AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 



never will, aside from the fact that machines are 

 always ready for business and are not inclined to 

 any sudden flights of fancy like an old hen, and 

 consequently do not refuse to sit at a critical time 

 nor do they trample and kill the little chicks. 



The expense of operating an incubator is slight, 

 and the time and labor required are of no great 

 consequence, and certainly are much less than that 

 which would be required to look after broody hens 

 attending to the same number of eggs. Our expe- 

 rience has been that, on the average, it requires 

 four or five gallons of oil to run a 24<>egg capacity 

 machine one hatch, and three or four gallons for a 

 i2O-egg machine in moderately cold weather; in 

 warm weather it takes much less. 



There is nothing tedious or irksome connected 

 with the operating of a good incubator. The only 

 care a good machine requires is keeping the lamp 

 filled and the wick trimmed, turning the eggs morn- 

 ing and evening, and looking at the thermometer 

 two or three times a day to see that the correct heat 

 is being maintained, which is 103. To be sure, 

 some of the machines on the market, that are more 

 cheaply constructed, require more close and con- 

 stant attention than this ; but this is not the kind of 

 machine to buy, because with incubators, as with 

 everything else, " the best is always the cheapest." 

 We never allow our incubators to interfere with 

 our sleep, or to prevent us from going visiting of 



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