216 POULTRY BREEDING 
laid. Keep the nest boxes clean and fill frequently with 
fresh straw. Store the eggs in clean packages in a tem- 
perature from 40 to 60° if possible. In extremely low 
temperatures, and when temperatures in storage exceed 
75°, deterioration is very rapid. The incubator room 
must be kept clean and well ventilated. The incubator 
in many cases must be cleaned and thoroughly disin- 
fected after every hatch, with a good coal-tar disinfect- 
ant or a 2 per cent solution of creolin, or the machine 
can be scrubbed out with hot water and cresol soap. 
Infection is more likely to occur in a badly-ventilated 
incubator or poorly-ventilated incubator room, Any con- 
dition surrounding the eggs tending to sap their vitality 
makes them more subject to infection. In extreme cases 
the careless use of disinfectants in an incubator has been 
detrimental rather than beneficial to the hatch, probably 
from using too much of it, as the vapor or odor arising 
from it after the eggs are in the incubator seems to have 
a bad effect. (See Incubators, to Disinfect.) 
“Successful incubation means good eggs. The great- 
est, most common cause of poor results or failure in incu- 
bation is the use of poor eggs of low vitality. Successful 
incubation begins long before the eggs are laid. The 
eggs must be from stock of strong vitality that has never 
been forced, that is fed all the green feed the fowls will 
eat and a portion of animal feed as well as grain. While 
fowls will lay a goodly number of eggs upon grain or 
even corn diet, yet these eggs are lacking in those feed 
elements required by the embryo, they hatch poorly and 
the chicks that hatch will be of impaired vitality and 
very hard to raise. The condition of the breeding stock, 
feed, housing and the range should carefully be looked 
after, as the neglect of any one of these factors may 
