PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 



59 



incubator, or a machine of any kind, for three weeks without having some- 

 thing go wrong. Again, there are those who " have no luck " hatching with 

 hens, yet are fairly successful with machines. So that it is difficult to frame 

 a rule which can be uniformly applied. It may be said, however, that a 

 poultry plant, though small, which is concerned with the production of early 

 layers, or is stocked mostly with hens of non-sitting breeds, ought not to be 

 dependent on hens for hatching. And, considering the degree of efficiency to 

 which incubators have been brought, the practice of most progressive poultry- 

 men, and the tendency toward a more general use of artificial methods, it is 

 safe to advise that whenever more than two or three hundred chickens are to 

 be hatched the incubator should be the main reliance. To the considerations 

 named, add that the incubator is always ready for work. It is seen that even 

 those who hatch annually less than two hundred chicks may find an incubator 

 invaluable. Though in many cases hatching with hens is cheaper, and there 

 are times (as in hatching small lots of eggs from different pens, or of 

 different varieties) when a machine cannot well be used, a poultry keeper 

 entirely dependent on hens for hatching is in a bad fix when the hens fail 

 him. Delay in getting broody hens is one of the commonest causes of loss 

 and disappointment in small poultry yards. 



It is wiser to buy an incubator than to attempt to make one. Good 

 incubators are sold at such low prices that there is little inducement to risk a 

 homemade machine, though it were cheaper, which is to say the least, doubt- 

 ful. The selection of a machine need not be the perplexing question some 

 make it. Results with the best machines do not differ greatly. There are, 

 to be sure, poor machines on the market ; but it is easy to learn what machines 

 are in use on the large market poultry plants where poor machines are not 

 tolerated. If the beginner has to learn, unassisted, to run his machine, it will 

 matter little which of the popular makes he buys. If a particular machine is 

 being operated in his vicinity by some one who will give him instruction in 

 incubator management, it is clearly to his advantage to buy a machine of 

 that make. 



61. Brooders. Brooders are used even more generally than incubators. 

 Many hatch with hens, and rear in brooders. Where incubators are used 

 brooders are used as a matter of course. Brooder houses are an important 

 part of a large plant. For small operations, either a small pipe system, an 

 indoor brooder in a house pen, or a detached brooder house or an outdoor 

 brooder, which needs no house, is used. What was said of homemade 

 incubators is equally true of homemade brooders. Brooders can be purchased 

 either direct from the manufacturers, or through dealers in poultry supplies. 

 Pipe systems for any size of house desired are sold complete with full 

 instructions for putting up, and sometimes with detailed plans of houses best 

 suited for use with the system. In buying separate brooders it is well to 

 remember that manufacturers usually overrate the capacity of brooders, that 



