MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



prove fatal to the whole hatch. So wait patiently until the desired 

 heat is again present. 



Selecting the Eggs 



Eggs for hatching should always be carefully selected. The 

 fresher they are the better. Eggs hatch after being kept a month, 

 but the little germ or seed of life gradually grows weaker and 

 weaker, and at last has not the strength to develop into a fine, 

 healthy chick, and may die in the shell, if the egg is kept too long. 

 Ten days or two weeks is better than any older. 



The eggs should come from vigorous, healthy and well-fed 

 stock. Much depends upon the feeding of the breeders, especially 

 the male bird. They should have plenty of vegetables and green 

 food, as well as animal food and those grains which contain the 

 bone and muscle-forming elements. Eggs with imperfect shells 

 should be rejected; also those with rough or chalky shells, and with 

 thin spots- The eggs should be of medium size, neither too large 

 nor too small, as the large eggs may have double yolks, which 

 rarely hatch. Small eggs denote inferiority and are either pullet 

 eggs or eggs from fat hens, or hens exhausted from having laid a 

 long time. 



Eggs of One Class 



The eggs should be of one breed or class. It takes twenty-one 

 days to hatch all hen eggs, but if the eggs from Leghorns are 

 placed in the same tray as the Brahmas, the Leghorns will be the 

 first hatched, sometimes as much as two days sooner, to the great 

 detriment and loss of the others, which are slower in hatching. 

 This is probably caused by the change in the atmosphere and tem- 

 perature in the incubator at the time of hatching. The air is heavily 

 charged with moisture, and the temperature always rises during a 

 hatch from the activity of the chicks, and it is exceedingly difficult 

 to regulate the temperature when the incubator is full of chicks 

 in all stages of hatching. The rise of temperature does not hurt 

 the chicks that are just breaking out of the shell, but if it takes 

 place two days too soon, it will ruin the hatch of the heavier and 

 slower breeds. Experiments that I have made along these lines 

 have always given the same results. 



Turning the Eggs 



The eggs must be left for forty-eight hours after being placed in 

 the incubator before being turned. After that they should be 

 turned twice a day, or oftener. In this we should imitate the hen, 

 for she not only turns her eggs constantly, but always shifts their 

 position, pushing those that are on the outside into the center ot 

 the nest. It is really more important that the eggs be moved or 

 shifted from their position or location in the tray, than merely 

 turned, as it shifts the location of the eggs in regard to weak 

 germs or infertile eggs. 



If the eggs are not turned during the early stages of incubation, 

 many of the germs will dry fast to the shell and die, and the egg 



