HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 37 



can do. For this reason, it seems to me that these 

 methods are to the last degree inconsistent and unde- 

 sirable. 



The hen-hatched and hen-mothered chick is at the 

 least free from the handicaps which are almost univer- 

 sally, at the present time, conceded to weight down the 

 incubator chick. The hen starts fairly, and the handler, 

 if the right kind of a student, will really learn more 

 pertaining to his business by hatching with hens, while 

 he is still a novice, than he can possibly learn through 

 the use of the machine. One significant quotation from 

 the manufacturers of one of the modern incubators 

 may illumine the mind of any Beginner. They say : 

 " Fully two thirds of the incubators made each year 

 are made to sell to amateiit's and Beginners." It is 

 added that such machines are never seen on the sol- 

 idly estabHshed places, where the workers " know the 

 ropes." But they are sold by the thousands to Begin- 

 ners, who fail with them and quit the work, or else get 

 decent machines later, when they have gained some 

 expensive experience. It is to save the Beginners from 

 most of this expensive experience that this book is writ- 

 ten, by one who has been through the experience school. 



If you, reader, grasp, at the outset, this idea that a 

 large proportion of the very cheap incubators are virtual 

 traps to get your money, you will be far more ready to 

 give the hen a little sympathy in the place of vitupera- 

 tion, or at the least to make some allowance for her 

 when you are tempted by poor results to lay all the 

 blame upon her. I cannot too strongly impress it upon 

 you that you and the hen are to do team work, and that 

 if you do your part wisely and well, adding the full 



