^BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 59. 



machines, — not habitual carelessness and neglect, but 

 occasional. Some manufacturers may be to some degree 

 responsible for the general impression among those who- 

 have not learned differently through experience, that an 

 incubator can go for twenty-four hours or more without 

 attention. True, it may be left that long without anything 

 going wrong, but the experienced operator learns to take 

 no chances of that kind. Twice a day he goes through 

 the routine work of caring for his machines, but he keeps 

 an eye on them at convenient intervals between times as- 

 well ; for some little thing may go wrong with a machine- 

 at any time, and the loss of an incubator full of eggs is- 

 quite an item. 



After giving his machine or machines such regular 

 attention as they require, and such incidental oversight as- 

 is possible — within reason — the operator should study 

 his machines. He should learn how they behave under 

 different conditions, and how slight changes in moisture^ 

 ventilation, etc., affect them in operation, and also how 

 variations, whether accidental or intentional, seem to affect 

 the chicks in after life. The operator has to learn to oper- 

 ate machines, and each machine, under the particular con- 

 dition to which his machines are subject, and in doing this- 

 he is in effect learning the precise application of the gen- 

 eral rules which the manufacturer has given for operating: 

 his incubators — that is, he is cultivating judgment in apply- 

 ing his instructions. 



It will greatly help a novice in incubation to draw right 

 conclusions from his experiences in artificial incubation, if 

 he can arrange to have one or two hens incubating simul- 

 taneously with some of his machines and on some of the 



