POULTRY FOR PROFIT 59 



that additional moisture is necessary, it is best 

 added by sprinkling the floor of the incubator cellar, 

 which should be of cement, if possible, often enough 

 to keep it wet. Sometimes the eggs are sprinkled 

 with warm water several times the last week ; some- 

 times, when they are slow in pipping, a flannel cloth 

 wrung out of warm water and laid on top of the eggs 

 has good results; in many machines a tray of wet 

 sand is used at the beginning and end of the hatch ; 

 in others a water pan is provided which is filled 

 with water when moisture is needed, and with 

 others the operator is instructed to dip the eggs, 

 tray and all, in warm water on the eighteenth day, 

 before the incubator doors are closed for the last 

 time. I have found it a good plan, when I used a 

 machine which made no provision for extra mois- 

 ture, to insert the spout of a kettle full of boiling 

 water in one of the ventilators. If the eggs were 

 pipping slowly this always hurried them up. 



Whatever you do, follow the directions with the 

 incubator implicitly until you know you can improve 

 upon them. I have an idea that more failures in 

 artificial incubation come from not following exactly 

 the printed rules for the particular machine used 

 than from all other reasons combined. 



DEATH IN THE SHELL 



The death of chicks in the shell, at hatching time 

 or shortly before, is one of the tragedies of poultry 

 keeping, and a problem that has never been fully 

 solved. 



Among the reasons that have been advanced for 

 these untimely deaths are the following: 



1. Too much moisture, which makes the chick 

 so large that it is cramped for room and cannot 

 break through the shell. 



