40 Money in Broilers and Squabs. 



"The principal loss with broilers is in hatching, not that the 

 incubators are at fault, but because of the difficulty of getting fertile 

 eggs. There may be "more blanks than prizes." When one must 

 buy four eggs, each costing three cents, the first cost of producing 

 a chick may be more than the whole cost of the food required tc 

 carry it to a marketable age. It is on the super-abundance of worth 

 less eggs that all the hopes are shattered. The hatching of chick: 

 in mid-winter, either by hens or by incubators, is something that 

 keeps the operator in doubt until the hatch is over, whether he wilt 

 have the egg drawer "alive" with chicks or have to carry out the 

 eggs in large baskets to be buried. 



"The reasons for the loss of chicks dying in the shell are too 

 numerous to be known, and one of which may be the cause. 

 Neither the hen nor the incubator fails to lose chicks in that man- 

 ner. The following are some of the causes. Eggs from immature 

 pullets, cock too fat, hens too fat, hens beginning to molt, shells of 

 eggs too thick, cock with frosted comb, cock inactive, feeding high- 

 ly seasoned food, lack of exercise of hens, exposing the eggs just 

 when the chicks are coming out, lack of bulky tood for hens, natural 

 weakness of parents, inbreeding, lack of vigor in male, inherent 

 lack of vitality in chicks, too close and persistent sitting by the hen, 

 thus overheating the eggs ; hens once affected with roup, cockerel 

 not matured. The above are only a few causes. If eggs are col- 

 lected from all sources (as is often done for incubators) it is an 

 utter impossibility to avoid securing eggs that will allow chicks to 

 develop, but which cannot get out. To know the exact cause of 

 failure, in each case, is too much for any living human being. 



"The majority of failures are not due to the incubators but 

 from using eggs from fat hens. If an incubator hatches one egg it 

 should hatch all that will hatch. 



"One of the mistakes usually made is in supposing that eggs 

 must have moisture ; that is, the eggs must be in the presence of 

 damp earth, or resting on it. The eggs under hens are therefore 

 sprinkled, while pans of water are kept in incubators to supply 

 moisture. Recent experiments show that during incubation the 

 moisture (water) in the eggs is rapidly given off, and near the end 

 of a hatch tests show a very large air space at the large end of the 

 egg. The chick does not fill this space, but seems packed in the 

 egg lower down. When too much moisture is given the chick 

 grows more than it should, and becomes too large to remain in the 

 egg and not sufficiently developed to come out. The conclusion 

 is that no moisture is necessary for incubation unless in extremely 

 dry locations, and then not so much with a view of supplying 

 moisture as to prevent too much evaporation from the egg. 



"Chicks will die in the shells, however, despite all that can be 

 done, as there are so many conditions regulating incubation which 

 cannot be all complied with. A chick may inherit weakness from 

 its parents, or the eggs used may not be of normal size, or perfect in 

 every' respect. If a dozen hens are sitting at one time it will be 

 found that all are not equally successful in hatching. Some will 



