PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



drawer of the incubator. It is a good plan to set the machine 

 going at the same time the hens were set, or even a day or 

 two beforehand ; then if any accidents occur, such as a hen 

 ceasing to be broody or an egg getting cracked, these can 

 be placed in the drawer and kept until another hen can be 

 procured. Or you can allow the incubator to finish the 

 process. In the case of a cracked egg or one that a hen 

 has put her claw into, the egg will not hatch unless a small 

 piece of paper is gummed over the fracture. No one who 

 has ever used one of these appliances would care to attempt 

 rearing a large number of Pheasants without one, and no 

 one who has not tried them can possibly have any idea of 

 the amount of lives that are saved through their agency. 

 So that the best advice I can give to intending rearers, who 

 do not already possess an incubator, is to get one without 

 delay, and have it in readiness before the rearing season. 



"If you keep your incubator only for hatching off chipped 

 eggs, as I prefer to do, you will require to see that the 

 thermometer in the drawer does not register more than ioo° 

 Fahr. Otherwise you will find that when you have filled 

 the drawer with ' live ' eggs, you will have great difficulty 

 in keeping the heat at regulation point, viz., 103° to 104°. 

 If the drawer becomes too hot, a speedy way to cool it is 

 to draw it out altogether for a few minutes and keep it out 

 until the damper has fallen. Then screw down the lamp a 

 little. In practice I find that this is both better and quicker 

 than tampering with the regulator. I am, of course, presum- 

 ing that you have previously got your machine going perfectly 

 steady, and that the heat only rises above the normal with 

 the introduction of the ' live ' eggs. Fresh eggs have exactly 

 the opposite tendency, so that one would require to have 

 the heat regulated to at least 103° before introducing eggs 

 to the drawer. I take it for granted that the user will not 



142 



