hundred chickens each year 

 now takes it for granted that one or more 

 incubators and brooders are to be a part of his 

 equipment. So far as the author is concerned, I 

 Merits of Arti- would not give up incubators and 

 ficial Methods brooders if I were going to hatch only 

 of Hatching Qne hundred chicks a year, and I am 

 perfectly sincere in believing that an incubator and 

 brooder would be a good investment for every one 

 who raises that number or a greater number of 

 chickens annually. 



Artificial incubation and brooding are no longer 

 experiments; the best of the machines on the mar- 

 ket to-day have proven, in the hands of practical 

 poultry keepers the country over, that they are 

 capable of giving every bit as satisfactory results 

 as the old hen herself, and of doing it, too, with 

 less bother and annoyance. However, the incu- 

 bator or brooder that can beat the old hen at her 

 own game has not yet been invented, and probably 



