56 



hen won first prize, will use misshapened, poorly shelled, or very 

 much undersized eggs. Eggs from year-old hens will produce the 

 most robust chicks. 



Before the eggs are used for hatching they should be thoroughly 

 and antiseptically cleansed by dipping in 95 per cent alcohol, if they 

 show any signs of not being clean. Never wash them. 



OPERATING THE INCUBATOR. 



Follow the directions sent with the incubator until you are con- 

 vinced that you can make some improvement upon the directions 

 given. Do not keep your oil can in the same room with your incubator. 

 It will lessen the hatch from seven to seventeen per cent. 



From experiments which have been conducted by the various ex- 

 periment stations better hatches are usually obtained where some 

 moisture is used during the hatch. We prefer the use of shallow trays 

 filled with sand, which is kept moist, and these are placed in the 

 bottom of the machine beneath the egg trays. 



Eggs should be turned at regular intervals, say every twelve 

 hours. Turning as often as three times a day has increased the hatch 

 in some instances. 



Cooling the eggs is beneficial, leaving them out of the incubator a 

 few minutes once a day at turning time. If it is a large machine they 

 get sufficient airing at turning time. 



Keep the eggs for hatching at a temperature of forty to sixty 

 degrees. 



It is generally true that if chicks are fed too soon before they 

 have digested the yolk of the egg which they absorb that it will cause 

 the yolk to remain undigested, and it will become hardened and 

 finally kill the chick. This is often true, and it is also true that be- 

 cause the incubator has been run so high that the egg has become 

 overheated and the yolk becomes baked and hardened, and when 

 absorbed by the chick, makes it indigestible, and, therefore, causes the 

 chick to dwindle and die. We prefer to run the incubator a degree or 

 so too low in preference to having the eggs overheated. 



The little chicks, like little children, require lots of sleep when 

 first hatched. They should be put in comfortable quarters and kept 

 quiet for the first few days. Let them out a short while at feeding 

 time. 



Set only clean, smooth eggs of uniform size, and never keep them 

 longer than two weeks before incubating them, if you can avoid it. 

 The fresher the better, for they deteriorate some and the germ becomes 

 weaker each day after being laid. 



Never operate your incubator in a dark cellar, which has little or 

 no ventilation and where the air is ladened with decay and disease. 

 A strong man could not live in many places where incubators are 

 operated. 



Do not put off buying an incubator until right at hatching sea- 

 son. Place your order early or you may not be able to get the ma- 

 chine when wanted. 



Do not buy too small a machine. Fifty eggs will hatch just as 

 well in a 100 or 200-egg incubator as in a 50-egg size. It is no more 

 trouble to operate and consumes but little more oil. 



