Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1918 — POULTRY MAN GIVES ADVICE [ARTICLE]

POULTRY MAN GIVES ADVICE

The incubator should be ordered six or eight weeks before it is expected to start the lamp going, said a successful poultryman. Many delay ordering until a week or two before the machine is wanted, and are usually disappointed because it does not arrive at the expected time. During the rush season, incubator manufacturers sometimes have more than they can promptly attend to, and some delay in filling orders is unavoidable. The safe way is to order in advance of the breeding season. Another advantage in ordering is that one can take plenty of time to adjust and regulate the machine, and to study the directions for its proper operation. The kind or type of incubator to buy will often puzzle the beginner. Two systems of heating are employed in the manufacture of incubators —the hotair system and the hot-water system. In general, it may be stated that either system of heating Is satisfactory. I have three hot-water machines and one hot-air machine, ,and find that one system of heating is not superior to the other. Each system has its advantages, and. it may also be stated that each has its disadvantages. In case the lamp, for any reason,' goes out a hot-water machine would hold its heat much longer than would a hot-air machine, but with proper at-, tention the lamp will not go out. I have had a fairly good hatch in a hotwater machine after the lamp was out for ten hours. The hot water in the pipes cools slowly and the heat is retained in the machine. In a hot-air machine, the eggs would .likely chill were the machine kept without heat for a few hours. The disadvantage of a hot-water machine is that there is always the danger of the tank or pipes springing a leak and thus ruining- the eggs in the machine. The danger from this source is not great, however, if the boiler is kept full of water, and the machine leveled before starting.

Tn purchasing Incubators, many of those who have had no experience in artificial incubation, make the mistake of purchasing machines of small capacity. It is very little more trouble to operate a machine of two-hundred-egg capacity than it is to operate one of fifty-egg capacity, and the cost of fuel in operating the larger machine is very little .more. Where one has several large machines a small machine comes in handy in that it enables one to run the large machines at full capacity. I have three machines of 240-egg capacity, and one 50-egg machine. My small machine never hatches an egg. It-doesn’t get a chance. During the hatching season I an one of the large machines and the

little machine at the same time. In a week, the eggs In the machines are tested, and usually sufficient Infertile eggs, and eggs with dead germs are tested out of the big machine that It can receive all the good eggs from the little one. When this testing is completed, another big machine and the little machine are started simultaneously and the operation repeated. The little machine enables me to run my big machines at full capacity.