1 Jan., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 37 
swe want as little strain thrown on the regulator—that is, the thermostat—as 
possible. Therefore, an ideal incubator-room will have a temperature of about 
60 degrees, and the less it varies through the twenty-four hours the better. If 
a spare room in the house can be devoted entirely to the incubator, or 
incubators, so much the better. A cellar 1s often suitable if not damp, and 
there is good ventilation. Brick floors are not good—wood or stone is better 
—and the incubator should stand perfectly level. 
Tue TEMPERATURE. 
As previously stated, the best hatching temperature is about 1033 degrees, 
but this is assuming the room temperature is at about 60 degrees. If the room 
temperature falls, the eggs do better at a higher temperature ; if it rises, at a 
lower. Hence, in a hot summer’s day, if the temperature rises to 80 degrees, 
the eggs should be subjected to a temperature of 102 degrees, or even less ; 
while in a cold winter’s day, with a room temperature of 40 degrees, they can 
safely stand 106 degrees, a temperature which would be fatal in hot summer. 
Tt can be safely laid down as a general rule that the lamp should be turned up 
a little at night to compensate for the lowering of temperature which will 
inevitably follow next winter. ; 
Testing THE INCUBATOR. 
But first, having set the regulator at the right temperature, taking into 
consideration that of the incubator-room, and so treating the ventilating 
apparatus that there is a little surplus heat—in other words, so that the damper 
lies from 34-inch to }-inch over the lamp chimney—work the incubator for two 
or three days to see how far it can be relied on to maintain an even tempera- 
ture. With a bad or uncertain thermostat, it needs looking after every two or 
three hours—a tax on one’s time and patience that grows very wearisome ; but 
with a reliable regulator, when it is once in working order, morning and evening 
attendance, and a glance at the thermometer during the day, just to see that 
all is well, alone is required. A variation of more than 3 degrees is generally 
fatal to the egg germs; but no positive statement can be made on this point, 
as so much depends on the strength of the germ, and the period it is subjected 
to too much or too little heat. 
Only fresh eggs should be used for hatching in an incubator. I believe a 
firm claim that their machine hatches stale eggs’ as well as fresh, but I remain 
sceptical. Stale eggs, and this is a rule without exception, hatch better under 
hens than in an incubator. By fresh I mean laid within the week, and it is 
risky to put eggs more than eight days old in an incubator. Eggs destined for 
incubation should be stored in bran, or in an egg rack, at a temperature of 
about 45 degrees, and turned daily. Eggs in any degree abnormal in appearance, 
with wrinkled shell or very large or very small, should not be used for hatching, 
and it is perhaps hardly necessary to add that they should be perfectly clean. 
They should be turned twice a day to prevent the egg germ, which floats on the 
top of the yolk, from sticking to the shell. A sitting hen always turns her 
eggs, Nature teaching her to do so, and any neglect on the part of the owner to 
do this will result in a bad hatch. 
MotsturE AND VENTILATION. 
Besides a regular temperature and turning of the eggs there are two other 
points necessary to keep in mind—the eggs in an incubator require moisture 
and ventilation, and the second is more easily supplied than the first. Eggs, 
indeed, need little ventilation, for, as readers know, the eggs under sitting hens, 
boxed up in a very confined space in spring, get but little of it. The incubator 
makers usually see that the ventilation supplied is adequate. Draughts, of 
course, are very bad, but in all properly constructed incubators draughts playing 
on the eggs are an impossibility. As to moisture, it must be acknowledged we 
