37 
chicks and ducklings hatched by artificial means each year, and the 
numbers of good machines now being manufactured in this country at 
low prices make poultry raising a business that almost anyone with a 
limited capital may profitably engage in. The mission of an incubator 
is to supplant the sitting hen, and make it possible to hatch a large 
number of chicks at a minimum amount of cost and labor. That this 
can be done is proved each day. 
For artificial incubation, have a room with a temperature as nearly 
uniform as possible. Balance the beat in the machines, or in other 
words, see that the heat is uniform at both ends, and, in fact, all over 
them. See that each is running steadily before placing the eggs in it, 
as there is a great deal in starting right. The machines should be run 
at a temperature of 102° for the first three weeks, and 103° the last 
week. The eggs should be turned twice each day at regular periods. 
Introduce a pan of water from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day, 
no matter what the location of the machine, whether in a damp cellar 
or in a dry room overhead, in a moist atmosphere near the seashore or 
in a dry one at an altitude in the country. The temperature may go 
as high as 101° just previous to and while hatching without injury. 
Place the glass on a live egg after the animal heat rises, which will be 
when the circulation begins. This will be perceptible in good eggs the 
fourteenth and fifteenth days. 
Considerable weight has been put upon the ventilation question in 
incubators by manufacturers and operators, but it has been found that 
when the egg chamber is roomy, and the eggs are taken out and cooled 
twice each day, it is not of so much consequence. There is no doubt 
but that there must be some ventilation in the egg chamber, but from 
the experience and observation of the writer the value of the subject 
has been overestimated by many. Some machines have top ventila¬ 
tion, some bottom, and others both top and bottom, and there is seem¬ 
ingly no marked difference in the hatching. 
When the ducklings are hatching, the broken egg shells should be 
removed once in every six or eight hours, so that they will not slip over 
. the pijvped eggs, as it would be sure death to the imprisoned ones. 
Occasionally a little bird is unable to free itself from the shell and needs 
help; the expert can readily detect when this is necessary. The one 
point to note in this connection is this: The egg just before hatching 
radiates a great deal of heat, while the duckling, when first out, being 
not unlike a little sponge, absorbs it, or in other words, the rapid evapo¬ 
ration which takes place generates cold; so that when the ducklings 
are out the machine should be gauged one degree higher. 
When the ducklings are all out and dried off, the machine will run at 
least two degrees lower than when they were in the egg. Plenty of 
ventilation is needed in the machines while hatching. Keep the duck¬ 
lings in the machine at least twenty-four hours after hatching, when 
they will be strong enough to be removed to the brooder. The heat in 
the brooder should be started twenty-four hours previous to use, so 
that it will be perfectly heated and ready for the ducklings when they 
are taken from the machine. 
