Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-10
INCUBATORs THAT BEAT HENS.
Automatic and Artificial Arrangements
for Fuzzy Little Orphans.

Tor Euzzy Little Orphans.
Nelo York SUM-
In broad, wire-coVered box. with A
bottom of fine earth, in a basement WIN
dow in Liberty street, is a brood of little
chickens, apparently two or three DAYS
old. Their bodies are covered with
yellow and black feathers as fine as fur.
They run about in the most lively manner.
peeping and chirping constantly. Some
pick at the earth, and others drink water
at a narrow little trough, holding up their
heads to allow the water to filter down
their necks, blinking meantime cOmically.
Three small boys shouted with delight
when two of the chicks faced each other.
with beaks extended and wings out.
They picked viciously twice at each other.
and then both ran away with prolonged
peeping.
''They are orphans" said a pleasant
old gentleman in the basement. "They
were Matched in an incubator yesterday
On one side of the room were a number
of incubators. They looked a little like
an ice chest,i with glass panels in doors
that swung down by hinges on the lower
side. The frame was about 81 by 81
feet large and 4 feet high over all. At
one end was a black tin vertical cylinder
four inches in diameter and foot high.
Pipes ran from the top Of the CYLINDER
through the top of the frame and back
again under the bottom to the cylinder.
In the frame between the two series of
pipes were a number of shallow trays.
with wire cloth bottoms, filled with eggs
placed on end. A kerosene lamp sent its
heated air into the cylinder. A bit of
clockWork could be seen in small glass
case on top of the frame.
"The lamp heats the water that fills the
tubes you see there" the old man ex-
planned, land the water circulates around
10 nd ho IL,
cylinder as it cOols. That keeps the eggs
warm"
"But If the lamp is turned on too high?"
just then a large valve revolVed in the
top of the incubator.
"The machine is self-reguluting. When
the temperature rises, an electrical con-
nectiOn is formed that starts the clock
work and OPENS that valve. When the
temperature falls"
Here the old man opened the side doors.
and in minute the valve closed.
''When it falls, you see it closes itself;
but that is not all, for you see the lamp is
turned up when the valve closes, and
down when it opens"
"What is tie temperature that matches
the chickens?"
''From 112 degrees during the first ten
days to 103 degrees or 1914 degrees for the
remaining ten. That automatic arrange
ment keeps the variation within one
degree"
"Then all you have to do is to put in the
eggs and light the lamp?"
''No. After three days the eggs must
be turned over twice a day. The little
shallow pans underneath the trays must
be kept full of water, so that the air will
be moist. On the fourth day the eggs
must be examined in tester, and all that
remain clear must be removed, because
WI oh nd
yet be use for cooking. Then they must
all be examined later on to remove any
that have died. Still, half an hour daily
will keep everything in order until the
nineteenth day, when the chicks will
begin to pick and peep in their efforts to
get out"
"Then you have to help them break the
shells?''
'We don't have to do anything of the
kind. It's widespread notion that the
mother hen has to help her chicks out of
the shells, but she doesn't. After several
hours of intermittent pidking the chick
makes a small hole through the she'll.
Then he rests like man ON the water
after a long dive. Then he breaks a line
around to the right and then to the left,
resting at intervals. Finally, vigorous
plunge liberates him. He is wet and
hOmely Them
The artificial mother is a shallow box
with a perforated metal bottom partly
covered with earth, and two warm water
pipes that kept the temperature at SO de-
gree at first and lower later on. Pieces
of flannel hung over the pipes and down
near to the bottom of the box. The chicks
gather under the flannel as they would
under hens wings. A long row of little
wOOlly yellow and black heads, with
bright, round eyes, projecting from under
a strip of red flannel is an interesting
spectacle.
care chickens Matched by machine as
vigorous as those Matched naturally?'
more so. Incubators are unsenti-
mental, but they are business. They will
hatch % per cent. more eggs
than hens. The chicks are never afflicted
with vermin. They get the right care
after they are Matched. They grow more
rapidly, and become healthier fowls every
way. At cock fight, back the bird from
the orphan asylum against the home
raised fowl every time. Another advant-
age of the incubator is that spring
chickens can be produced at the season
adapted to the business, chicken raising
is profitable employment, requiring only
a small capital"
SHOW much capital?r
ga medium-sized incubator, holding
from 700 to 1000 eggs, costs from $3.50 to
$3.50. One holding 1000 eggs costs $500.
Much larger ones are made to order.
More than one man has made a success
with less than $500 to start on. But many
men with large capital fail because
they either know too much or they do not
give the business the proper attention"
Chow long have hatchers been in user"
''From 5000 to 5000 years. Herodotus
tells about cellars in Egypt where eggs
were placed beneath furnaces so as to
apply the heat from above. There were
Railways through which the attendants
passed to turn the eggs. They had
noticed that a hen would turn the eggs
several times in day when sitting on her
nest. The Egyptians follow the old
system now. They get II, 900, 600 chicks
year out of 25,0O0,000 eggs placed in their
incubators. The best American machines
hatch out more than so per cent. of the
eggs. There are torty-ene chicks in the
window there. got them from forty-four
eggs. OF course, l think my incubator is
the best. The new ostrich farm in Cali
fornia uses incubators, because, as we
know, the ostrich does not set.'
Palmer's Perfumes. Exquisite.
Palmer's Toilet Soaps. Lovely.
Dolr e ofinn 20 clrS