OPE RATI IMG A IS INCUBATOR. 



Hints on Buying the .Incvbator and Becoming Acquainted with Its Use — The Advantages of Testing the Eggs — Why Pure 

 Air Is Necessary — The Difficulties of Late Hatching — The Importance of Good, Hatchable Eggs. 



By A. F. Hunter. 



m 



ANY people are intending to buy an , mcubatbr and 

 brooder, and some suggestions io that end will be 

 timely. Do not put off buying too long. Do not 

 •wait until you need to begin h'ltcli.ing. There are 

 very manifest advantages in getting the incubator into your 

 possession, and becoming to a certain extent familiar with 

 it. We know a man who intended to buy an incubator, but 

 put it off, for one reason or another, until it was time to 

 begin hatching, and, indeed, he had actually begun saving 

 eggs for hatching. He then sent the money for the incuba- 

 tor and asked the manufacturers to "r'lease hurry it along." 

 They shipped it at once, but he, aftar waiting some ten days, 

 wrote to know why his incubator had not arrived. As it 

 was on the way, all the manufacturers could do was to start 

 a "tracer" after it, and the incubator and tracer reached the 

 man's railway station practically- together, — the incubator 

 having been thirteen days on the road. 



While such a delay may be unusual, still, there are pos- 

 sible delays, owing to the transfer of the machine from one 

 railway to another at a junction, and that means unloading 

 it onto one platform, trundling it to another platform and 

 loading on another car, etc., etc., etc.; any one who is ac- 

 quainted with freight shipments knows the vexatious delays 

 that are possible. Therefore, we say buy your machine in 

 good time so as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay 

 in transportation. Another point is that you get an oppor- 

 tunity to get the machine set up at a time when you have 

 plenty of leisure to do it right and get the conditions right; 

 you can also take time to get acquainted with the machine 

 so as to run it to the best advantage and greatest conven- 

 ience to yourself. That point of getting acquainted with 

 the machine is a most important one. 



We have a letter from a lady in Montana who says *^hat 

 she bought an incubator last spring, got it home to her 

 house about noon, went to work uncrating it and setting it 

 up as soon as she had eaten her dinner, and at 5 o'clock in 

 the afternoon put the eggs into it. A littls consideration of 

 the risks those eggs were subjected to will illustrate the 

 point. She had nev.er seen an incubator before and had no 

 Idea of running one excepting what she got in the directions 

 sent with the Incubator. As fortune favored her, she got a 

 good hatch, but the chances were certainly very much 

 against it; and It is very foolish to take chances when we 

 can avoid them by taking time by the forelock. It is good, 

 sound advice to take three or four days in which to gradu- 

 ally warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see 



that the regulation is properly adjusted to the desired point, 

 become familiar'with the individuality of the lamp so that 

 the flame can be set at pretty nearly the same point after 

 each filing and trimming,— in fact, become "familiar" with 

 the methods of operating the incubator. This is purely ele- 

 mentary advice, but the great bulk of incubator buyers are 

 •amateurs, and- very many of them have never operated in- 

 cubators before, hence these same "A, B, C" points have ta 

 be gone over every season in order- to be.'sx, help those who 

 are just starting with incubators. 



Test the Eggs. 



A not uncommon fault of inexperienced incubator oper- 

 ators is to neglect testing the eggs. This is a mistake for 

 several reasons. First, there is always a proportion of eggs 

 that are absolutely clear, running usually from 10 to 25 or 

 30 per cent, and those clear eggs are perfectly good for cook- 

 ing. They are not quite fresh, of course, since the six or 

 seven days that they have been in the machine have 

 "staled" them to a certain extent, but no more than if they 

 had lain on the counter of a country store for a few weeks — 

 as Is very frequently the case. Large operators usually sell 

 those Infertile eggs to bakers and confectioners, and they 

 are used up in making cakes, pies, custards, etc 



A decided advantage In removing from the trays those 

 clear eggs is that there Is more room for the fertile eggs in 

 the trays, and they can be turned and handled more easily; 

 even if no second test is made, a first test, to take out the 

 clear eggs, certainly should be made. 



A second test about the fourteenth or fifteenth day, to 

 remove germs that have died since the first test, is a help 

 to a good hatch. Those dead eggs usually throw off slight 

 odors or deleterious matter, hence a good hatch is promoted 

 by getting them out of the machine. Another argument for 

 testing eggs is that It Increases one's knowledge of embry- 

 onic life and development, and enhances the Interest of 

 artificial incubation. A good tester is sent out with every 

 incubator sold and we strongly urge the buyer to start 

 right,— and learning to test his eggs is an important part of 

 that start. 



Dark shelled and thick shelled eggs are more difficult 

 for an amateur to test than are the more common white- 

 shelled eggs, for the reason that the light does not shine 

 through them so well, and even an experienced tester may 

 mistake a clear egg for a probable germ; that Is, the yolk 

 may throw a shadow that will have the cippearance of a 

 good, strong germ. 



