DUCK DOLLARS 43 
forty-five degrees, so that they will not freeze and so that: germination 
will not start. The ordinary cellar of a house is just the right tempera- 
ture. The air should be good in the cellar, that is to say, not foul or 
close, because the egg-shells are porous. 
While they are being kept in the baskets in the cellar, the eggs should 
be handled every three or four days so chat they will not spoil. That is 
to say, they should be taken up and turned. The object 
of this is to prevent the yolk from sticking to the side 
of the shell. In warm weather if the egg is allowed to 
stay in one position continuously, the white will get soft and the yellow 
will go through the white to the shell. 
The eggs should be kept in the cellar no longer than two weeks 
before putting them into the incubator. We have kept them a month, 
but not more than two weeks is the best time. 
If the tempera‘ure of the cellar rises to fifty-five or sixty degrees, a 
slow process of incubation goes on inside the eggs. Keep the eggs more 
than two weeks in a cellar at sixty degrees instead of forty degrees, and 
they will hatch earlier than others. 
In selecting eggs for the incubator, do not take all of them. Take 
only the perfect eggs. Eggs which are small, large, ill-shaped, and hav- 
ing holes or pit-marks should be rejected. The selecting 
or sorting of eggs might be done after washing and the 
rejected eggs used for cooking. Two weeks in the cellar 
would not spoil the eggs for household use. 
“The incubator should be cleaned and put in order, the lamp lighted 
and the machine run empty for two days at a temperature of 102 degrees. 
Then put in the eggs. The temperature will fall at once 
because the eggs are cool, but do not fuss. with the 
regulator. Leave it alone and let the temperature rise to 
to2 degrees, as it will, slowly, in twenty-four hours. The thermometer 
then will be 102 degrees again. 
After the eggs have been in the machine thirty-six hours take the 
tray out of the machine, put it on a table nearby and_turn the eggs with 
fingers or hand. Run the flat of the hand over them so as to roll them 
around, stir them. It is not necessary to turn them an exact half-circle. 
The object of turning them is to supply new albumen to the germ. The 
embryo feeds on the white of the egg. When you turn the egg with 
your hand you give an opportunity for new food, new albumen to get to 
the embryo. A hen instinctively turns her eggs in the nest twice a day 
for the same reason. 
The little duckling is made wholly from the white of the egg. The 
albumen contains the feathers, flesh, everything. The object of the yolk 
is to furnish food for the duckling during the last few cays of its life 
in the shell. 
After that first turning of the eggs thirty-six hours 
after having being put in, the eggs should be turned 
morning and evening. 
The incubator cools off more or less while you are turning the eggs 
on the tray on the table nearby, but this should cause no alarm. When 
Turn the 
Eggs Over 
Sort Eges 
’ Carefully 
Preparing the 
Incubator 
Turn 
Morning 
and Evening 
