ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



SUPPLY FRESH AIR 



Be sure that there is an abundant supply of fresh air in the 

 incubator room at all times. A serious mistake of beginners is 

 being afraid that a Uttle fresh air will jeopardize the hatch. It 

 is important to remember that if you have 150 living germs in 

 an incubator all of those 150 living organisms are consuming 

 oxygen every day and every minute of the day, hence it is im- 

 portant that they be abundantly supplied with that life-giving 

 element. If the incubator is in a moderately warm place, say 

 about 60 degrees, more air can be admitted to the machine and 

 the eggs can be cooled and aired a longer time than if the ma- 

 chine is in a considerably colder place. This means that cooling 

 and ailing the eggs should be much less in cold weather than in 

 mild, spring weather; then, too, you can do decidedly more cool- 

 ing and airing the last third of the hatch than earUer, and the 

 living embryos will be the better for it. The practice of operators 

 varies considerably, some cooling and airing the eggs a great 

 deal after the first week, and there are some who cool and air 

 from the very start almost. Generally speaking, however, if 



of fresh air getting to the chicks, and when the operator finds a 

 lot of "chicks dead in the shells" he writes off to his poiUtry 

 editor and complains that the incubator don't hatch good strong 

 chicks 1 How could it, when the operator is afraid to let the 

 life-giving oxygen in the air get to the embryo chicks, and doesn't 

 give them a chance to grow strong and vigorous? 



ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF CHICKS 



PRACTICAL INFORMATION IN REGARD TO 

 INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT— FEEDING OF 

 YOUNG CHICKS— MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS 



T" 



38— IDEAL QUARTERS FOR BREEDING STOCK 



the incubator is in a cool place it will be found that the eggs 

 get sufficiently cooled and aired at the daily turning the first 

 week, then a few minutes a day the second week, and the last 

 week (up to the time of pipping) ten to fifteen minutes a day 

 is none too much. Indeed, if the animal heat in the eggs is 

 strong and the temperature of the incubator room is 60 degrees 

 or above, quite a long airing daily will be beneficial. 



Don't be afraid of giving the embryo chicks shut up within 

 the egg shells too much fresh air to breathe, — the errors are all 

 in the other direction. One man, for example, stuffed rags into 

 every crack and crevice, to keep out the Ufe giving oxygen in the 

 air! He will save a few cents worth of oil by keeping out the 

 cool air, but at the expense of vitaKty and vigor of the chicks, — 

 and some of them may be so weakened by the lack of fresh air 

 to breathe that they may not be able to struggle out of the 

 shellsi Many and many a hatch has been spoiled by this fear 



H. P. JOHNSON 



SHIS is the modem method of raising chickens in any 

 numbers, and the poultryman who tries to do it in any 

 other way cannot hope to compete with those who adopt 

 up-to-date methods. There are so many good makes of incuba- 

 tors on the market that it is 

 a hard matter to make any 

 recommendation at all. Do not 

 buy an incubator simply be- 

 cause it is cheap; rather buy 

 the machine that costs a Uttle 

 more and that carries the 

 maker's guarantee with it, and 

 one that you know is in satis- 

 factory use by the leading 

 poultry raisers of the day. 

 The same remarks will apply 

 to the brooder, for whereas 

 anything will hatch a certain 

 percentage of chicks, it is only 

 the properly constructed, sci- 

 entifically ventilated brooder 

 that will raise those chicks af- 

 ter they are hatched. 



There are, from my ex- 

 perience, a few golden rules 

 that must be observed by those 

 who would have success in the 

 operating of incubators, and 

 they are as follows: Run the 

 machine strictly in accordance 

 with the maker's printed in- 

 structions; for it is a reasonable 

 supposition that he has made 

 every experiment and investi- 

 gation necessary for success 

 and is as much interested in 

 the machine doing the work 

 properly as you are, and more so, as it means increased sales 

 for him; therefore, I say, follow his directions to the letter. 



Air your eggs at a regular time every day and also have a 

 set time for filling and trimming your lamp, and do it then, so 

 that you will not have the misfortune to find your machine 

 cold and the hatch ruined. 



Do not be in a hurry to open the machine at the end of the 

 hatch; your chicks will not die of starvation; nature has provid- 

 ed for all their requirements for at least forty-eight hours after 

 exclusion, and more chicks are killed by opening the machine, 

 perhaps with a view to saving some chick which it is thought 

 cannot get out by itself, than by any other means. The chick 

 that has to be assisted out of the shell is never any good, and in 

 saving, or trying to save, the one you may kUl fifty others. 

 Let me then make a strong point of this; do not allow any one, 

 by any excuse, whatever, to open your machine during the 



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