CHAPTER XX 

 INCUBATION AND BROODING 



Artificial and Natural Incubation Compared. — Hens 

 are used to incubate only on the most limited scale. In 

 fact, artificial incubation has been so improved and per- 

 fected in its methods that, all things considered, the work 

 can really be done more satisfactorily by first-class ma- 

 chines. 



Another advantage of artificial incubation is that by 

 means of it one can produce greater numbers of chickens 

 than would be possible if it were necessary to depend en- 

 tirely upon hens for incubation. Then, too, by hatching 

 with a machine one controls conditions ; there is no hen to 

 leave the nest at night; none of the eggs become broken 

 and smeared over the remaining ones ; the nest does not 

 become soiled. In every way artificial methods admit of 

 better sanitary measures, so that the chances for producing 

 stronger, healthier chicks are very much greater. The in- 

 cubator can be thoroughly disinfected at the beginning of 

 the hatch, and it stays so until the chicks have popped from 

 the shells. Incubator chicks are free from hce, and can be 

 kept so until they are large enough to run at large with 

 other poultry, when the lice will do little harm. 



It is a great satisfaction to care for a flock of artificially 

 hatched chickens, because the brood is so much larger. 

 With the use of the proper appliances 500 artificially 



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