Poultry Raising. 
9 
Cleanliness of water dishes, food troughs and nest boxes is also im¬ 
portant. Get the habit of cleanliness and you need not fear poultry 
diseases. 
INCUBATION. 
The beginner can profitably follow both methods of incubation, the 
hen and the incubator. The production of strong, thrifty chicks depends 
upon other factors than the broody hen or the make of incubator used. 
As long as we follow the common practice of helping the chicks from 
the shell when they do not want to be hatched, compelling them to live 
by the use of flannels and soothing syrup when they wish to die, call¬ 
ing in the doctor whenever the growing chick or the hen has the cohe, 
using roup and cholera and all the other “cures”; just so long will we 
have eggs of weak fertility and the same incubation difficulties. 
Hatching with Incubators .—The beginner should follow 
closely the instructions sent with the machine he is using. 
Iti will be time enough to disregard the rules when experi¬ 
ence has proven something else better. There are many different 
makes proving good in our state and we would advise buying the ma¬ 
chine doing well in your own community. Do not hatch more chicks 
than you can well care for, but hatch your season's crop in as short 
a time as possible. To do this where many chicks are wanted will re¬ 
quire large incubator capacity, but it will be found advisable not to pro¬ 
long the hatching season unless broilers are turned off regularly. In 
this way the broods will be larger and fewer, the chicks will be of more 
uniform size, therefore more thrifty, and the poultryman will be able 
to devote more time to other work and thereby lessen the cost of labor. 
Hatching with Hens .—The relative merits and advantages 
of natural and artifical incubation would not be altered by 
our discussion. Each method has advantages under certain 
conditions, and' some poultrymen under their own peculiar 
conditions succeed with one method where failure results from trying 
the other. 
Early in the season, when few hens are broody, the incubator will 
be found necessary to produce early chicks; later the hens will give 
good results if given good care. 
Where to Set .—One of our poultrymen, for over .thirty 
years raising poultry in Colorado, builds his nests tier upon 
tier along the wall of a small room. Each hen has a nest 
about a foot square and is fastened in. Every day at a 
certain time the attendant lifts out a few hens to feed, drink and 
exercise. When they are ready to return they are carefully lifted in 
and others are released for a time. To be certain that each hen is return¬ 
ed to her own nest she is banded with a number that corresponds with 
her nest number. While this means considerable work, this breeaer 
