POULTRY FOR PROFIT 51 



in a square or rectangle, separated from each other 

 by boards and covered with wire. A very practi- 

 cal incubating coop, accommodating four hens, is 

 recommended by the Oregon Station (Bulletin 6). 

 This coop serves the triple purpose of incubator, 

 brooder and colony house. It is five feet long and 

 three feet wide, with a shed roof three feet high at 

 front and two feet at back, and is divided into four 

 apartments. Movable partitions of canvas or bur- 

 lap are fastened to a four-inch or six-inch board at 

 the bottom and to a crosspiece at the top. It has 

 an outside run three feet long for each hen, cov- 

 ered with wire netting, as shown in Fig. 21. The 

 runs are hooked on to the house and are dis- 

 pensed with when the chicks are old enough to be 

 given their liberty. The door on the front is hinged 

 at the top so that it may be closed in rainy weather, 

 but open the rest of the time. When the chicks no 

 longer need hovering the partitions are taken out 

 and the coop is used as roosting house. Fifty chicks 

 can easily be brooded at once in such a coop as this 

 by two hens, and the coop will still accommodate the 

 pullets after the cockerels are removed. Coop is 

 shown in Fig. 21. 



Testing the Eggs 



Whether eggs are hatched by hen or incubator, 

 they should be tested the seventh day. An egg tester 

 is always part of the equipment of an incubator, 

 but one can be bought for a trifling amount at any 

 supply store. When a fertile egg which has been 

 incubated seven days is held before the tester, the 

 chick can be plainly seen inside as a spider-like 

 body. An infertile egg is perfectly clear. A dead 

 germ shows merely as a dark blotch, which is really 



