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enough condition to la}' is pretty likely to be in good enough condition 

 to give you fertile eggs; but if the fourth, fifth and sixth columns sho\y 

 that too many of the fertile eggs fail to hatch from any particular p(>ns 

 investigate at once, and see if the flock is healthy, are properly fed and 

 cared for in every way; but if this trouble happens with all of the pens, 

 buy some eggs from some one who is getting good hatches, and then 

 one can easily determine whether it is the fault of the eggs or in the 

 process of incubation. If it is found to be in the incubating, "go for 

 it," and find out, by a systematic plan of experiments, just which of 

 your conditions or what you are doing is wrong. Stick to it, — that 

 very " stick-to-it-iveness " is what has been ascribed as the secret of 

 the writer's success. 



]\Iake the first test on the fifth or sixth day, and the unfertile eggs 

 will be in good condition for all cooking purposes, and are worth from 

 one-half to two-thii'ds the price of market eggs; there is also more 

 room and the eggs can be tunied more easily. The second test can be 

 made about the fourteenth day, and if all the dead ones are thrown out, 

 there will be very few if any that will be rotten and smell bad ; and by 

 carefull}' studying the records of both tests, one can keep in touch with 

 just how the process is progressing. 



To make a good tester, have a window that faces the sun fitted with 

 a board having a hole in it, the same as any tester, with a piece of felt 

 or leather around this hole, and then darken the rest of the room so that 

 all of the light must come through the egg when placed against this 

 hole. With this arrangement, and a bright sun, no explanation of how 

 to test is necessary, for after one has tested a dozen eggs he can tell as 

 well as any one what is the condition of the eggs. 



Under the above conditions the airing or cooling of the eggs is not 

 practised, except when they get too warm, the theory — and it is well 

 borne out by experiments — being that if the room is well ventilated, 

 so that the air is kept good and the proper temperature maintained, 

 the embryo gets all that is needed through the natural circulation that 

 is taking place in this kind of an incubator all the time. On the other 

 hand, if the air is so vitiated that it feels close or "stuffy," and smells 

 strong of the fumes of the lamps, and so that one is glad to get out 

 after staying in there a few minutes (and many of the incubator rooms 

 are in just this condition), and the air in the incubator cannot possibly 

 be any better, in fact, not as good as the air in the room, it is quite 

 likely that a reasonable amount of airing is beneficial, but not the 

 cooling, unless the temperature is too hot. There is no question but 

 that the embryo chick needs oxj^gen, and that being an accepted fact, 

 it must be far better to give it good oxygen all of the time than to give 

 it inferior oxvgen, and in spasmodic doses, at that. It makes quite a 

 difference, too, in what temperature they are aired, as well as at what 

 stage of the process; for to air them considerably where it is not too 

 cold, during the last week, will do no harm, and under some of the 

 above conditions will be of benefit, but to air them during the first 

 week is a great mistake, especially if the temperature is anything but 

 warm. 



The writer has been called many times to help poultrymen out of 

 different kinds of trouble, such as. Why do we not get better hatches? 

 Why do so many die in the shell? Why do they die so after we get 

 .them in to the brooder? One of the most pronounced cases of the ill 

 effects of airing and cooling was where a party began to air the eggs 

 on the third da}-, where the temperature of the room was just 50° F., 

 for fifteen minutes, and I think twice per day at that, and this in a 

 room where the ventilation was very good and they did not need 



