ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



of the room ; if it is a cold room, ten minutes is enough. If 

 the eggs are put in the incubator in rows and the finger 

 wetted, it can be run over them and turned over in this 

 manner, though some incubators have special devices for 

 turning the eggs. 



Test the eggs on the seventh day, and any unfertile ones 

 should be removed and replaced with other eggs, but never 

 put cold eggs into an in- 

 cubator, only using those 

 taken from hens at the same 

 period of incubation. An 

 extremely useful egg-test- 

 ing lamp is shown in the 

 accompanying illustration. 

 It consists of a lens and 

 reflector, and in order to 

 test the egg, the lamp is 

 lighted and the egg placed 

 against the focus as shown. 

 When the eggs begin to 

 chip, the chipped side must 

 be turned upwards, and as 

 soon as the chick is out transfer it to the drying box, 

 where it will remain if necessary for twenty-four hours. 



Late hatching may arise through the temperature being 

 too low, and too early hatching through the converse of this. 

 Another very important matter, in fact, one of the most 

 important items in the management of an incubator, is to 

 have a sufficient degree of moisture present, but like that 

 of the temperature, too much moisture is equally pernicious. 

 There is a happy medium, and in order to strike this correctly, 

 that good schoolmaster, experience, is indispensable. If the 

 chamber is too dry, there is too much loss of moisture from 



139 



EGG-TESTING LAMP 

 (Gilbertson & Page.) 



