Money in Broilers and Squabs. 29 



out weak, and appear sticky, not drying off nicely, there has not 

 been enough ventilation. 



"During the last week, an egg containing a living chick, will 

 be one to two degrees warmer than an infertile egg directly beside 

 it," says Mr. Stevenson. "Thus if the bulb were resting continually 

 on an infertile or dead egg, we would be in the same fix as though 

 the thermometer registered too low, and if changed from fertile to 

 infertile, as would be the case were they not tested, we would be 

 continually adjusting the regulator, and wondering why the ma- 

 chine does not regulate itself more closely. On the whole, I prefer 

 having the thermometer hung just above the eggs ; in this way, we 

 get the temperature of the egg chamber, and all eggs are subject to 

 the same degree of heat, the same as when under a hen." 



In answering to the theory that cooling eggs is detrimental to 

 the hatch, Mr. Stevenson, in "Rural New-Yorker," very wisely says : 

 If the change from 103 degrees to 60 degrees or less for the few 

 minutes required for turning, is too great, what about the sitting 

 hen that comes off occasionally for food and water, even though the 

 temperature is 20 degrees or less? * She will stay off in zero weather 

 much longer than the time required to turn the eggs from an in- 

 cubator. In my opinion, the change, if not long enough to chill the 

 eggs, will give stronger chicks than the continually closed machine 

 or the hen that sits more closely. It is much easier to get the de- 

 sired air-space in the eggs when the incul.iator room is at 50 de- 

 grees, than when at 80 degrees, and I find it much easier to get out 

 good hatches of strong chicks in the early spring than in hot 

 weather. 



By far more chicks never see daylight, or pass to rest quickly 

 after hatching, on account of too much moisture than not enough, 

 and unless sure the make of incubator and surrounding conditions 

 require it, one should not use any moisture, or at least, not until 

 the last few days of the hatch. Too much moisture will not only 

 cause many chicks to die in the shell by causing an abnormal 

 growth (the chick swelling so as to completely fill the shell, making 

 it unable to turn and break its way out), but many of those that 

 ■do hatch will not be much expense for feed, as they will not stay 

 long. Some incubators will require moisture in the same room 

 where others will do much better without any at all. There are a 

 lew machines that require the moisture pans to be filled at the be- 

 ginning of the hatch and kept full, owing to their having both top 

 and bottom ventilation, making a direct current of air passing 

 through the egg chamber constantly. The best way to determine 

 the amount of moisture required is to examine the eggs occasionally 

 with an egg tester, and note how the air space is growing; unless 

 it appear as though it will occupy more than one-third the shell by 

 the end of the hatch, no moisture should be supplied. It is a good 

 plan to set a hen at the same time one starts the incubator, and com- 

 pare the eggs occasionally. , ^ . ^ . 



Cripples are generally caused by bemg too long imprisoned in 



the shell. 



