18 POULTRY LABORATORY GUIDE 



layers of clean cotton cloth to prevent them from 

 chilling. If the temperature of the room is sixty- 

 degrees or above, this is not necessary. The 

 trays should be so arranged that the position of 

 the eggs can be easily changed daily. If eggs 

 are not in trays, but loose, each egg should be 

 partially turned each day to prevent the germ 

 from sticking to the shell. Incubation eggs in 

 storage should be kept at a temperature of from 

 fifty to sixty degrees ; they will stand from forty 

 to eighty degrees Fahrenheit for a short time. 

 Great care must be taken to prevent them from 

 drying out, so they should not be exposed to 

 currents of air, steam, or vapor. 



Freshness is a prime necessity, and an egg over 

 twenty-one days old should never be set ; while it 

 may hatch, yet the chick will be weak and hard 

 to raise. Fresh eggs hatch early, and the chicks 

 are usually stronger than from older eggs. 

 About twelve hours previous to placing eggs La 

 the incubator it is well to stand them on the small 

 end, allowing the yolk to balance itself and the 

 air cell to assume its proper place. It is a poor 

 practice to set eggs of more than one breed in 

 an incubator at the same time, as different eggs 

 vary in thickness and strength of shell and in 

 the amount of heat and moisture required. 



