ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



We are living in wonderful times, in the age of great inventions, 

 and to succeed in any business, we must keep abreast if not ahead 

 of our times. Not the least wonderful accomplishment of this 

 wonder-working epoch has been the growth and advancement of 

 the poultry industry, and the invention of the modern incubator, 

 which made the development of the poultry business in this coun- 

 try possible. 



In Egypt and China artificial incubation has been known and 

 practiced for many centuries. In this country it is scarcely out of 

 its infancy, still it would be impossible to estimate the value of the 

 incubator to the poultry industry. It has made possible and profit- 

 able the large poultry plants in this country. It has developed the 

 broiler business ; it has raised the hen to the position of the money 

 maker. One incubator will do the work of ten to thirty hens- 



Must Approach Nature 



There have been many kinds of incubators invented, made and 

 patented in the last twenty years. The difficulty is to choose which 

 kind will do the work of hatching eggs best ; that is, will bring out 

 strong chicks with the least attention and the least expense. There 

 are hot water machines and hot air machines ; round incubators and 

 square incubators. I have heard of incubators in this state which 

 are made like hot beds, heated with stable manure. Some incuba- 

 tors are heated with gas, some with electricity, but most of them 

 by the heat of a lamp which burns coal oil. The best incubator is 

 the one that comes nearest to imitating the natural process of in- 

 cubation by a hen, for undoubtedly Nature is our great teacher 

 in this matter. 



The two favorite makes of incubators on the market now are the 

 hot-water incubators and the incubators which bring warmed air 

 into the egg chamber. The latter are called hot-air incubators. The 

 difference between them is that the hot-water machines heat the 

 egg chambers by radiation, while the hot-air machine brings warm 

 air into the incubator. 



In the machines where the heat is radiated from the metal sur- 

 face of pipes or tanks, the temperature at the under side of the eggs, 

 away from the heat, is several degrees cooler than at the upper 

 side of the eggs. Top heat by radiation is supposed to resemble 

 the heat from the body of the hen. 



In the hot-air incubators the egg chamber is heated by air that 

 is warmed outside of the egg chamber to a proper heat and is then 

 forced into the machines by suction or circulation and diffused into 

 the egg chamber. This way gives a constant supply of warmed 

 fresh air, as pure and fresh as the atmosphere outside of the in- 

 cubator. These hot-air machines rarely require any moisture to be 

 added, as there is usually sufficient moisture held in suspension in 

 the atmosphere, which is being constantly introduced into the egg 

 chamber. 



