30 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



In an incubator we should observe the same conditions, 

 furnishing a steady heat of about 103 degrees without 

 disturbing the eggs. 



A hen by constant sitting becomes somewhat weak- 

 ened ; her natural temperature drops down a degree or 

 two ; she leaves her nest and daily turns her eggs. This 

 we should imitate in our incubator, airing the eggs and 

 turning them as that natural incubator, the hen, does. 



And, again, we know from a certain scientific law, 

 that even when the hen cannot get to the grass in the 

 morning when the dew is on it, she imparts, from her 

 own vital tissues, moisture to the eggs. If we could 

 measure the exact amount and could know just the 

 times when this moisture was given to the eggs, we 

 could tell just how much should be supplied in artifi- 

 cial incubation. We know that the incubator must sup- 

 ply some, and carefully conducted experiments ought to 

 teach us how much. Here is a field for the experimen- 

 tal scientist, which will pay for cultivation, for he, who 

 can give a perfect incubator, will be able to control the 

 market, and the market will be a large one. 



As soon as your chicks are hatched, they should be 

 removed to the brooder or artificial mother. Many 

 manufacturers of incubators also make brooders to go 

 with them. As in the incubator the processes of the 

 hen were imitated, so in the brooder you should copy 

 from this pattern. Warmth from above should be shed 

 upon these now motherless chicks, like that frpm the 

 brooding wings of their natural mother. Ventilation should 

 be provided, so that the warm air is also pure air, and, 

 with the proper supply of food and water, your chicks 



