32 A REVOLUTION IN EGG PRODUCTION 



be rubbed off or trimmed so that no sharp points of flame will 

 appear. It is these sharp points of flame that start the lamps 

 to smoking, and cause danger from overheated lamp founts. 



If possible, incubators should be run, for best results, in 

 a basement or some such place where the temperature remains 

 fairly uniform. They can, however, be run successfully in a 

 dwelling, but need far more attention under such circum- 

 stances. 



The author ran successfully a home made hot water 

 machine, of his own construction, in the year 1892 in a one 

 story building with a flat tin roof. The temperature of the 

 room often went to over one hundred degrees in the middle 

 of the day, and down to nearly freezing at night. At that time 

 incubators were not perfected as they are now, and such as 

 they were, they were expensive luxuries. Several hatches were 

 made in this home made machine for about seven years, but it 

 took constant watching to maintain right temperatures, as it 

 had no regulator, and all the regulating had to be done by 

 guessing at the necessary amount of lamp flame to keep about 

 ten gallons of water at a nearly uniform temperature. The 

 lamp flame was turned up slightly to overcome night tempera- 

 tures, and turned down in the day time — sometimes turning 

 out the lamp altogether for two or three hours on warm daj's. 



The ideal temperature for the first week is about 102j4° 

 or 103°, for the second weekl03° to 1031/2°. After ten or 

 eleven days the life in the eggs begins to generate bodily heat, 

 and the incubator temperatures may suddenly get too high, 

 unless allowances are made for the generating of this bodily 

 heat in the adjustment of lamps and regulators, or both. 

 Toward the end of the hatch a temperature of 105° may be 

 allowed without harmful results. An increase in the amount 

 of ventilation helps the success of the last few days of incu- 

 bation. 



Success with incubators seems to have become more gen- 

 eral since provisions have been made, in most machines, for 

 maintaining the right degree of moisture in the egg chamber. 



The first class modern incubator will keep the right tem- 

 perature like clockwork, if cared for by a person of average 

 intelligence. 



Just how much variation in temperature, and other 

 changes of a physical nature — such as moisture, etc. — a hatch- 



