INCUBATION 



21 



never seen noticed or described by any investigator. It is 

 what might be termed a partial vacuum, a tension, or a ten- 

 dency to shrinkage or contraction, which would naturally 

 cause the absorption of oxygen to be more rapid than if 

 it were compelled to depend upon diffusion only. This ten- 

 sion is more apparent on about the fourteenth day than at 

 any other period. It seems to be rythmic or intermittent 

 and is suggestive of the process of breathing as we perform 

 it, except that its operation is so slight as to be impercep- 

 tible except under certain conditions. 



Every atom of water contained in the egg is intended to 

 pass through the circulation of the embryo in combination 

 with the other elements, and is absolutely essential to the 

 perfecting of the structure, and after having been so util- 

 ized it is, as with any other elements that have been chem- 

 ically transformed and served their purpose, thrown off 

 as waste matter in the form of gases or urates. A weak 

 germ, and by that I mean one that has not had a strong 

 vitality, or life principle or impulse, implanted in it by the 

 parent, or that has been reduced to this state by abuse, is 

 retarded in its development. The impulse has either been 

 checked or was weak to begin with. The normal diminution 

 of the contents is checked or cease entirely. The operator 

 is told that he is using too much moisture and not ventilat- 

 ing enough, so out come the water pans and open go the 

 slides, and at the same time an examination of all the eggs 

 would perhaps show many at the normal Stage. A strong 

 current of air is now driven through the machine under the 

 delusion that all that is necessary to make these weak germs 

 hatch is by some means to extract the surplus moisture 

 they seem to contain and increase the air space, and I have 

 no doubt but some would be tempted to draw it out with a 

 hypodermic syringe if it were contained in a pocket in the 



egg and they were not convinced by actual experience that 

 a rupture of the membranes would be fatal. 



I would suggest to any who have doubts on this ques- 

 tion to select a tray or a machine full of eggs showing small 

 air spaces, say about the tenth to the fourteenth day, place 

 them in a machine by themselves, take out all the water 

 pans, open wide all ventilators, force all the air you can 

 through the machine, and if you wisl^ drive a warm blast 

 through it by a fan motor, and see how many of them will 

 come to exclusion. You can evaporate them fast enough 

 and the faster, the quicker and surer the death. 



There are some things about incubation we can never 

 know. The life principle or impulse is beyond the grasp of 

 finite minds. Starting with germs that in every living thing 

 are identical in structure and appearance, and developing 

 them from one plane, to another until they rep/Ch the limit 

 to which their impulse carries them, they become men, birds 

 or fish, and thus perpetuate their species, the fittest always 

 surviving. We mortals may speculate and theorize upon it, 

 but we cannot fathom it. 



Our hypothesis is that the Creator placed in the normal 

 • egg just what is needed there — no more, no less — and that 

 if we can duplicate natural conditions we can successfully 

 incubate them artificially, presuming that the parent bird 

 in the incubating process contributes nothing but heat. If 

 we can do this, and at the same time furnish oxygen suf- 

 ficent to sustain the process we will succeed, but it must be 

 just enough— no more, no less. The right amount to gauge 

 the machines for, varies with the outer temperatul-e, the 

 stage of hatch and the machine used, as all vary in their 

 power to induce currents — some are forced, others are natural. 

 All these points must be taken into consideration. 



THE NATURAL METHOD IS SATISFACTORY 



HOW AN EXPERT HATCHED AND REARED WINNERS FOR THE LARGEST SHOWS- 

 MAKING THE NESTS— SETTING THE HENS— COOPING AND FEEDING THE CHICKS 



M. S. GARDNER 



SO MANY writers of late have told us how to hatch 

 chickens in incubators, and raise them in brooders, 

 that little remains to be said upon that subject. Very 

 little has been written, however, in regard to the other and 

 older method of letting the hen rear her own brood. While 

 I use incubators for hatching my earlier chickens, I still 

 hatch the greater part of the May and June chicks under 

 hens, and for two reasons: First, because I believe it gives 



the hen a rest from laying that is^.beneficial to her, and 

 second, because I find that chickens hatched and reared by 

 hens prove better foragers and grow faster_for_.me than those 

 grown in brooders. 



To raise chickens with hens successfully, several things 

 are absolutely necessary. First, strongly fertilized eggs 

 from perfectly healthy and vigorous breeding stock. Second, 

 quiet, medium sized hens, and properly constructed nests. 

 Thitd, a man to care for the hens who will 

 exercise eternal vigilance, and who can 

 control his^temper under most trying cir- 

 cumstances. Doubtless every man who 

 raises chickens has a way of his own. I 

 do not claim that my way is the only one, 

 or even that it is the best, but simply this, 

 that I have been raising thoroughbred 

 chickens for more than twenty-five years, 

 and with success, by the method I shall 

 describe. During the season of 1902 I 

 raised more than five hundred chickens 

 under hens. Although May and June 

 were the wettest months ever known in 

 this state, my loss from all causes did hot 

 exceed five per cent of the chickens 

 hatched. 



A LARGE FAMILY 

 Cochin Bantam hens are considered the best of mothers and one hen can take care of two 

 families, if she is allowed to do so. The setting of three or more hens at one time and doubl- 

 ing up the chicks is a very economic and labor-saving practice. — A. O. Schilling. 



Setting the Hens 



As March is a cold month in northern 



