V 



BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



" Follow Copy " — Good Eggs the First Requisite — Work 

 that is above Average — "Cold Storage" Eggs for 

 Hatching — Exigencies of Trade — February rather 

 Early —" Fertility " — Eggs at $150 per Sitting — 

 Temperature Controls Development — Advance Care 



While I believe that the Beginner may learn more 

 about that which he is really studying, the fowls them- 

 selves, by hatching first with hens, rather than with the 

 machine, I am aware that a fair proportion of people 

 will prefer to begin with the incubator. Perhaps the 

 best general rule I can give them, which will cover 

 everything, is, "Follow copy!" In other words, the 

 most common mistake made is in trying to follow the 

 notions of many writers who think they know more 

 about incubation than the manufacturers of the machines 

 can know. The printed instructions which go with the 

 machine are to be followed, for success. That circum- 

 stances alter cases is a truism. The machine which 

 you have bought may require different handling from 

 those which A, B, C, and D wrote about, and only the 

 manufacturers are supposed to know the best way to 

 handle those particular machines. 



Absolutely the first requisite for artificial incubation 

 is good eggs. Is this not true of all incubation } Cer- 

 tainly; but the egg has a harder gauntlet to run in arti- 

 ficial incubation than it has under natural incubation, 

 and, say what we may about incubator chicks being "just 



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