ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



SUCCESSFUL ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



COMMON SENSE ADVICE ON INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING LOCATION, 

 OPERATION, CARE OF THE LAMP, SELECTION OF EGGS, TURNING AND COOLING 

 THE EGGS, TESTING AND CARE OF ' THE MACHINE DURING HATCHING TIME 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



February usually brings the question of starting 

 with an incubator into prominence and the hatch- 

 ing season should then be begun in earnest 

 Eariy pullets must be hatched in March and 

 April to make fall and winter layers and take the 

 place of older breeding stock which is to be 

 marketed. The early cockerels will bring the 

 best profits as fancy spring chickens, and the 

 profits on sale of such should practically pay the 

 cost of the food consumed by the pullets. For this reason if 

 you intend using an incubator the first season, and wish to make 

 it pay you a handsome profit, February is the time to start. 



BUYING AN INCUBATOR 



What machine and what size to buy are two questions that 

 are not easily settled. In selecting the make of machine the 

 beginner must be guided by his own best judgment. It is a 

 good plan to study the manufacturers' advertising catalogues 

 carefully, read the testimonials and note what date they bear. 

 Then call on the nearest successful poultryman in your locality 

 and observe for yourself wh&,t they are using and learn the results 

 obtained. Try to get a fair unbiased opinion from reputable 

 men whom you know and whose advice you are willing to follow. 

 If you do this you can't go wrong. 



In buying an incubator do not buy too small a machine. 

 Fifty eggs will hatch just as well in a 100 or 200-egg machine 

 as in a 50-egg size and you have room to set more if you want to. 

 It is a decided mistake to buy too small a machine. There is 

 very httle difference in the time required for operating the 

 various sizes and as a rule the lamp of a 100-egg size incubator 

 will consume just as much oil as the lamp of a 200 or 300-egg 

 size. There is very little difference in the operating expenses, 

 and if the machine is a modern standard make, you can rely on 

 getting equally good results in all sizes. As a general rule the 



100-egg capacity machines are sufficiently small for any town 

 lot fancier, although the 50 and 60-egg incubators do excellent 

 work and are found entirely satisfactory by many operators. 



WHERE TO RUN THE INCUBATOR 



As soon as you have uncrated your incubator, before set- 

 ting it up, read carefully the manufacturer's directions — and 

 then re-read them. This is the only way to start right and it 

 is important. Learn what you have to do, and how to do it, 

 then go ahead. 



The first question to come up will be, where is the best 

 place to run the incubator? As a rule, the answer will be that 

 the house cellar, if free from gas and decaying vegetable matter, 

 is the best place unless one has a specially constructed incubator 

 cellar; but with' a well made machine almost any unused room 

 having a firm floor, free from excessive vibration, can be made 

 to serve the purpose well. The best results will be secured in 

 an unheated room where the temperature remains fairly imiform 

 and where it does not run much above or below 65 degrees. 



The question of ventilating the incubator room is not as 

 important as is generally supposed, and so long as the air of the 

 room is kept reasonably pure, good results will be obtained. 

 A good deal has been written about the danger from carbonic 

 acid gas, but the fact remains that the embryo chick is able to 

 stand a considerable amount of this gas in the air around the 

 eggs. Several recent experiments by experienced investiga- 

 tors tend to show that the presence of carbonic acid gas (carbon 

 dioxide) in the hatching chamber, when accompanied by mois- 

 ture, has a tendency to assist in the process of exclusion by its 

 action on the egg shell. Apparently the gas weakens and par- 

 tially dissolves the shell, making it easier for the chick to hatch. 

 Experiments made at the Montana Experiment Station found 

 nearly twice as much carbon dioxide under setting hens as was 

 found in the egg chamber of the incubators used in the test; 



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