Chicks a few hours after hatching ready for their first meal 
I F it were not for incubators, someone has said, we should be 
paying fifty cents apiece for eggs, instead of fifty cents a 
dozen. It is a fact, at any rate, that the tremendous expansion 
of the poultry industry which the past few years has seen has 
been made possible in large measure by the perfection of the 
modern hatching machine. Xot that these machines are really 
perfect: far from it. Yet the best of them are remarkably effi¬ 
cient, even in the hands of amateurs. And it does not pay to 
buy a second-rate incubator at any price. Price is not always 
the gauge, however. There are some very good machines at a 
moderate price. In most States it is possible to get reliable 
advice on the subject by applying to the State 
experiment station, where tests of the different 
machines are constantly being made. 
One may buy an incubator with a capacity 
of but fifty eggs, or one which will care for 
many thousands. Much depends upon the 
number of eggs available at one time. If it 
is possible for the amateur to get out all of his 
chickens in one lot. he will find it a great ad¬ 
vantage. for much extra work is involved when 
it is necessary to care for several broods - of 
chicks of different ages. And yet that may 
not be possible with a small flock, for eggs 
which are to be incubated should not be kept 
over ten days. If his flock is a large one, 
even the amateur may be justified in installing 
a large, sectional machine, possibly one heated by a small coal 
stove. In most localities he can make it pay for itself by hatching 
eggs for other people or by selling day-old chicks. 
With a large machine, an incubator house or cellar will be 
needed, but the average amateur will purchase a machine which 
can be accommodated in his house cellar. Such a cellar usually 
serves very well if it is properly ventilated and the air not too 
dry. It is very important to have an abundance of pure air, and 
many poultry keepers substitute a frame covered with muslin 
for one of the windows. 
One point not to be overlooked has to do with insurance. If 
something goes wroyg and your house burns down you will get 
no insurance unless a clause covering the use of an incubator has 
been written into your policy. It is true that the danger is very 
slight, and yet it is advisable to take no chances, especiallv as the 
cost is negligible. With some types the insurance, charge is ten 
cents on each one hundred dollars; with others, twenty-five cents. 
The charge is always less for machines which bear the label of 
the Underwriters’ Laboratories, Inc., showing that they have 
been passed by the experts of the insurance companies. Some¬ 
times a flat rate of fifty cents a vear is made, if certain conditions 
THE SIMPLE PRINCIPLES OF INCUBATION- 
HOW TO HANDLE THE MACHINE—THE KINDS 
OF EGGS—CARE OF THE YOUNG BROOD 
E. I. F A R R I N G T O N 
are complied with and the insurance offices are satisfied. 
It is not wise to stand the incubator close to a door which is 
often opened, or where sunlight will fall upon it. Sometimes 
close proximity to a stone wall will keep one end cooler than the 
other. Stand the machine perfectly level, or the heat will not be 
evenly distributed ; and have it so placed that the thermometer 
may be read easily at any time. In order to maintain an even 
temperature from the first, the incubator should always be started 
several hours before the eggs are placed within it. The machine 
is not ready for use until the thermometer can be kept at exactly 
103 degrees. It is true that the mercury will drop low in the 
tube immediately after the eggs are put into the machine, but, as 
the eggs become warmed it will return to 103, although perhaps 
not for half a day. This delay need not be a source of worry. 
Many, hatches have been lost because of im¬ 
perfect thermometers. Curiously enough, too, 
when a thermometer goes wrong it is likely to 
be at a point between 100 and 105 degrees. 
It is only a wise precaution to have the instru¬ 
ment which is to be used first compared with 
the clinical thermometer of a physician. 
The eggs must be considered, also. Eggs 
for hatching should be smooth, regular, of 
average size and strong- of shell. It has been 
said that they should not be over ten days old, 
yet eggs which come from special hens or 
fancy stock may be set when two, or even 
three, weeks old, with an expectation of get¬ 
ting a satisfactory number of chicks. Do not 
put brown-shelled and white-shelled eggs m 
the same machine, for, as a rule, the latter will hatch first. 
Fresh eggs usually hatch earlier than those that have been kept a 
long time, and when a high temperature is maintained, hatching 
begins quicker than if it is run low. All these factors tend to 
cause a little departure from the period of twenty-one days com¬ 
monly given as the length of time required for hatching hens' 
po'crc 
Some thermometers are made to touch the eggs, while others 
hang above them. The latter are preferable, for there may be 
something abnormal about the egg on which an instrument rests, 
resulting in a misleading reading. With a hanging thermometer 
the usual plan is to keep it at exactly 103 throughout the hatch, 
except that it may be allowed to run up to 104 or 105 while the 
chicks are breaking out of their prisons. When the contact type 
of thermometer is in use it ife better to have the mercury register 
101 degrees the first week, 102 the second and 103 the third. 
After the eggs are in their chamber they need not be touched 
for three days, but the lamp must be filled and trimmed daily. It 
is well to have a regular hour for this work, in order to avoid any 
possibility of overlooking it. Practically the only danger which 
comes from the use of an incubator is the result of lamp neglect. 
The air space in an egg should increase 
according to the scale shown here 
173 
