Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-10
Most Successful Methods are
Those Learned From the
Sitting Hen
Ventilation, Temperature,
Moisture and Turning the
Eggs are the Essentials
BY Frank @. Hare.
Poultry Husbandman, Clemson Col
lego, South Carolina.

According to the writings of Aris-
totle and Pliny the ancient Egyptians
Matched eggs in vessels which they
buried i'm the ground and covered with
manure. For the last two thousand
years the Egyptians have successfully
incubated eggs in immense baked-clay y
hatcheries which are heated by burn
ing piles of straw and dried manure.
The hatchery has capacity of &c.
900 eggs, 5000 of which are added
every three days. The eggs rest on two
inches of cut straw, are turned three
times daily, and almost all the fertile
eggs hatch. In 1908 il was reported
that out of eighty-five million eggs
placed in the hatcheries, scventy-five
and one-quarter million chickens were
returned to the Egyptian husband
men.
The success of the Egyptian hatch
cries, and equally gratifying results in
China, demonstrate that it is possible
to hatch as great a percentage of
chicks by artificial methods, as when
the work is performed by hens. And
since no thermometers are used in
either country where hatcherieS are
employed, the heat of the room being
ascertained by placing an egg to the
closed eyelid of an expert attendant,
and crude heating methods. are en-
Matching of eggs cannot be such del
icate process as we have imagined.
In America and Europe there are no
baked-clay hatcheries, but the eggs
are incubated in lots of fifty to many
thousands in special incubators heat
ed by kerosene, gas or coal. While
there are excellent small incubators on
the market designed for the poultry
man with a small flock, a most de-
sirable size for even the beginner is
the machine that holds about $50
eggs. When more than 1900 eggs are
to be incubated at one time, man.
moth incubator heated by q kerosene
or coal burning stove is generally pre-
ferred to q number of lamp-heated in
cubators.
Location of Incubator.
An incubator should be placed in a
we'll ventilated room. A bright, airy
cellar or a north room having fairly
are most suitable, while close room
filled with impure air will kill the en-
bryos in the most vigorous Matching
eggs. Keep the windows constantly
open on at least one side of the in
cubator room, and, IL there is a draft
on the machines, cover these windows
with thin cloth.
Set up and level the incubator. Fill
the lamp with high-grade kerosene.
Then operate the incubator without
eggs in it until a temperature of 102 Il
degrees can be maintained in the egg
| chamber from one night until the
next. The therm ometer should hang
from the ceiling of the egg chamber,
with the bulb so placed that it reg
listers the temperature of the air sur
rounding the upper portion of the
eggs. Do not allow the therm mometer
to touch an egg, as the temperature
will fluctuate each time the bulb is
MI from "a
bryo-the latter being colder.
Studying Natural Incubation.
We will insert an incubator ther-
mometer under sitting hen that hat
ches successfully to learn at what tenn
peratures her eggs incubate. BY aver
aging the results of a number of trials.
we discover that all eggs in the nest
are not kept equally warm. The tenn
perature of the bare breast of the sit
ter, against which the center eggs
rest is 1916 degrees. The air at the
upper portion of the middle row of
eggs in the nest is 1894 degrees,
while that circulating around the out
side row of eggs just inside the sit
| ter's wing has. a temperature of 99.4
degrees. In taking these temperatures
the thermometer was placed at the
breast of the hen, or held near the
upper portion of the eggs with the
intention of making these readings
under the hen correspond with the
readings of the same thermometer in
the egg chamber. The hens used in
the experiment hatched practically
every fertile egg, and, for that reason,
can be considered authentic.
We have learned, therefore, that the
highest temperature to which eggs
should be subjected in an incubator is
about 1041a degrees-any higher tenn
perature is unnatural. The lowest
temperature to which eggs should be
held for long period is about SO II
degrees. BY estimating the tempera-
ture of each egg daily from it's location
in the nest whether at the hens breast
middle, or outside row and computing
these temperatures, it was found that
the average temperature during the
hatch at which each egg is incubated
under a hen is 1923 degrees.
| Temperature, Turning and Cooling.
AS a result of this and other expert