l68 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



nor expense to run a large machine and results from 

 the larger one count for something. There are both 

 hot air and hot water machines with good reputations. 

 Some prefer one kind, some the other kind. Under 

 right conditions both hatch equally well. 



Setting the Machine — Now that you have pur- 

 chased your incubator, you may be inclined to put it 

 in the cellar. Don't — not if you have a room above the 

 cellar. Running down cellar and up again many times 

 a day is tiresome and unnecessary work. You don't 

 have to put the incubator in the cellar for best results. 

 Incubators were put in cellars first, because insurance 

 men objected to them as dangerous in buildings, and 

 refused to insure houses where they were run in 

 upstairs rooms. Then the idea got abroad and gained 

 currency that the cellar was the proper place for an 

 incubator because it was moister, and people put their 

 incubators there. Above all, the room in which the 

 machine is placed should be well ventilated, free from 

 drafts and from great fluctuations of temperature 

 between night and day. 



Having selected a room or place for your incu- 

 bator, the next thing is to get eggs. Fresh, fertile 

 eggs are necessary for a good hatch. Having the eggs 

 ready, heat up the incubator, and when it marks 103. 

 and you have held it there for some time, put in the 

 eggs, but don't change the regulator. 



Do not place the thermometer on the eggs, nor 

 let the bulb touch an egg. If there is no hook or 

 device attached to the heater to fasten the thermom- 

 eter to, make one, or have it made before starting the 

 machine. If the thermometer is laid on the eggs, 

 when the chickens hatch they trample on it, and you 

 cannot tell how the heat is. Have the thermometer 

 fixed so that it will hang slanting from above. It may 

 rest on the tgg tray, or hang just above the eggs. 



