The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-11
SIMPLE RULES FOR THE
 OPERATION OF AN INCUBATOR
Most Successful Methods
 Are Those Learned From
 the Sitting Hen-Ventila-
 tiOn, Temperature, MOis- ture and Turning the Eggs Are the Essentials
Fly FRANK C. HARE Poultry Husbandman, Clemson College,
 South Carolina


 According to the writings of the Aristotle and Pliny the ancient Egyp- tians matched eggs in vessels which they buried In the ground and covered with manure. For the last 2000 years the Egyptians have successfully incu- bated eggs in immense baked clay hatcheries which are heated by burn ing piles of straw and dried manure.
 The hatchery has a capacity of 36,0p0 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 it was reported that out of 85,00O,000 eggs places in the hatcheries, 72.25o,O00 chickens were returned to the Egyptian husbandmen.
 The success of the Egyptian hatch cries, and equally gratifying results in China, demonstrate that 1t is possi- ble 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 from the room be- ing ascertained by placing an egg to the closed eyelid of an expert attend ant. and crude heating methods. are employed. 1t is evident that the suc- cessful matching of eggs cannot be such delicate process as we have im- agined.
 In America and Europe there are no baked clay hatcheries. but the eggs are incubated in lots of 50 to many thou sands in special incubators heated by Kerosene, gas or coal. While there are excellent small incubators on the mar Set designed for the poultryman with small flock, a most desirable size for even the beginner is the machine that hclds about 250 eggs. When more than 1900 eggs are to be incubated at one time, mammoth incubator heated by kerosene or coal-burning stove IS generally preferred to number of lamp heated incubators
 Location of Incubator
 An incubator should be placed in well ventilated room. A bright, airy cellar, or north room having fairly uniform day and night temperatures are most suitable, while a close room filled with impure air will kill the em- bryos in the most vigorous matching eggs Keep the windows constantly open on at least one side of the incu- bator room. and, if there is @ draft or 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 temperature of 1021a degrees can be maintained in the egg chamber from one night until the next. The thermome- ter should hang from the ceiling of the egg chamber, with the bulb so placed that it registers the temperature of the air surrounding the upper portion of the eggs. Do not allow the thermome- ter to touch an egg, as the temperature will fluctuate each time the bulb is moved from a living to a dead embryo the latter being colder.
 Studying Natural Incubation l We will insert an incubator thermome- ter under sitting hen that matches suc- cessfuliy to learn at what temperatures her eggs incubate. By averaging the results of a number of trials, we discover that all eggs in the nest are not kept equally warm. The temperature of the bare breast of the sitter, against which the center eggs rest Is 104.6 degrees. The air at the upper portion of the middle row of eggs in the nest is 1O3.4 degrees while that circulating around the out side row of eggs just inside the sitter s wing has a temperature of 99.4 degrees. In taking these temperatures the ther- mometer was placed at the breast of the hen, or held near the upper portion 1 of the eggs, with the intention of making ] these readings under the hen correspond with the readings of the same thermome- l ter in the egg chamber. The hens used in the experiment matched practically every fertile egg, and, for that reason, can be considered authentic.
 l We have learned, therefore that the highest temperature to which eggs should