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Incubation and Brooding. Many people ask me if I recommend 

 the incubator on the farm. It is very seldom that I would do that. 

 As a general rule, I would say no, do not use the incubator, but use 

 the hen. Then you come back at me and say here, how may I hatch 

 my eggs when the hens won't set? There is something in this. If 

 we keep one of the American breeds and are a little careful in selec- 

 tion of our hens for setting purposes, we won't experience any great 

 difficulty in getting enough hens to set, and if you find it absolutely 

 impossible to secure setting hens from the breed you keep, there is 

 one thing you can do, and that is to get an incubator. There are 

 not many of us, however, who will have that difficulty. Where you 

 keep the American class or any of the heavier breeds you are apt to 

 have plenty of setters. Incubators are necessary wher,e Mediterranean 

 breeds are kept. 



Question. Is there anything in the question of feed to make hens 

 broody ? 



Answer. I do not know and I do not think so. If you feed hens 

 for heavy egg production they will not be so liable to set early. 



There are a great many farmers in Rhode Island who keep hens 

 as main part of farming operation. Some hatch 1,200 to 1,500 chicks 

 with hens. If they can do that in Rhode Island we can do it else- 

 where. Our hens set as well as theirs do. The average farmer will 

 not hatch over five hundred chickens. Some few hatch seven hundred 

 or eight hundred chicks and use hens exclusively. The average far- 

 mer does not want to keep over three hundred hens. If he renews 

 half of them each year, he will not have to hatch over three hundred 

 chicks. In setting the hen I would advise that you have a shed of 

 some kind for the .exclusive use of the setting hens. The setting hens 

 must be kept quiet and by themselves. Again, if you set hens where 

 other hens can disturb them, you are very apt to have other hens lay- 

 ing in the nest of the setting hens. This is one of the ways in which 

 a great many bad eggs are produced. 



Question. Wouldn't it be a good plan to mark the eggs under 

 the hen? 



Answer. It is a very good plan to mark the eggs with a blue 

 pencil. Ink is rather dangerous, because it may go through the shell. 



I am now going to say a few words about the bad egg problem. 

 It is against the law to sell rotten eggs, but the existence of this law 

 has not by any means eliminated the bad .egg from the trade. It is 

 estimated that there is over a million dollars loss from bad eggs in 

 Kansas every year, and there is a corresponding loss in the State of 

 Missouri. Now who is to blame for these bad eggs? No single in- 

 dividual is to blame for the loss. If all the country merchants and 

 egg buyers would candle all the eggs which they buy, it would not 

 be long until the bad eggs would be entirely eliminated from the 

 trade. Stock cars are used by some of the railroad in which eggs 

 and poultry are transferred to the large packing houses. Here is 

 an opportunity for the railroads to make improvement. On hot 

 summer days the temperature in these cars will go as high as one 

 hundred and four degrees to one hundred and six degrees Fahren- 

 heit. This, of course, has a very detrimental effect on the eggs. 

 Some of the railroads are operating refrigerator cars for handling 

 the eggs, which is, of course, the most ideal way. When the local 

 freight is several hours late, the eggs are allowed to remain stacked 



