44 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



cent for incubator chicks brooded by hens and 58.4 

 per cent for incubator chicks brooded in brooders. 



11. Hen-hatched chicks made greater gain in 

 weight than incubator chicks, whether brooded by 

 hens or brooders. 



These experiments were made in the spring and 

 summer months. Had they been made in January, 

 February and March results would probably have 

 been more to the credit of the incubator, for incu- 

 bator-chicks do better in these months than later, 

 while hen-hatched chicks have the advantage in 

 warmer weather. 



Hatching with hens is also cheaper where the 

 hens kept are of a sitting breed. Professor Dryden, 

 in Bulletin Six of the Oregon Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station estimates the cost of hatching and 

 brooding equipment for 100 chicks at $63.60, while 

 the cost by the natural method is about $25. 



But all these reasons for using hens as hatchers 

 apply only to the breeder who keeps a sitting breed. 

 Naturally, the man who keeps Leghorns, Anconas, 

 Campines or Buttercups, cannot keep a lot of heavy 

 hens just for hatching. He must use an incubator, 

 and very often he gets quite as good results as the 

 man who uses hens alone. I visited a poultry plant 

 recently where White Wyandotte chicks were being 

 hatched by hundreds in incubators, while the yard 

 was full of broody hens. "I can't bother with hens," 

 the owner said, and the man who finds hens a 

 "bother" is probably wise to hatch with incubators. 

 Some people, too, have a knack at tinkering with 

 machines, and they will no doubt get better results 

 with incubators than others who hate machinery. 



An incubator is necessary on even a small plant 

 or farm, when early broilers and fryers are wanted. 

 Hens have a perverse fashion of not wanting to sit 



