A REVOLUTION IN EGG PRODUCTION 31 



effort as caring for one hen ; and after hatching there can be 

 no comparison between the work and trouble of caring for 

 the chicks as one lot, and the care and trouble of looking after 

 thirty broods with hens. 



The work with hens can be lessened some by doubling 

 up the broods after hatching, or the brooding may all be done 

 by artificial means. Practice will prove that incubator hatched 

 chicks will do better under conditions of artificial brooding 

 than hen hatched chicks. One of the chief reasons for this 

 will be found in the fact that a great percentage, of hen 

 hatched chicks, will be troubled with a legacy of lice, from 

 which pests incubator hatches are free. 



The troubles of caring for broods of chicks under hens 

 will be many, and the more hens the more troubles — in pro- 

 portion to the number of hens. 



Under artificial brooding, all the chicks can be kept safe 

 from weather, vermin, etc., and they will rapidly learn to take 

 care of themselves. Under hens they depend on the hen, and 

 at a critical time, when the owner is counting all dangers as 

 practically passed, the hens may leave the chicks to shift for 

 themselves. Hens when left to their own devices, are about 

 the poorest brooding contrivances imaginable. They travel far 

 with the chicks, tire them out, trample on them, smother them, 

 pick at them, and manage to take them through wet grass and 

 leave some of them there to die. Of course, there are excep- 

 tions, as some hens will prove very good mothers to the chicks, 

 but the exceptions will prove the rule. 



The author had an experience with hens with about fifty 

 chicks, some years ago. The chicks were about four weeks 

 old and were left to shift for themselves during a heavy thun- 

 derstorm. The chicks were picked up drowned, half drowned, 

 and chilled, and were scattered all over the place. 



Each make of incubator will have instructions from the 

 manufacturer as to how it should be run. Some machines are 

 heated by the circulation of hot Agater, and others by the circu- 

 lation of hot air. The heating may be done by means of oil, 

 gas, coal, or electricity. 



In trimming lamps, the wick should be rubbed ofif or be 

 trimmed carefully, and in such a manner that no sharp points 

 are left, especially at the corners of flat wicks. The corners 

 should be slightly rounded. With round wicks they should 



