NATURAL INCUBATION 



69 



the day they are hatched, as the web is then soft, does not bleed 

 as much as later, and there is not as much risk of the other chicks 

 pecking the toes as they would do when older. 



If the hens have been well cared for, properly dusted with a 

 good insecticide during the three weeks of incubation, they will be 

 perfectly free of lice. They and the chicks must be kept free. 

 There is not the difficulty in this that many imagine. Dusting the 

 chickens and hens once a week is all that is necessary. Some 

 breeders put a little lard on the top of their heads and on their 

 throats. This protects from the head lice- Others take a small 

 brush (if the chicks are affected with head lice), and wash the little 

 heads once a week with a lather of carbolic soap. They soon dry 

 off in the sun or under the hen. 



From experiments made in several stations it has been con- 

 clusively proved that hen-hatched chickens are stronger and heavier 

 than those artificially hatched. At the Oregon Station the incu- 

 bators hatched 78.5 per cent of "fertile" eggs and the hens hatched 

 96.5 per cent. The incubators showed 16.6 per cent of chicks "dead 

 in the shell" and the hens 2.5 per cent. Chicks hatched under hens 

 weighed heavier than chicks hatched in incubators, and hen-hatched 

 chicks made greater gain in weight than incubator chicks, whether 

 brooded by hens or brooders. 



Blue Ribbon White Leghorn Hen. 



