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COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



your chickens before they are hatched. He assumes the risk 

 of your not having broody hens early enough to produce chicks 

 for autumn layers. He can furnish you with broods without your 

 having hens at all, and in whatever quantity and at whatever 

 time or times you want them. Hence a start can be made on 

 short notice, and the only equipment required is a brooder. 

 The baby chick man, perhaps, has forgotten more about the 



Fig. 176. — Incubator building on a large hatchery in Ohio. 



operation of an incubator than the average operator will ever 

 take the time to learn. Therefore its eccentricities, if it has any, 

 do not keep him awake nights. He is operating on a very large 

 scale, consequently he can aflford to hire the services of trained 

 assistants. And the scale on which his business is conducted 

 enables him to incubate an egg for maybe one-third the cost 

 others could do it. Briefly, the baby chick man is one of the 

 greatest assets to the poultry industry. He is a sort of fly-wheel, 



