CHAPTER VII. 
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 
INCUBATORS AND BROODERS. 
In endeavoring to lay before our readers something 
that may be to their advantage, I will avail myself of the 
opportunity of deseribing that which is in pract wal 
operation, and do not call upon others to assist me in 
solving theories. There are hundreds of methods of 
hatching chicks artificially, as nothing more is necessary 
than keeping the eggs for three weeks under certain 
conditions of heat and moisture. What are those con- 
ditions, and why do failures occur so often, even when 
every attention is given the process? 
in the first place, there are a great many unforeseer 
difficulties in the way that are overlooked or not antici 
pated. An incubator cannot hatch every fertile egg, 
neither can the hen do so; yet there are some manufac- 
turers who claim that the incubators made by them will 
hatch every fertile egg. To test the hatching of fertile 
eggs, I procured eggs from two different places. After 
placing them in the same incubator, and at the same 
time, I removed all clear eggs by the tenth day. Of the 
- - first lot of fifty eggs thirty-two were fertile, and of the 
second lot of fifty there were thirty-four fertile eggs. 
The eggs of the first lot hatched thirty chicks, while 
every chick of the second lot perished in the shell. 
Upon investigation, I found that the fowls from which 
the eggs of the first lot had been procured were in fuil 
health, and had plenty of exercise, a cockerel of about 
(65) 
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