78 PRACTICAL POULTRY PRODUCTION 



When several hens are sitting in the same room, they 

 should be confined to their nests, allowing them to come 

 off only once a day to receive feed and water. A good feed 

 for sitting hens is whole corn or wheat, or both. If there 

 are any that are not inchned to come off for themselves, 

 they should be removed from the nests for feed and water. 

 Hens usually return to the nest before there is any danger of 

 the eggs' becoming chilled; but, if they do not do so within a 

 reasonable time, they should be put back on the nest. The 

 eggs and nest should be examined each day and when soiled 

 should be cleaned by removing all broken eggs, and those 

 that are soiled should be cleaned with a damp cloth. When 

 the nest material is soiled, it should be removed and clean 

 straw or hay added. 



Frequently eggs that are laid in the late winter and early 

 spring are infertile. With this in mind it is advisable to set 

 several hens at the same time and test the eggs after they 

 have been incubated for 5 to 7 days. (See page 86 as to 

 the method of testing eggs.) The infertile and dead-germ 

 eggs should be removed and the fertile eggs put back under 

 the hens. It is often possible then to put all the fertile 

 eggs under fewer hens than were set originally and to reset 

 the others. In this way a larger number of chicks can be 

 hatched earlier than when the eggs are not tested. 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 

 INCUBATORS 



Types of incubators. The various makes and kinds of 

 incubators on the market are either of the hot-air or hot- 

 water types. Both "moisture" and "non-moisture" incu- 

 bators are made in these various styles of machines. The 

 smaller incubators are usually heated by burning kerosene 

 oil, gas or electricity. The source of heat for most of the 

 mammoth machines is supplied by a coal stove, although 

 gas and kerosene oil are used to some extent. In a few 



