18 EGGS AND POULTRY 
Sixteen hens laying 40 eggs each for that 
period would be 640 eggs. At 2% cents this 
would amount to $14—fourteen dollars 
worth of eggs as against the cost of running 
an incubator and brooders the same length 
of time, which would not amount to more 
than $3.75 for the oil. The time spent by the 
poultryman would probably be about the 
same in each case, as hens have to be 
watched and cared for while hatching as also 
while brooding their chicks. 
On the other hand, my experience has been 
that hatching hens will bring off a larger 
percentage of chicks than an incubator will. 
I have run incubators for several years but 
never yet have I had a 100% hatch of the 
fertile eggs or anywhere very near 100%. I 
have had the best machines and have fol- 
lowed the directions as nearly as I could 
understand them, but still the hens would 
beat my incubator. The greatest trouble is 
dead chickens in the shell, chickens well de- 
veloped but without strength enough to 
come out of the shell. 
I have read the explanations usually given 
—the germs were not strong, the fault was 
in the eggs—but I am positive that reason 
alone was not correct because at the same 
