242 POULTRY CULTURE 



incubator is usually placed in a basement room or in a cellar. Under 

 the most skillful management, results in artificial incubation are 

 likely to be more variable than when eggs of like hatching quality 

 are incubated with equal care by natural methods, because the judg- 

 ment of a man guided by experience and observation works less 

 accurately in such matters than the inclination of the bird guided 

 by instinct and sensation. 



Experience and skill count in the operation of incubators, as in 

 all things, but the incubator operator has a slightly different prob- 

 lem in every machine that he uses, and a new problem in every 

 hatch, and a high degree of efficiency in this line of work is only 

 attained by careful study of the behavior of machines in the posi- 

 tions in which they are placed, and by such close attention to the 

 lamp, or other source of heat, that the eggs are never subjected 

 to injurious temperatures. 



Value of both methods of incubation. When incubators were 

 perfected to the point where temperature was easily controlled, 

 there was a general tendency to substitute the artificial for the 

 natural method. As it became generally known that, notwithstand- 

 ing the progress made, the artificial hatchers had their faults and 

 limitations, and still required close attention on the part of the 

 operator, this tendency was checked. It is now generally recog- 

 nized that the natural method is the better method for the great 

 majority of poultry keepers, provided they can get birds to incu- 

 bate when they need them, but that whenever the natural method 

 is for any reason inadequate, the artificial hatcher must be used. 

 On this principle one or more incubators (of suitable capacity) and 

 the necessary brooders become a part of the equipment of most 

 poultry keepers, to be used in emergencies and for special purposes, 

 even though hatching is done mostly by the natural method ; and 

 whenever operations are on a large scale, incubators are relied upon 

 to do the hatching, the only important exception to this being in 

 the colony poultry-farming section of Rhode Island. 



Hatching by Natural Methods 



Broodiness. The inclination to incubate is a normal character 

 in birds, which in some races and stocks has wholly or partly dis- 

 appeared. The length of the period of laying, before broodiness. 



