INCUBATING vad 
Most hens do not get broody before that 
date, therefore a poultryman can not depend 
on getting early hatches. Hens are not like 
incubators in that you can set them when 
you want, but you must wait upon their own 
sweet will, which is a poor way to base your 
calculations. Second, if your flock is of Leg- 
horn hens you can not calculate at all upon 
having hatchy hens. 
Third, if your breed is one known as a 
broody kind and you desire to raise several 
hundred little chicks, even disregarding the 
question of whether they should be early 
hatched or not, the care and annoyance of a 
large number of hatching hens would be very 
considerable. Fourth, it is very much more 
expensive to hatch with hens than with an 
incubator. Supposing you have a 244 egg 
incubator we will compare the expense: 
The eggs would amount to the same in 
either case. It would require 16 hens to set 
on the 244 eggs, and these hens would set 
for 21 days and would consume some 42 days 
more brooding the chickens after hatching 
—a total of 63 days. These hens could have 
been broken of their broodiness in 10 days at 
the most, when they would be laying again 
almost every day or 53 days, or say 40 days. 
