74 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



On the morning of the nineteenth day the eggs should be turned 

 for the last time. The machine should then be closed and kept 

 closed until the hatch is over. Opening the door during the process 

 of hatching may spoil or seriously injure the hatch, as by such 

 action a large amount of heat and moisture escapes and cold air is 

 admitted. This dries up the lining skin of the eggs that are pipped 

 and checks or prevents their hatching. It also chills the half- 

 hatched or newly hatched chicks and is detrimental to all of them. 

 When the chicks are coming out lively, the temperature will rise : 

 should it go above 105 degrees, the lamp may be turned down a 

 little. 



Leave the chicks in the machine without opening it until they 

 are thoroughly dry. The chicks should not be moved from the in- 

 cubator until the twenty-second day and should not be fed until 

 thirty-six hours after hatching. 



General Remarks 



Should the hatch not come off until after the twenty-first day, it 

 shows that the heat has been insufficient ; if it comes off earlier, the 

 heat during part of the time has been too high. Too low a tem- 

 perature will give a weak hatch, many chickens wiH die in the shell, 

 and those that are hatched will be weakly and never amount to 

 anything. Too high temperature at the commencement of incu- 

 bation will cook and kill the germ. One hundred and six degrees 

 is danger point up to the tenth day. Germs which died between 

 the first and second testing are frequently the result of overheating. 

 Too high a temperature during the last week will so weaken the 

 bowels of the chicks that they will be unable to assimilate the yolk 

 of the egg. The yolk of the egg is Nature's perfect nourishment, 

 which feeds and nourishes the embryo. 



During the last day of the chick's life in the shell the part of the 

 yolk which has not been absorbed is drawn up into the chick. This 

 forms its food and nourishment for about three days- But should 

 the egg be overheated, this yolk hardens and even if drawn into 

 the chick, it becomes tough, the chicken's bowels are weakened by 

 the overheating, the yolk remains unassimilated, like a piece of 

 rubber, blood poisoning ensues and the chick dies some time be- 

 tween the first and tenth day of its life. Chilling the eggs has 

 almost the same effect; it weakens the bowels, hardens the yolk 

 and eventually kills the chick. 



The incubator is a splendid hatcher of all kinds of germs, and 

 white diarrhoea may be caught in the incubator. Infection may be 

 conveyed through the shell of an egg or even exist in it before it is 

 laid, thus carrying to the embryo chick the germs that lead to its 

 early death. To prevent this some of the latest investigators thor- 

 oughly disinfect the eggs and the incubator before the hatching is 

 begun. To accomplish this the eggs are wiped with a cloth damp- 

 ened with alcohol, and the incubator is washed with a solution of 

 some antiseptic, such as creolin, in every part of the inside, and the 

 egg trays washed and then set in the sun to dry and air. 



