The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-14
Management of IncubatOrs
 to Secure the Best Results
Continued from Page Three)

| same llHe or the day, either morning or evening. The lamp should be cared for after the eggs are turned In this way the danger of handling eggs with oily or soiled hands will be avoided The charred wick should be trimmed, or else the charred portion scraped off. Particular attention should be paid tu keep the ventilator tube open. If the lamp is smoking it is usually caused by poo roil, dirty wick, poor ventilation regular or some clogging up of the air circulation around the lamp or flue. Chicks should not be taken out of the incubator until they are thoroughly dry, which takes usually from F to "A hours IL hardly pays to attempt to save chicks by helping them out of the shells as these will usually be weddings. All crippled or deformed chicks should be promptly killed. All chicks should be hatched out by the afternoon of the twen- ty-first day, provided the eggs were fresh and full of vitality, and the heat has been maintained at an even tempera- ture.
 Development of Embryo As soon as the embryo begins to de- velop in the egg it begins to breathe
 
 ate through the white of the egg. As the oxygen is used up, carbonic acid gas is given off, and while the amount of oxygen used and gas given off is small, yet it increases as matching time ap- proches. This makes it important that moved carbonic acid gas, be constantly | fresh air which contains oxygen and re- passed through the machine
 Also there is a constant evaporation of moisture from the interior of the eggs 1 through the porous shell. In extremely 1 dry climates in living rooms or in a heated cellar it is necessary to supply some artificial moisture, else the egg will | dry down too fast. For this reason nany successful incubators have appl. ances for automatically supplying the needed moisture. Other incubators re. quire the eggs to be sprinl<led or the | floor dampened to get the very best matching results
 There is very little need for moisture during the first week of incubation. Aft CT that though, in dry climates and dry 1 rooms 1t is necessary to either supply moisture through an artificial device or else by dampening the eggs or sprinkling | the floor. Besides preventing the drying down of the eggs, the applying of mois- ture tends to break down the shell as well as to soften the Inner membrane so that the chicks can easily break out at
 
 | portant that extra moisture be supplied from the seventeenth day until the hatch is completed. Well matched chicks break out of the shell very moist and when the hatch is taking place-from the nine- teenth day on-the incubator should show moisture on the glass door.
 | By looking through the egg tester at the large end of the egg, that is, the air cell end, it will be noticed that the size of the air cell increases as the hatch progresses. By comparing the drying down of the eggs in the machine with 1 eggs set under hen at the same time. the beginner can get fair idea of wheth- CT the eggs in the machine are being sup piled With the proper amount of mois- tiire Just before the hatch comes off on the nineteenth and twentieth days where there is no method of automatical- | ly supplying moisture, it is well to sprin- kie the eggs with warm waser rwrce daily. Where there is no automatic mois- ture device, some lay a woolen cloth ! wTung out of hot water, on the eggs for aE hour on the morning of the twentieth day.
 I Next week Prof. II. R. Lewis, head of poultry department, New Jersey Experi- ment station, will contribute an article on Giving Up City Position to Raise Poul- | try The illutsration, by Louis Paul Ora ham, will show Buff Wyandottes.