CHAPTER X. 



Incubation Artificial and Natural. 



As the poultry business is now conducted it is the practice 

 for each poultryman to get out enough chicks in the spring to 

 supply him with layers in the fall. There is no reason, how- 

 ever, why the great law of specialization should not obtain in 

 the_ poultry business as in nearly every other, and why in the 

 future we should not have entire plants devoted to the rearing 

 of young stock and other plants devoted wholly to the produc- 

 tion of eggs. At present, however, it is necessary for the 

 poultryman to know how to raise his own chicks, if he wishes 

 to succeed. 



It is a good rule on a poultry farm to have at least two- 

 thirds of the laying stock pullets. Suppose then a man intends 

 to keep 300 head of laying stock always on hand it will be 

 necessary for him to get out at least 600 chicks. Of these one- 

 half (or 300) are likely to be males ; so that at the start he will 

 have but 300 females. The poultryman must count on some 

 deaths by disease and accident. There will be some weak 

 ones that are better off put out of the way. Then he should 

 watch his flock carefully and cull closely, according to the 

 principles laid down in Chapter VII. The man who gets out 

 600 chicks in the spring will be lucky if he has 200 standard 

 bred pullets in the fall. 



USE LEG BANDS. 



Pullets when they are put in the laying pens should be 

 marked with leg bands. It is not necessary to use bands with 

 numbers ; plain bands are just as good. It is my personal prac- 

 tice to mark birds hatched in the even years (years that can be 

 divided by two) with a band on the right leg; and birds that 

 are hatched in the odd years (years that cannot be divided by 

 two) with a band on the left leg. In this way I can always 

 tell at a glance just how old a bird is, and never confuse a 

 pullet and a year-old hen. 



INCUBATOR OR HEN, WHICH? 



Sooner or later the poultryman must face the question with 

 which this paragraph is headed, and it is my purpose now to 

 help him to answer. In this matter, as in most others, there 



