into. 
3G7 
PLAIN TALK ON INCUBATION. 
[Last season Mrs. E. C. Moulton told of 
her experience in handling an incubator and 
hatching chicks for neighbors. A farmer’s 
wife who describes herself as “a discour¬ 
aged woman in the chicken business” wrote 
asking Mrs. Moulton to tell her how to run 
an incubator. We think the answer will 
interest many others, and, therefore, print 
it here.] 
The first thing to do when about to 
start the incubator is to level up your ma¬ 
chine. This is very essential, or the heat 
will not be even in egg chamber. Clean 
lamp and put in new wick; also, if you 
have used burners before, it will be a 
good plan to boil out burners with a little 
soda and clean them as you would your 
house lamp burner, so lamp will not smoke. 
After you have selected place for setting 
up the machine, do not move it until hatch 
is over. Do not set machine within six or 
eight feet of stove: if you must set a 
lire screen between stove and incubator, 
and do not set incubator where sun will 
shine on it, for the reason that the sun will 
raise the temperature in the machine, and 
maybe work havoc in your hatch. Try to 
keep your room of as even a temperature 
as possible, and you will have no trouble. 
A cellar is an excellent place after it gets 
later in the Spring, but in the Winter 
months the cellar is almost too cold for the 
comfort of the operator, and besides in 
most cellars there is not correct ventilation, 
so when first running my incubators I 
started with first early hatches in my sit¬ 
ting room, then later in cellar. I have been 
equally as successful in either place. 
Now suppose you have your incubator set 
up and lamp filled and trimmed square and 
even, with no sharp ends to smoke, and 
if a hot-water machine filled with hot water. 
Draw out the egg tray and lay your ther¬ 
mometer on piece of paper, close machine, 
and follow directions that come with ma¬ 
chine until you get the temperature up to 
102 degrees. Now run your incubator one 
day empty and if you do not succeed in 
keeping the temperature regular run it 
empty until you do. Let me give a little 
circumstance that happened when we got 
one of our first incubators; perhaps it will 
help some one else. We started our ma¬ 
chine and 1 ran it all day; my husband 
was not at home. The lamp was turned 
high and everything seemed all right, but 
I could not get the heat up in the egg 
chamber. When my husband returned I 
told him. lie looked the machine over and 
found that the damper lever over the lamp 
chimney had been bent a little so that 
when damper rested on top of chimney it 
did not entirely cover lamp, and so let out 
the heat; so you see every little thing is 
of Importance if you wish your machine to 
run properly. 1 have read a great many 
times of the need of washing out the in¬ 
terior of machine with this, that and the 
other thing. Sometimes it will be advised 
to use soap and water, sometimes some 
louse killer or other. My advice is; keep 
the interior of your machine in that way 
that it will not need such drastic meas¬ 
ures. My incubators after several years’ 
use are as sweet and clean as a bureau 
drawer, and have never had a louse in 
them. 
If you find you can keep your machine 
running at an even temperature, it is time 
to start. Fill egg tray as full as possible 
of fresh-laid eggs if you wish an extra nice 
hatch. Sort your eggs, discarding all im¬ 
perfect ones, and all over large, and extra 
small ones, choosing only medium-sized 
eggs ns perfect as you can find. When 
tilling egg tray roll eggs around with your 
hand and not fill in rows, as you will be 
able to place several more in tray than 
otherwise. Take a lead pencil and put a 
cYoss (X) on every egg. This is to let 
you know when they are all turned. Place 
egg in egg chamber with thermometer bulb 
on egg, close machine and leave it alone 
until the damper begins to rise on top of 
lamp. When it does, draw out egg tray 
and examine the thermometer; it should 
register between 102° and 102° the first 
week, then between 102° and 104° the next 
two weeks. Of course, as the hatch pro¬ 
gresses, you will be careful that tempera¬ 
ture will not get too high, for as chicks 
grow in shell they create heat, so you will 
have to keep adjusting your regulator. If 
temperature gets too high remove the tray 
at once and cool and air eggs thoroughly, 
and place again in egg chamber. I turn 
eggs first day once, next day twice, and so 
on all through incubation until nineteenth 
day. Turn eggs by hand ; the handling does 
them good, as long as it is a gentle move¬ 
ment. Set tray on table and be careful 
not to set tray down with a sudden jar. 
It is well to place a thick pad on table, so 
•is to break the jar of setting tray down. 
The day I turn eggs once I turn them at 
noon; next day I turn morning and evening. 
Never handle eggs after handling lamps, 
as oil is death to germ of eggs. Fill and 
trim your lamp every day. I fill mine 
about, five o’clock in the afternoon; this 
insures plenty of oil in lamp at night. I 
ihink turning by hand is the only way, ns 
it is nearest nature’s way; when the heu 
the rural new-yokkkk 
sits on her eggs she gently stirs the eggs 
under her, and by doing the same we mere¬ 
ly imitate nature. 
I test white eggs on sixth day and dark- 
shelled ones on tenth day. Nearly every 
one tests after dark; I prefer bright sun 
for testing. I make my own tester, and 
it is far better than any I ever saw. Take 
a piece of thick black paper and form it 
into the shape of a cone, and place large 
end to eyes and small end to eggs, and you 
will be able to tell contents of eggs at once. 
If fertile you will notice little veins radiat¬ 
ing to center of red spot in eggs. An egg 
with dark gray or black spot is decayed or 
poorly fertilized. You will find some with 
just a streak of red in a circle; that also 
is a dead germ. A decayed egg you will 
have no trouble in telling, as they are so 
dark in appearance. Take all such out, as 
they only injure the good eggs. If you 
have any doubt, mark them, so you can 
tell them and then test later, and then you 
will be able to tell for a certainty. 
Stop turning on the nineteenth day and 
place paper on bottom of incubator nursery 
sprinkled well with clean sand, and close 
the machine until after hatch. In regard 
to airing eggs, I air them only when turn¬ 
ing for first week; after that, if room is 
comfortably warm, I air them from 10 min¬ 
utes to half an hour as hatch progresses, 
and in regard to moisture I think a great 
deal of this talk about moisture is all hum¬ 
bug. If running your incubator in room 
where there is a stove or the weather is 
extremely dry I keep saucer of water in 
bottom of incubator under eggs. After 
tenth day and about the fifteenth, seven¬ 
teenth and nineteenth uny, I sprinkle them 
with warm water, but 1 have hatched a 
line hatch in cellar in very dry weather, 
and never used a bit of moisture from first 
to last of hatch. I think the moisture 
question is as much a superstition as any¬ 
thing else. We have heard moisture talked 
of so much and told this and that we 
must do that we think all our troubles are 
due to moisture or the lack of it. I think 
if we follow directions and do not watch 
the air cell quite so much we shall get 
quite as large a hatch as if we worried 
ourselves to death about moisture and air 
cells. 
When looking at thermometer draw tray 
partly out and look at temperature, and 
roll eggs around gently with hand, and it 
will give eggs a little airing and cool them, 
and is good for them generally. Of course, 
when I close Incubator, I take out saucer 
of water. Unless it is thought necessary, 
do not open machine after nineteenth day 
until most of chicks are hatched; then 
take them out and put in a good-sized box 
with jug of warm water to keep them 
warm. After taking out most of chickens 
perhaps you will need a little more damp¬ 
ness for tlie easy hatching of the rest of the 
chicks. Wring out a flannel cloth in warm 
water and spread it over the remaining 
eggs and close the machine. After all eggs 
are hatched that will hatch open machine, 
take out what remains and either bury or 
burn them; do not place where cats or 
crows can get them anct form the chicken- 
eating habit. Clean and scrub and scald 
egg tray and leave incubator open to air 
before setting again. Remove soiled paper 
and brush out little remaining sand and 
you will liud a nice, clean incubator, and 
if this is the end of the hatching season for 
you, draw off water and blow out lamp and 
set machine out in sun and wind two or 
three days, bringing in at night, and if a 
spoiled egg should happen to break in ma¬ 
chine burn a little sulphur in machine and 
air well after, and smell will disappear. 
The paper on tloor of incubator keeps it 
clean anil free from smell. 
Do not feed chicks for at least 36 hours, 
then feed a little dry bread crumbs sprin¬ 
kled on fine sand, and give plenty of fresh 
drinking water in some kind of fountain 
that they cannot get into and foul the 
water, nor wet themselves, for here is the 
cause of bowel trouble. A great many 
times chicks get in saucer of water and 
get wet and cold, and next day they are 
sick and next dead. After first few days 
feeding crumbled bread 1 feed some good 
chick food with an occasional feed of pin¬ 
head, or sometimes called stee.l-cut oat¬ 
meal, and after first week feed once a day 
a feed composed of one part beef scrap, 
one part bran and two parts cornmeal. 
Feed sparingly of this, just so all get a 
taste, and increase a little as they grow 
older. This, with now and then a head 
of cabbage until they get out to grass will 
keep them growing nicely. Feed all dry 
feed in litter of clover chaff if it can be 
had, as this gives them exercise hunting 
for their feed. I never put chaff on brooder 
floor, as it gets damp and makes brooder 
unfit for chicks, unless it is cared for often. 
I put plenty of sand on door; this keeps 
brooder dry and clean, and makes it easier 
to clean, and sand is more like the earth 
floor; chicks will never have sore feet from 
keeping them so long on board tloor if this 
is used. I do not use a thermometer in 
brooder. By watching the chicks’ actions, 
if chicks scratch around with a contented 
chip-chip, and lie around in different parts 
of the brooder, it means that they are 
comfortable and plenty warm enough. If 
they crowd close where the heat comes, then 
turn up file lamp. For first few nights 
after they are in brooder 1 go to brooder 
last thing before retiring, and run my hand 
in brooder, and if they are bunching stir 
them tip, for it is sure death to most of 
them if they begin to crowd too close. 
Watch them carefully for first week, and 
after that you will not have to bother 
much with them, only clean brooder often 
and keep a watch for vermin. 
Now a word about your thermometer. 
Be sure it is accurate, as this is of the 
most importance. If your machine is a 
new machine and a first-class make, it is 
probably all right, but if incubator is a 
cheap affair or second-hand, there is a like¬ 
lihood of thermometer not being right. A 
woman who had persistently poor hatches, 
and finally machine would not hatch at all, 
sent her thermometer to me to test with 
mine. I tested it and found it several de¬ 
grees off, and so, of course, it was plain 
why eggs would not hatch. The cost of a 
first-class thermometer is small by the side 
of a machine full of eggs. Turn your eggs 
at a certain time each day, and' stick to 
those times. Fill and trim vour lamp 
regularly ; don’t think you must keep ex¬ 
amining thermometer all the time, and don’t 
keep adjusting the regulator all the time. 
Don’t get nervous;. don’t think if tempera¬ 
ture should rise or fall a little that your 
hatch is ruined. If you obtained your 
eggs from a distance let them rest at least 
a day before placing in incubator. 
MUS. K. C. MOULTON. 
One Cup-Full 
0“f $« 
Flakes One Gallon 
of Milk Substitute 
for 
Abung Live *Stock 
^CALF MEAL 
• eifor r_IN - 
I VAT- 0 % 
\ CARIIOMYDHATES-OSV 
£ North West Mms Co. ^ 
r WINONA. MINN. ” ^ 
FOR EVERY NEED 
Sugarota Feeds are specialized each for its specific use. Each brand 
is balanced for its feeding purpose and tested out in feeding practice on 
our experimental farm. Beginning with 
Sugarota Calf Meal 
you have a perfect milk substitute, not only for calves, but for all young 
stock. It is a malted food as carefully prepared as baby food for the 
child. It is the 
Only Perfect Live Stock Baby Food 
Costs one-fourth as much as milk for calf feeding. The greatest 
saving feed on the dairy farm. 
Sugarota Dairy Feed is guaranteed to produce better results 
other dairy feed, manufactured or home mixed. The guarantee 
plies to Sugarota Swine Feed, Sugarota Cattle Feed, 
Sugarota Horse Feed, Sugarota Sheep Feed, Sugarota 
Scratch Feed and Sugarota Chick Feed. 
Write us for booklet on raising calves without milk. 
North-West Mills Co., 509 W. Third St., Winona, Minn. 
money 
than any 
also ap- 
The Milk Substitute 
For Young Live Stock 
e favorites of our 
~ Fathers and first choice of 
their Sons. Better today than 
ever. Cuts any kind of Grass. 
Don’t buy a new Mower until you 
have seen the WOOD “Admiral.” Its 
excellent features, found in no other 
mower, will surprise you. There are many 
good reasons why the Walter A. Wood Mower 
is world-famous. Just note these three: 
DIRECT UNDERDRAFT —not so-called but genuine. Evener and 
draft rod attached to cutter har and floating-frame at center of 
draft and under the tongue. No side draft. 
THE FLOATING FRAME —one piece and suspended from main axle. 
Its front side rises and falls with cutter bar but docs not change the angle 
of the pitman. No vibration of the pole. 
THE CUTTER BAR IS ALWAYS IN ALIGNMENT. It does not vary by 
tilting the points of guards up or down. This can’t be said truthfully of any 
other machine. 
Our General Agencies everywhere carry a complete line of Machines and Repairs, 
Write today for Free Catalog Mowers, Tedders, Rakes. Binders, Reapers, 
—— - ■ ■ . Harrows, Cultivators, Manure Spreaders, etc. 
Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Co., Box 231 Hoosick Falls, N. Y. 
, The Leading Independent Makers of Harvesting Machines 
Shipped in 100 lb. bags in powder form. 
Ready to Apply to the Land, or will keep till you are ready. 
If you want to know about LIMING the LAND, send for our 
new free pamphlet.—Special booklet for tobacco growers. 
ROCKLAND.ROCKPORT LIME CO. 
BOSTON, 24 Milk Street ROCKLAND, ME. NEW YORK, Fifth Ave. Building 
If your dealer does not carry R-R LAND LIME in stock, write to our nearest office. 
