HATCHING AND REARING 23 



for hatching in incubators or under hens. Some writers 

 advise sprinltling the floor under the machine, sprinkling the 

 eggs, placing damp cloths and sponges on tlie egg trays 

 and other means of supplying moisture. In most cases 

 these are not only Unnecessary, but detrimental. Sprinkling 

 the eggs is not at all to be advised, because when the mois- 

 ture evaporates, it cools the shells of the eggs more or less, 

 even though the thermometer may not show any difference 

 in temperature. 



Care of Eggs During Incubation. 



Upon the length of time that eggs should be cooled dur- 

 ing the process of incubation and upon when the cooling 

 should take place, opinion differs considerably, and a few 

 incubator operators deny the advisability of cooling at all. 

 It is the opinion of the majority, however, that intelligent 

 cooling is necessary in order to secure the strongest chicks. 

 Obviously it will not do to take the eggs out of the incubator 

 and let them stand long in a low temperature such as fre- 

 quently surrounds incubators operated in the winter or 

 early spring. In such cases the cooling that the eggs 

 receive when taken out of the machine and turned is all 

 that they can stand to advantage. When the temperature 

 of the air in the room is fifty or above, the time that the 

 eggs may be left out of the machine may be increased from 

 that required to turn the eggs and replace them in the 

 nlachine to from ten to thirty minutes towards the end of the 

 incubating period, ^according to the temperature of the air 

 surrounding them. In a temperature of seventy or eighty 

 degrees, it is perfectly safe and ^perhaps advantageous to allow 

 them to remain out half an hour on each of the last five 

 days before pipping time. Instances abound where eggs 

 have remained out of the incubator over night under these 

 conditions, yet have produced a good per cent of strong 

 chicks at the end of twenty-one days. 



The majority of successful incubator operators do not 

 toucji the eggs after placing them in the machines until the 

 end of the third day when they are turned for the first time. 

 After that they are turned regularly, morning and night 

 until the eggs begin to pip, as it is called, or until the chicks 

 first crack the shell. The instructions that the manufac- 



