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SPRINGFIELD, MASS.:
THE PHELPS PUBLISHING CO.
1886.
Something to Make Your Hens Lay.
“ANIMAL MEAL ©
FOR FOWLS AND PIGS.
Made from Fresh Meat, Fresh Bones, dried and ground to a sweet meal, to
which is added Parched and Carbonized Grain, making a sweet, stimu-
lating, and highly nutritious food which Fowls and Pigs eat greedily.
There is a universal want among farmers and poultry-men for something to
make hens lay during the winter months; for the profits of keeping poultry main-
ly depend upon aliberal egg production throughout the season. Experienced
persons are aware that there is nothing better for this purpose than meat, yet few
are so Situated that they can procure from home resources all that it would be
profitable to feed, and there is a general want of something in a cheap and con-
venient form to answer this purpose. To supply this want we have prepared
the Animal Meal, an article which has been ex! ensively used by practical men for
several years, and given excellent satisfaction. It is made from fresh, lean meat,
and bones cooked and dried by steam to dry, sweet meal.
HEN S L AY When fed with this Animal Meal very soon after feeding it to them.
As an egg-producing food itis the best thing that has ever been
prepared, possessing as it does all the stimulating qualities of fresh meat, to
which are added the stimulating qualities of parched and carbonized grains,
which are known to be especially good to make hens lay, and alsoa portion of
bone which furnishes lime and phosphate for the shell in abundance and in pre-
cisely the right form.
PROMOTES HEALTH The Animal meal will be found excellent for fowls in
s confinen:ent, and, if properly cared for in other re-
spects, fowls fed upon this meal will do as well in small yards as those which
have a wider range. It prevents feather-eating, and often cures fowls addicted to
this habit. Fowls properly fed upon this Meal will lay no soft-shelled eggs, and
they will also moult easily.
PRICES: Trial Bags of 15 lbs. 50c 100 lb. Bag, $2.50
nS 30 SSSI 1 bbl. 200 Ibs., 5.00
Ground Oyster Shells for Fowls.
. This is made from oyster shells, thoroughly washed, dried. and made sweet, then
reduced to the size that passes easily through ascreen of one-half inch mesh.
It is liked very much to feed to poultry to supply lime, and as a substitute for
bone, being cheaper. It isnow very extensively used, and no person keeping
newts should be withoutit. 25lb. bag, 30 cents. 50 Ib. bag, 60 cents. 100 1b. bag,
cents. :
Bowker’s Bone Meal for Cattle.
This is made from carefully selected bone, reduced to a meai, white, clean, and
perfectly sweet. Many farmers claim that the feeding of bone meal will prevent
abortion in cows. This is no doubt true; andit should be more generally fed to
cattle, especially cows with calf, which take to gnawing boards, the ground, or old
bones and boots. It will also furnish the phosphate of lime, especially needed
in growing stock to build up the bone structure; also to supply the phosphate of
lime removed from the system in the milk. Itis estimated thata dairy cow re-
quires during a year at least 50 Ibs. of phosphate of lime, in which case the feed-
ing of bone meal must be very beneficial, particularly when craved on the part of
the animal. It is also claimed that it will prevent and cure “Cripp e-Ail,” which
is the weakening of the joints and bones, and no doubt the result of not feeding
sufficient bone-forming food, like bone meal. Feed from a table spoonful to one-
half pint at a time, as long as the animal seems to crave it. Most cows and grow-
ing stock will lick it down as they do salt. With some, however, it will be neces-
sary to feed it with grain. 101b. bag, 50 cents. 25 lb. bag, $1.00. 100 lb. bag, $3.00.
BOWKER FERTILIZER CO.,
BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
American Agriculture.
9
SATEEN YEARS EXPERIENCE
IN
ARTIFICIAL POULTRY-RAISING
BY
JAMES RANKIN,
SOUTH EASTON, MASS.
a e. BoE P 9 2
: ha 30 1885 .
EDITED BY
HERBERT MYRICK,
Agricultural Editor of THE NEw ENGLAND HOMESTEAD (weekly),
and FARM AND HOME (monthly).
[Copyright, 1885, by the Phelps Publishing Company.]
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. :
THE PHELPS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1886.
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PART FIRST.
SIXTEEN YEARS’ EXPERIENCE
—— [1 N——
ARTIFICIAL POULTRY-RAISING.
<cutendes
JAMES RANKIN.
INTRODUCTION.
Artificial ineubation is not, as many suppose, of recent origin,
but was in successful operation thousands of years ago in Egypt.
The celebrated egg-ovens of that country are a matter of history,
but the secrets of their success have never been fully divulged.
A close investigation of the subject shows that the management
of these ovens was confined to a certain class and its secrets care-
fully transmitted from father to son. The eggs were brought
to the ovens by the country people, who at the end of the three
weeks returned, paid their fees and took their chicks—some fifty
to seventy per cent, according to the fertility of their eggs. The
real truth of the matter is, that the men, by long practice, had
become so expert in the business that in a climate where the avy-
erage temperature was but a few degrees below that required
for incubating the egg, it was a comparatively easy matter to
keep aneven heat, simply using the body as a thermometer.
This, in our climate of ice and snow, would be quite a differ-
ent thing and next to impossible. Besides, the enterprising
Yankee of the present day has got the impression that his time
is of more value than that of a sitting hen, and has invented ma-
4. INTRODUCTION.
chines that not only regulate their own heat automatically, and
generate their own humidity of atmosphere, and with a very little
attention on his part, hatch his chicks for him without in anyway
interfering with his regular business.
Incubators have been in use in this country for more than
thirty years, and in England, France and Germany for nearly a
century, but with so little success that the business has not been
considered practical even by the most sanguine. In years past
thousands of these machines have been thrust upon a credulous
public, whose only use seemed to be to disappoint their purchaser
and addle his eggs, and if possible increase the antipathy which
already exists in the public mind against incubators. Within a
few years, great improvements have been made in the construc-
tion and regulation of these machines; so much so, that there are
some now upon the market that in the hands of the average man
or woman, not only do better work, but are more reliable than
the best hens. There are many others which though successful
in the hands of their inventors themselves are of no use to the
general public.
For the past thirty years I have been engaged in growing
thousands of chicks and ducks yearly; the first fourteen years
of that time hatching and growing them in the natural way, but
for the last sixteen years have been using incubators of different
patterns. The result of this experience is, that I consider hens
essential to furnish eggs, but a nuisance for hatching and grow-
ing chicks. I propose in the following pages to give the readers
my actual experience with incubators during the past sixteen
years. I am aware that in so doing I shall advocate many points
which the manufacturers of other incubators flatly contradict in
their instructions, but I shall advance nothing but sound theory,
confirmed by actual experiment, and when the reader has
acquainted himself with my miserable failures and the suc-
cess I have achieved through these experiments, he will be ina
condition to draw his own conclusions.
CHAPTER. I.
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH INCUBATORS.
THE OLD WAY—SETTING HENS—TENDING THE MACHINE—DIS-
ASTROUS RESULTS.
In the year 1868 quite an excitement was created in poultry
circles in the vicinity of Boston by the introduction of an incu-
bator. The manufacturer claimed that it not only hatched as
well or better than hens, but that it regulated its own heat, re-
quired little or no care and attention and could be easily operated
without in anyway interfering with one’s regular business.
Now this was just what [ had been looking for. I had been
engaged in growing poultry from boyhood and at the time spoken
of had gotten the fever badly. For some ten years previous I
had been in the habit of getting out from twelve to fifteen hun-
dred chicks and ducks during the spring months of each year by
the old hen process, and it had not always proved satisfactory.
For though I could always find a ready market for early spring
chicks at from sixty to seventy-five cents per pound at the club
houses and first-class hotels in Boston, I could not always induce
biddy to commence business in time to furnish them. She was
carefully fed, fancy nests were fixed up in the nooks and corners
aad filled with porcelain eggs; in fact every facility was afforded
her as an inducement to begin, but with only partial success.
Then again, during the months of May and June, when we
wished to retire from business, the nests were invariably filled
with persistent sitters. There was a constant battle with water-
barrels, red rags, solitary confinement on the one side and per-
sistent obstinacy on the other. I did not then know that the
introduction of a vigorous young cock among a yard of sitters,
with plenty of food and exercise, was far more effective in in-
a
ducing a change of mind than more vigorous treatment, cold bath
and signals included.
This machine was going to relieve me from all further trou-
ble, and hatch cout the chicks just when they were the most val-
uable. I visited Boston and saw the machines in operation.
The eggs were taken out and broken at different stages of de-
velopment. Everything appeared to be satisfactory, a five-
hundred egg machine was purchased, taken home and set up and
in due time filled with eggs, precaution being taken to set fifteen
or twenty hens at the same time. These hens were intended to
accommodate the machine chicks in addition to their own. The
machine was a very expensive one, and I soon found, it had at
least two good qualities: It was most thoroughly built in every
part and could generate all the heat needed to incubate eggs in
a temperature below freezing point.
I soon found, however, that the difficulty did not consist so
much in generating the heat as in controlling it. The regulating
apparatus consisted of a glass syphon, some two feet long filled
partly with aleoholand partly with mercury; the alcohol being
inside of the machine and the mercury outside. In this mercury
was inserted a wired cork. The heat was expected to expand
the alcohol, force up the mercury and raise the cork. Now as
this cork was attached by a small wire to the ventilator and by
a second wire to a cut-off on the lamp and worked simultaneously
on both, the least expansion or contraction of the alcohol by heat
or cold was expected to control the heat in the egg chamber.
But unfortunately the alcohol was placed in the extreme _ bot-
tom of the machine, where there was the least heat, and the eggs
in the top where there was the most heat, so that, as the heat in-
creased the eggs got the benefit of it first and the liquor after-
wards, the damage was done before the remedy was provided.
I wrote to the manufacturer stating the difficulty. He as-
sured me that the machine was all right and that the trouble was
in me and entirely the result of my own ignorance and inexperi-
ence, and that I would soon get the hang of it. This was not
consoling, but I resolved that if there was any virtue in persis-
tency, I would succeed. ;
I will here digress enough to say that a course of twelve
years with that machine did not give me experience enough to
run it without the regular nightly visitations. The thing sat like
an incubus on my shoulders, and during the four months of each
year I never knew the luxury of sleeping a single night without
being obiiged to get up, dress, and wend my way to that incuba-
tor room, often in storms or wallowing through snowbanks some-
times with the mercury below zero. But I did not flinch. I
resolved that if a failure it was, it would not be through me.
During this time the twenty hens were properly cared for. My
habit was to take off the birds during the extreme - cold weather
in the warmest part of the day and during the fifteen minutes they
were off feeding and dusting, the eggs were carefully covered
nee ee
with a circular piece of paper so that when the birds were re-
turned to the nests the eggs had cooled but a few degrees. At
the endof twenty days there was a great chipping and chirping under
the hens, and at the close of the twenty-first day more than two hun-
dred lively Brahma chicks had made their appearance, but there
were no signs of life in the machine. I felt much discouraged about
this, because experience had often taught me that when chicks came
out forty-eight hours behind time, their number was sure to be small
and their life short. During the twenty-second day a faint chirping
was heard and a few eggs pipped. At the close of the twenty-third
day about thirty chicks, with my assistance, made their appearance;
without that, they never would have seen the light of day. They
were a sorry looking set at best. The down was plastered to their
bodies by a sort of mucilaginous secretion from the eggs. The
seemed lifeless and debilitated and when consigned to the old hen,
kept her in a constant fever with their sickly plaints. They refused
to eat, dropped off one by one and were soon a thing of the past.
All this time their natural and more favored brothers were doing
first-class work as far as consumption of food and growth were
concerned.
CHAPTER II.
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE CONTINUED.
“I TOLD YOU SO”—KEEP THE INCURATOR A SECRET—NOT DIS-
COURAGED—INSTRUCTIONS FOLLOWED—MORE FAILURES—THE FOR-
LORN HOPE—THE MACHINE CHICKS SHUFFLE OFF—RESULTS OF
CAREFUL WORK.
Well, my first attempt at artificial incubation had proved a
disastrous failure. Biddy had come out a long way ahead, and
to add to my trouble, my neighbors, who had looked on incredu-
lously from the first, now began to console me with the old re-
frain: “What did I tell you?”
By the way, I advise every one who intends purchasing an
incubator to keep it a profound secret from his neighbors. Call
the thing a “cold blast refrigerator,” or anything you please, but
keep the neighbors out of the way until you have a good hatch,
then invite them in to see the chicks come out. If you happen
to have a poor hatch, and they should find it out, as they always
will, you will feel like whipping somebody.
My courage, though somewhat abated, had not all oozed out.
I was resolved to try again, yet I did not see how I could improve
upon what I had done. I could get neither advice or consolation
from the inventor. The instru€tions were few and simple, and I
had followed them to the letter. “Trim your lamps once and
turn your eggs twicea day. Run your machine at 103°. Change
your trays twice each day, putting your lower ones above and
your upper ones below each time. Be sure and cool your eggs off
fifteen minutes each day, taking them out of the machine to do it.
Keep your evaporating pans full of water.”
My machine was again filled with eggs, twenty-five dozen
more were consigned to the care of brooding hens at the same
time, and the same routine carried out as before, though the de-
el i
tails, were if possible, more carefully observed thanever. In the
meantime the business was conducted in the natural way the same
as of yore. Whenever a hen became broody she was supplied
with eggs and I had forty or fifty sitters constantly at work. In
due time the hens that were set with the machine duplicated their
former hatch. The machine did the same and came out as far
behind as ever. ‘ :
That machine was filled a third and fourth time with no
better success. A fifth time it was filled with duck eggs, out of
which I did not get a single duck, except two or three which I
picked out, and those died at once, while my hens that behaved
themselves, got out an average of eleven ducks out of every
twelve eggs intrusted to their care.
It thus was an open question in my mind whether artificial
incubation under the most favorable circumstances could be made
SSS
Fig. 1—My First Incubator.
a success. I had put nearly two hundred dozen eggs through
that machine. Those eggs were worth the greater part of the
time fifty cents per dozen. (That was the price I obtained for
them the entire winter from private families in Boston, they pay-
ing the express.)
Out of that two hundred dozen eggs I had got out less than
two hundred sorry-looking chicks. Those chicks had come out
apparently in all stages of development, and in every conceiva-
ble deformity. There were crooked legs, twisted bills, hump-
backs, clump feet. Numbers came out with the digestive organs
attached on behind like the antenne of a wasp, outside of the
chick instead of inside, where it ought to be. One in particular
introduced himself with one leg below and the other on his back
as |, a
above, both so attached that he could make use of neither. Those
machine chicks, unlike their natural brothers, had a strong antip-
athy to locomotiun; activity was their aversion. Their general
aspect was that of profound meditation. Their favorite attitude
was reclining on their broadside. ‘They were bound to shuffle off
this mortal coil at all hazards and no amount of petting or coax-
ing could induce them to reconsider their decision.
1 have my doubts to-day if I succeeded in maturing a single
one of those machine chicks. There could be no fault with the
eggs or the fowl from whence they came. In an experience of
thirty years, I have never had so highly fertilized eggs during the
winter months as during these trials; fully ninety-eight per cent
were fertile. Hens that behaved themselves came out with broods
of from ten to twelve chicks and sometimes hatched every egg.
On May 1, in summing up the winter’s work, the account was
thus: From one hundred and eighty dozen eggs consigned to
hens, nearly one thousand chicks and two hundred and eighty
ducklings. From two hundred dozen put through the in-
cubator, 00.
| eae
CHAPTER III.
IMPROVING THE INCUBATOR.
I DO SOME THINKING—A VITAL ERROR DISCOVERED—THE PROS
AND CONS OF COOLING EG@GGS—SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS—I AM
JUBILANT AND PREDICT GREAT THINGS—PRIDE HAS A FALL BUT
SOME ADVANCE IS MADE—NO DOUBTS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INCU-
BATION—I REBUILD THE MACHINE.
During this time I had done some thinking. There was
plainly a cause or causes for these failures. It was for my inter-
est to discover and remove them or else throw aside the machine
as worthless, which I was no; yet prepared to do. It had cost
too much money for that.
. There was one thing that was entirely amiss. The machine
chicks had invariably come out behind time and yet I had repeat-
edly put glasses under hens to ascertain the temperature, which I
found about 103°, and then run the machine the same. But I
found that when the five hundred eggs were taken out of the in-
cubator and cooled off in a cold room for fifteen minutes, that
when they were returned to the machine there was such a large
body of them that the eggs seemed to cool the air in the machine
instead of the air warming the eggs; so much so, that when the
room was cold, it was often three and even four hours before the
eggs reached their normal heat. Thus in reality I had been run-
ning at a temperature of from 75° to 103°.
. How had biddy been running? I would find out about that.
A hen was taken off the nest for fifteen minutes and then re-
turned; when finally settled down,a glass was carefully placed
under her. In twenty minutes those eggs, brought into immedi-
ate contact with the rapidly pulsating arteries of the hen’s body,
were back to their normal heat of 103°. Here was a solution of
the difficulty and yet my instructions were imperative to cool the
eggs fifteen minutes each day. But I found that cooling the eggs
Sih
fifteen minutes at a temperature of 40° did as much execution as
cooling them fifty minutes with the room at a temperature of 80°.
Evidently things were mixed at headquarters.
It now occurred to me that though cooling off the eggs might
be a necessity to the old hen, it might not be at all essential to
the welfare of the embryo chick. Nothing easier than to find
out. I would run an experimental machine for the purpose and
settle the thing once for all.
I procured three paper-box covers, perforated the bottom
with holes, and placed them in the machine in the centre of the
drawers with a dozen eggs in each.
One box of those eggs was taken out daily and cooled to the
usual temperature. Another was taken out and cooled while
trimming the lamp, about three minutes. The other box was
not taken out during the hatch, the eggs being turned in the ma-
chine. The result of that experiment was six chicks from the box
of cooled eggs, and dead chicks in the other six eggs, in all stages
of development.
The box taken out for a moment or two, hatched ten chicks
and two died in the shell. From the box that was not moved, 1
took eleven lively chicks, the remaining egg being unfertile.
Those eleven chicks came out with that fine yeilow tinge which
characterizes your healthy Brahma chick hatched in the natural
way.
Tosay that I felt relieved does not express it. I was jubi-
lant. I even went so far as to tell some of my loquacious neigh-
bors that they would see a thing or two when the next season
opened.
I made arrangements for an early start the coming winter,
as what broilers I had sold had brought sixty-five cents per pound
at the club houses in Boston and I did not have enough to supply
the demand. I started machines and hens about the first of Jan-
uary, taking every precaution to ensure success. My chagrin
may be imagined, when as I had confidently expected at least
ninty per cent to hatch, I in reality got but forty per cent. The
rest of the eggs contained chicks dead in all stages.
It was true it was a decided improvement on the last winter.
I had got three times as many chicks and they had come out
stronger and were doing well. They had also come out in time,
which was a great point. I tried a second hateh with the same
result, biddy coming out as usual.
I had no longer doubts about the success of artificial imenba-
tion. Those eleven chicks the previous year had proved it be-
yond a doubt. Notwithstanding the inventor’s assertion, I be-
lieved the trouble was in the machine and not in me, because I
had heard in a roundabout way that he himself was not doing
any better than I was; in fact, not as well, and I found that a
great many others were victimized with it like myself.
Inan unfortunate moment, just after I was through with
that experimental hatch the season before, the inventor had writ-
= (a
ten me for a testimonial, and being elated at the time, I wrote
him that I had just got a one hundred per cent hatch. Of course
he made a free use of it, and it materially assisted him in victim-
izing others.
Being thoroughly convinced that the machine was at fault
and not myself, I overhauled it in every part. I found that the
ego-chamber was heated by perpendicular tanks on all sides ex-
cept that occupied by the door in front; also by a tank over the
top.
E The machine was ventilated through the tank over the top,
in the centre of the egg-chamber, the cold air being admitted
through the doors in front. By this arrangement at the back of
the egg-chamber where it was all tank and constant heat radiating
therefrom, there was no ventilation, while in front, where there
was no heat, was located all the ventilation.
It was easy to see now where the trouble was. But why had
I not seen this before? I had blindly thrown away hundreds of
dollars’ worth of time and eggs during the first two years. I wrote
the inventor plainly stating the defects in the construction of his
machine and asked him if he would not remodel it tosuitme. He
answered me by asking if 1 pretended to know more about the
machine than the manufacturer who invented it.
I purchased a dozen glasses at once, resolved to know the
extent of the trouble. I placed those glasses in every part of the
ege-chamber. I found that while the temperature was 103°
in the centre it was 109° at the back and sides, and 100° at the
front; and while the glasses represented 103° on the upper trays,
the lower ones represented 98°.
This at once accounted for my previous failures. I then
closed up the draft in front, and drawing the water out, bored
holes through the tank in the back and sides, admitting ventila-
tion where it was needed most, filling up the tank to just below
the egg-trays. This evened up the heat in the egg-chamber to a
great degree and decidedly increased my percentage of eggs
hatched.
CHAPTER IV.
THE OLD, OLD STORY.
NOT SATISFIED—NEW SELF-REGULATING INCUBATORS—THE OLD
DIFFICULTY, UNEVEN TEMPERATURE—RECENT [MPROVEMENTS.
But this was not satisfactory, for though I was tolerably
sure of from sixty to seventy per cent of the eggs hatching, yet
I could use but one tray, thus cutting the machine down to one-
third its original capacity, which made a very expensive machine
of it. Iran this incubator in connection with hens for a number
of years, and they made about an even thing of it.
Sometimes when I over-slept myself, biddy would come out
a little ahead; and again, when she would prove refractory,
smash eggs and give up the business just “before the hatch was
due, the odds would be in favor of the machine.
I was dissatisfied with this state of things. Sad experience
had taught me what the requirements of a good incubator were.
How to get them all in one machine was the difficulty. In the
meantime, a number of new machines had been invented in dif-
ferent parts of the country, all claiming to do first-class work,
and to completely supercede the old machines which were de-
nounced as worthless. The heat in these machines was regulated
by batteries, thermostatic bars, etc., even to the fractional part of
a degree. The machines were accompanied by testimonials from
different parties, apparently genuine, claiming eighty, ninety, and
even one hundred per cent hatches.
I now thought my time had come, though I had done fairly
well with my machine for a number of years, yet I did not get
first-class hatches and there was altogether too much night work
connected with it. I was ready to buy another machine, if it was
as represented; and as some of them had drifted into the adjoin-
ing counties, I thought I would go and interview the owners of
these machines, and by personal investigation satisfy myself as to
their merits.
a |;
One man said that he had put ina few eggs the first time
and hatched a pretty good percentage of them, and then filled up
his machine and somehow the battery got out of fix and he did
not hatch anything, but at the present time it was running nicely.
On visiting another of different pattern (also run by battery),
the operator said that he had put in a small number of eggs and
hatched nearly one hundred per cent. (By the way his testimo-
nial had particularly attracted my attention). But when he had
sy in a large number of eggs his percentage was much smaller.
n fact the greater the number of eggs the smaller was his per-
centage of hatch.
I thought of my own experience several years before. With
the owner’s permission I introduced glasses in different parts of
the machine. It was as I expected: no uniformity of heat in the
egg-chamber. The worst feature of my investigation was that
there were very few chicks to be seen and those few had a strong
resemblance to some of mine [ had got out in similar manner six
or eight years before.
here was one exception, however. One man had about one
thousand chicks, but as he had also some seventy-five to one
hundred hens sitting at the same time, I was not sure of their or-
igin. I did not find things as favorable as I expected, for on
comparing notes the balance was decidedly in favor of my own
machine.
Let it be here understood that I do not wish to detract any-
thing from machines run by electricity. Some of these machines
have become greatly improved, as well as their batteries, and are
really doing good work. Others still have been more recently
invented and now stand side by side with the older machines.
CHA PLE: Ve
A HOME-MADE MACHINE.
I BUILD AN INCUBATOR—IT HAS SOME GOOD AND SOME BAD POINTS
—REMEDYING THE DEFECTS.
I had now either got to run the old machine or make some-
thing better myself. I had had experience enough in this busi-
ness to know what the requirements of a good incubator were, but
how to get them all into one machine and have them work to-
gether harmoniously was something that had puzzled brighter
heads than mine.
During the autumn of 1878, I constructed a machine in the
shape of a parallelogram, with the hot water flowing through a
tank above the egg-trays and returning through a pipe which
wound round the machine several times, next the outside, and
entered the bottom of the boiler. This tank was so constructed
that the warm water flowed next the sides and the centre.
Though it was filled with water; as it was still water, it radiated
little or no heat. I had always noticed that the centre of a
machine was invariably the warmest, and my object was to obvi-
ate this difficulty as much as possible. I also constructed con-
cave egg-trays with a depression of about two inches in the centre,
thus removing the eggs that much further from the tank in the
centre of the machine, my object being to even up the heat on the
eggs.
= This worked very well in one direction, but badly in another;
for when the chick pipped in the bottom of that concave, he stood
a very poor chance of getting out with so many eggs pressing
down upon him from above. The only chance for these pipped
eggs was to place them on the outside above. This required con-
stant care during hatching, or a great loss of chicks was the re-
sult.
oo ly a
This machine, though regulated in the same way as the old
one, ran much steadier and did far better hatching, my average
being eighty per cent. After running it two years in connection
with the old one, I saw where great improvements could be made
and resolved to build another machine on a different principle.
On examining the eggs that did not hatch, (some twenty per
cent of them), I found them nearly all matured and ready to
break the shell but for some reason did not come out. On ex-
amining those which did not hatch under hens, I found that these
died in all stages, especially the earlier part of the hatch. (These
last are the eggs which prove so oderiferous when roughly
handled by the boys). This proved conclusively that the machine
did better work during the first part of the hatch than the hens,
but for some reason they did not come out. This perplexed me
the most of anything in the whole business.
Other manufacturers had been troubled in a greater degree
than I had, and had settled down finally to the point that it re-
sulted from carbonic acid gas. This was a deadly gas generated
in large quantities by the maturing chicks, and unless quickly re-
moved was most fatal in its consequences.
Now we were told that this was a very heavy gas and could
not be forced out by common ventilation but must be got rid of
by counter currents of air. I had read much about this gas, and
not being much of a chemist had got it badly on the brain. Be-
sides, it really accounted for what otherwise seemed to to me in-
explicable.
2
waa
CHAPTER... Vi.
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION A SUCCESS.
THE NEW MACHINE—THE TEMPERATURE SUCCESSFULLY CON-
TROLLED—ANOTHER OBSTACLE—EXPERIMENT UPSETS ALL PRE-
VIOUS THEORIES—ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION A SUCCESS—EVAPOR-
ATION AND OTHER TROUBLES—THEY ARE PROVIDED FOR—SOME
GOOD HATCHES.
The new machine was built, completely double, with an inch
air-space all around it and so arranged with a downward current
of air as to force the carbonic acid gas out without in any way
interfering with the regular ventilation of the machine. This
machine about the middle of December was filled with about six
hundred eggs. Things worked admirably for a few days, as it
was regulated on an entirely new principle.
Previous to its construction I had been investigating the
science of hydrostatics with the view of learning the exact expan-
sion of water through héat compared to that of air; also the
amount of water necessary in the tank, that its expansion and
contraction might give complete control of the ventilation and
lamps of the machine. This would be making the principle
which generated the superfluous heat provide for its own escape,
thus anticipating all trouble. This regulating principle was ap-
plied tothe machine. It exceeded even my wildest anticipation.
No more night work now. It was really a pleasure to care for it.
But an unlooked for trouble presented itself. The weather,
which had been hitherto mild, suddeniy changed. The mercury
went down below zero, the wind blew very hard and as my ma-
chine was located in an out-building I found it impossible to keep
up the proper heat.
There had been a defect in the construction of the boilers.
The mechanic who made them misunderstood directions and com-
pletely reversed the principle desired. Consequently a very
ce
small amount of heat could be obtained and a dense smoke was
sure to follow any attempt to secure more. I filled my evaporat-
7 pans with het water, and made a free use of hot bricks, but
relief was only temporary, I could not keep the temperature up.
There was but one thing to do, to save the eggs: cover the
machine with paper, then with blankets and close up the ventila-
tion entirely. The choice lay between losing the eggs from that
deadly carbonic acid gas or from an insufficient amount of heat.
The latter I know was surely fatal; of the other I had some little
doubt, and concluded to risk it.
That machine was packed during the entire hatch and opened
only when the chicks began to come out and must have air.
From that hatch I got nearly four hundred chicks, or more than
ninety per cent of the fertile eggs. This was by far the best
hatch I had ever got in an incubator from a machine full of eggs.
It is needless to say that my faith in carbonic acid gas suf-
fered agreat abatement. In fact it has never troubled me any
since. [am often thrown in contact with parties who ask where
the ventilation is in my machine and how I get rid of that gas.
I say that my machine does not generate any, or not enough to
injure the eggs. The invariable answer is: The best authorities
unite in saying that this gas is generated in large quantities by
the eggs, and will surely kill the chicks if not got rid of.
“ My dear sir:” I reply, ‘“‘ whenever your best hatches excel
or even equal my poorest ones, we will argue the matter further;
until then, please have me excused.”
This always settles the matter.
The question of success in artificial incubation was clearly
settled in my mind. The use of hens for purposes of incubation
was entirely discontinued. But there was one thing which
was not clear. There' were still some matured chicks
dead in the shell, and although there was but four or five per
cent of loss in this way in the dead of winter when eggs were
supposed to possess the least vitality, there was sure to be eight
or ten per cent during the warm weather of May when eggs
were known to possess the most vitality.
This puzzled me, for I knew the machines ran equally as
well, and received the same care. I did not thoroughly under-
stand the question of evaporation, just how much or how little
the egg required, and I thought that possibly might have some-
thing to do with this question. i
It is true, the old hen did not use any evaporation, but by
means of an oily secretion from her skin and feathers, she im-
parted a coating or gloss to the egg which effectually prevented
its evaporating. I had no way of doing that in the machine, and
could only obviate it by an increased humidity of atmosphere in
the egg-chamber.
Different machines have different ways of doing this. I
have the best success by setting the water-pans on the hot pipes
below. This in cold weather always produced moisture on the
Le
glass doors of the machine, while in warm weather this moisture
was scarcely preceptible. The reason was obvious.
In cold weather the water in the tank and pipes required to
be much warmer in order to generate the proper heat in the egg-
chamber, and as water evaporated just in proportion to its tem-
perature, I was getting a great deal more evaporation in cold
weather than in warm.
For instance, on putting a glass in the water in the evaporat-
ing pans during the winter, they registered 90° to 100°, while in
warm weather they registered but 85° to 90°. In the one case
the moisture was running down the glass during the entire hatch,
while in the other, it was scarcely preceptible. Might not this be
the cause of the trouble?
Fig. 2.
The next season, in 1883, as the weather grew warmer, I
gradually increased the evaporating surface in the egg-chamber,
keeping the glass in the doors moist, and carefully watched the
effect. ‘There were less dead chicks than usual; in fact, but
three or four in each tray.
A few days later, another machine was started with Ply-
mouth Rock eggs, and the water surface increased still more.
Things were kept decidedly sticky in that egg-chamber through
the entire hatch. The result was, on one tray, one hundred and
fourteen chicks from one hundred and fifteen eggs; on another,
one hundred and fifteen chicks from one hundred and twenty
eggs. Taking the whole, machine it was fully as good a hatch asl
had ever had.
But I had to help at least one-fourth of those chicks out.
They were literally packed in the shell. They could pip, but
could not turn in the shell. Once out they were unusually large
and active.
The trouble was, the eggs did not evaporate during the first
week of the hatch, as it is necessary they should do, and as they
always do the first few days under hens before the pores are
filled with the secretion from the birds feathers.
Pe” a
CHAPTER VIL
THE SCIENCE OF INCUBATION.
THE SCIENCE OF IT—VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS—SPRINKLING EGGS
NOT NECESSARY—IT DERANGES THE TEMPERATURE.
Now if no more water surface is exposed in warm weather
than in cold, not more than one-half the moisture is secured.
Everyone knows that during the last part of a hatch, on well fer-
tilized eggs, not more than one-half as much oil is consumed in
the lamps as in the first part; for the reason that the increased
animal heat in the young chicks is so great that much less heat is
required from the lamps to sustain the needed temperature.
If, then, the water surface is not increased as the heat in the
pipes decrease, your chick gets the least moisture just when he
needs the most. The effect of this is to evaporate the eggs,
weaken the chick, and toughen the inner lining ‘or membrane of
the egg which envelopes him. This membrane contracts around
his body like thin rubber and imprisons him so firmly that he is
unable to turn and free himself from the shell.
In the spring of 1884, I ran an experimental machine of five
hundred eggs for the sole purpose of solving the different points
of dispute in regard to artificial incubation. Some parties advo-
cate sprinkling as the only true method of generating moisture.
Some authorities claim that 103° is the proper temperature to
run; others, 104°; others still, 102°. Others claim that there is
no need of turning the eggs, and that they will hatch just as well
without.
In this experimental machine were placed four trays of eggs:
one tray was run ata temperature of 102°; No. 2 tray, at 104°;
while No. 3 and No. 4 were run at 103°. No. 4 tray the first
week was drenched with lukewarm water twice each day, while
in the No. 3 tray were put two paper box covers, each holding
two dozen eggs. In one box the eggs were laid in a natural po-
sition on their side; in the other they were stood up on their
eu
small end. In neither box were they moved at all till they
hatched.
The No. 2 tray, running at 104°, began to pip the nineteenth
day, and the chicks were pretty well out on the twentieth day.
The down on those chicks was very white and short. Only
seventy-five per cent hatched. They were anything but first-
class chicks.
In the No. 3 tray which had the boxes of eggs in different pos-
itions, which were carefully turned and run at a temperature of
103°, about ninety-six per cent hatched. In the box where the
eggs stood on one end, forty-seven per cent hatched, and the
chicks were strong. In the other box fifty-four per cent hatched.
il
|
|
|
Fig. 3.
The remaining ege’s in both boxes had dead chicks in all stages
of development. It was a case where the fittest survived.
No. 1 tray came out one day behind time, the last ones re-
quiring some assistance. About eighty per cent hatched and the
chicks not particularly strong.
No. 4 tray came out behind time also,‘about eighty per cent
hatching, but not in first-class condition. The reason is, that
after eggs are sprinkled the rapid evaporation quickly reduces
the heat in the eggs and will cool them from 103° down to 90° in
a few minutes, so that in sprinkling twice daily, one is actually
running at from 103° to 90°, as it is always an hour or two be-
fore the eggs obtain their normal heat.
I have never yet in all my experience been able to get a first-
class hatch while sprinkling. The effect of sprinkling has always
been with me, to retard the hatch and reduce its percentage. In
fact, it cannot well be otherwise, as moisture generated through
sprinkling is only periodical, and for the above mentioned rea-
sons is constantly deranging the temperature in the egg-chamber.
ae
CLAD, tal Peer.
THE LOCATION OF INCUBATORS.
THE BEST LOCATION FOR AN INCUBATOR—WAY IT IS IMPORTANT—
A CELLAR THE BEST PLACE—INSURANCE RATES AND INCUBA-
TORS—THE SELECTION OF EGGS—HOW TO HAVE FERTILE EGGS
—GREEN FOOD IN WINTER—KEEPING EGGS.
The best place to run an incubator is either in a house
cellar or a barn cellar, for obvious reasons. If your machine is
placed in an out-building, or even in a room without a fire, in
very cold weather it will freeze around the machine, and taking
out and turning a large body of eggs in a freezing temperature
twice each day is apt to derange the temperature of the machine
and impair and retard the.hatch. Then again, outside heat ef-
fects such a building as quickly as outside cold, and in the sum-
mer time, with the sun shining on the roof, the glass often reaches
90° to 95°. In these circumstances, it is very difficult to run
any light at all without running too much heat.
I am well aware that some manufacturers say that it makes
no difference to their machines where they are located, as it is the
inside heat which regulates their machines and the ventilation is
increased correspondingly. But, friends, in a very warm temper-
ature, if you attempt to reduce the heat in your egg-chamber by
admitting large volumes of dry air, you are completely destroy-
ing the humidity of your atmosphere. Then how about those
chicks coming out?
I am at present writing, during the month of June, running
four large machines with ducks’ eggs. These machines are in an
out-building with the sun shining directly on the roof, in which
case it is sure to be warmer inside of that building than out.
During the last two or three days of each hatch, the lights are
put out entirely, the animal heat in the young ducks being all suf-
ficient to run the machine with what little ventilation they need.
a)
It is true I might run one light, but in consequence I should
be oblige to admit large quantities of dry air and then the little
fellows would have a hard time getting out, and some never will
get out without help, which must be given at just the right time.
It is true an expert could run incubators either in a warm or
a cold temperature, and even in a place subject to all manner of
changes, when a novice would not succeed at all.
Sometimes insurance companies object to incubators being
run in insured buildings, and will cancel their policies if persisted
in. In that case, it is very easy to dig into the side of ® bank or
in the ground and stone up a little building for the purpos; the
expense would be trifling.
In the selection of eggs for hatching, it is well to reject all
very small eggs and unusually large ones, as well as all eggs that
are rough on either end,-as those eggs are apt to be porous and
will be sure to evaporate during the hatch.
One of the greatest advantages in the use of incubators is
the power it gives one of hatching his chicks when they will
bring the highest price in the market, and as this is invariably
in the winter, the essential point of all is to secure good fertile
eggs.
Now it is a very easy matter to make hens lay abundantly
during the winter. That has been reduced to a fine thing, but to
Fig. 4,
make those eggs fertile requires different management
altogether. It is very easy to put one hundred to one hun-
dred and fifty hens in a building, allowing three or four square
feet to each fowl, and with proper sanitary arrangements, good
care and diet, secure large returns in eggs; but under these con-
ditions those eggs will not be fertile.
One reason is the extreme jealousy of so many cocks in one
harem. Another reason is the want of exercise, which debilitates
the fowl and the consequent lack of vitality in both fowl and
eggs.
ie In order to obviate this, I always clear away the snow in
front of my houses, and get the fowls out whenever the weather
eS
will allow and give them all the exercise possible. In the fall,
say the latter part of August, I sow a field of rye quite thickly
and by fertilizing it freely get it about eighteen inches high, a
green mass of vegetation. When frozen hard, and just before
the snow covers it, I cut it and pack it in an out-building where
it will keep frozen. In this condition it will take no injury and
be always available for use, as a few moments exposure to warm
air will fit it for use, when it is chopped fine and fed to the fowls.
A free use of this rye, alternating with boiled potatoes and
turnips, together with refuse cabbage, which can be had cheaply,
and a plenty of exercise, will always produce fertile eggs, the
other conditions being right—say about thirty healthy, well devel-
oped pullets with two vigorous young cockerels.
In cold weather the eggs should be gathered two or three
times a day to prevent their chilling. Eggs may be kept safely
for three weeks in cool weather before putting in an incubator,
if carefully turned each day. This can be done readily by means
of egg cases, which can be turned when partly full as well as
when full. A record should be kept of their age, so that no mis-
takes need be made.
OR APT TREX:
TESTING THE EGGS.
THE EGG-TESTER—WHAT IT REVEALS—A SAVING OF TIME AND
MONE Y—A STRIKING INSTANCE OF COMMON IGNORANCE—NECES-
SITY OF FERTILE EGGS—INFERTILE EGGS THE CAUSE OF MUCH
DISSATISFACTION WITH INCUBATORS—A GOOD HOME-MADE EGG-
TESTER.
One of the many useful things required in the poultry busi-
ness, whether conducted in a natural or artificial manner, is an
egg-tester. It enables a person, before he has lost much time, to
ascertain whether his eggs are good and fertile, and if not he can
replace them with good ones at the end of five or six days. If
his own eggs are infertile, the tester enables him to procure bet-
ter from his neighbors.
I once knew a man, early in February, to set forty or fifty
hens with a view to grow a lot of broilers for early market. When
the hens came off, he found that there were but two or three fer-
tile eggs under each hen. Now had he examined his eggs at the
end of four or five days with a tester, he might have put the few
fertile eggs under several hens and supplied the remainder with
good eggs. He would have lost but little except in the first cost
of his eggs. As it was, the best of the season had passed and he
could not hope to receive large profits from his chicks.
I was called by a friend to see his incubator. He told me
that he had put five hundred eggs in it and had hatched only one
chick, and that died, and he wished me to ascertain the cause if I
could. I found the eggs in the machine just as he had left them.
I broke several hundred of them without finding the least sign of
fertility in them. The yolk was intact and the white as clear
apparently as when first laid. I told him that he had done very
well, as he had hatched one hundred per cent of all the fertile
eggs. At the sme time I told him that any man who would de.
|
liberately run a machine three weeks on five hundred eggs with-
out taking any pains to ascertain their quality, had better change
his occupation, for he would never succeed in the poultry busi-
ness.
There are quite a number of egg-testers in the market,
some of which are not suitable for incubator use, as they require
the egg to be adjusted in a certain position, making it a mere
waste of time and heat. A good practical egg-tester for incuba-
tors can be made in fifteen minutes and will last a lifetime.
Take a common oblong box without a top, make a hole in
the bottom about three inches in diameter, nearly opposite the
blaze of your lantern when standing on the inner end of the box.
or hanging on a peg (Fig. 5).
Lie
LM
Fig. 5.
Nail over this hole a piece of an old rubber boot-leg, with a hole
about the size of anege. Put your lantern inside of that box
some evening, and yourself on the outside, hang it up just over
your egg-tray and you have the best thing out for a tester; you
can easily trace the veins in the embryo chick, and the first signs
of fertility as they appear.
onan
CHAPTER X.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHICKS.
THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF INCUBATION—HOW RECOGNIZED—IN
DUCKS AND HENS EGGS—THE PROCESS ILLUSTRATED—THE LIV-
ING AND DEAD EMBRYO—ADVICE TO BEGINNERS.
A person about to enter the poultry business, should ac-
quaint himself as soon as possible with the egg at different stages
of incubation, as this knowledge will in many cases save
him from disaster and loss. It is asad mistake to wait till the
three weeks are expired before one finds out whether his eggs are
good for anything or not.
I have known men repeatedly to set hens at different times
in the winter as they became broody, until they had as many as
thirty or forty hens, covering as many dozen valuable eggs, and
never find out that the eggs were worthless until the first lot was
due, and they found no chicks, when a short examination of the
eggs about the fifth or sixth day, would have saved the loss of
both time and eggs.
The fertility in ducks and white-shelled hens eggs can be
easily detected by an expert the third day after they are put in
the incubator or under the hen; the quality of dark-shelled
eggs from Asiatic fowl, so far as they are fertile, about the fourth
or fifth day.
Fig. 2 represents an egg as it appears during the third day,
through an egg-tester. The dark spot seen in the egg enlarges
each day, becoming more opaque as incubation progresses, until
the seventh day, when it covers the entire egg. In the meantime,
about the fifth day, a dark spot will be seen near the centre of
the egg, towards its upper surface, from which in a live embryo
a few irregular veins can be distinctly perceived. As the egg is
—29—
held to the light this spot will float on the upper side of the egg,
as it is turned. This is represented in Fig. 3, Page 22.
It is sometimes difficult in this stage to distinguish the live
from the dead embryo. The latter will, on the sixth or seventh
day, present a broken, clouded appearance, the contents usually
revolving with the egg when it is turned; while the living embryo
will usually rise to the upper side or top of the egg. ‘The dead
Fig. 6.
embryo at this stage 1s represented in Fig. 4. There are eggs
that are slightly fertilized but without vitality enough to carry
them through; they will sometimes become offensive and should
be removed both from under hens and from the incubator.
In Fig. 6, I give the appearance of the living embryo as seen
through the shell on the tenth and eleventh days. At this time,
Fig. 7.
if the egg is held steadily to the light, motion can be plainly seen,
as well as the trembling of the pulsating arteries. At this stage
even a novice can easily detect a fertile from an infertile egg, and
can soon learn to distinguish a dead from a living embryo.
_ From this stage onward, the contents of the egg grow darker,
until the sixteenth or seventeenth days, when the egg
ay |
becomes entirely opaque, as represented in Fig. 7, except the
air ¢ell in the long end of the egg. » This air cell, though it exists
in every egg, is extremely small in a fresh laid one, and as incu-
bation progresses gradually enlarges, through the evaporation of
the white of the egg, until the sixteenth day, after which the
chick begins to enlarge and the air cell grows correspondingly
smaller, so that when the chick is ready to pip the cell is little
more than one-half as large as it was three days previous.
It is not well for an amateur to test his eggs too soon or un-
til he has had some experience in the business, as there is a vast
difference (as seen in the egg-tester), between a white-shelled
egg and a brown, athick, ora thin-shelledegg. I have repeatedly
known dark brown eggs at the end of three weeks to be entirely
opaque, and yet when broken have the appearance of fresh laid
eggs.
o During the process of incubation say, at the eighth or ninth
day, it 1s easy for anyone to distinguish between a fertile and an
infertile egg, but not so easy to detect a dead embryo when seen
_ through the shell. The best way is to mark all doubtful eggs
and return them to the machine, examine them again at the thir-
teenth or fourteenth days, when if no change has taken place
they can be safely removed from the machine.
Fig. 8 represents the appearance. of
the embryo at the twelfth day when taken
from the shell, when it will kick vigorously.
From this time the growth and develop-
ment is rapid. After this point, the chick
will bear far greater changes of heat and
cold than at the earlier stages of incubation.
At one time, through my own careless-
ness, I allowed the temperature to reach
114° for a short time on the eighteenth day =
ofahatch. There were four hundred fertile Fig. 8
eggs in the machine. The next day both the inside and outside
doors of the machine were left open. The glasses on the eggs
registered 68°, and yet three hundred and seventy-one chicks
were hatched from those eggs on the twenty-first day, or over
ninety-two per cent. But anything like that variation during the
first ten days would be fatal to every egg.
The eyes, beak, legs and feet of the embryo are gradually
developed, but it is not till the nineteenth day that the yolk is
completely absorbed and the chick ready to come out. He be-
gins by making a faint peeping inside of the shell; then breaks
the shell; then makes his way entirely around the shell, breaking
it as he goes, and finally bursts open his shell and makes his ap-
pearance. A good healthy chick will do this himself without any
assistance from the operator. Sometimes it is necessary or weil
to assist the chick in breaking the shell after it has got its head
out.
CHAPTER X1.
THE CARE OF INCUBATORS:
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT—NEGLECT FATAL EVEN WITH “SELF-
REGULATORS”—TESTING THE MACHINE—TEMPERATURE—A HOT
ROOM NO PLACE FOR AN INCUBATOR—SPRINKLING—THE LAMP—
TURNING EGGS—USE GOOD OIL—THE THERMOMETER.
This is one of the most important items in the whole busi-
ness. Many manufacturers of incubators give such a glowing
account of the self-regulating qualities of their machines that
purchasers think that all they have to do is to fill the machine
with eggs, light the lamps, and at the end of three weeks take out
the chicks.
Now it is as well to understand here that no incubator ever
has been or ever will be put before the public that will bear neg-
lect, because there are certain duties which must be done peri-
odically, such as turning the eggs, trimming and filling the
lamps, looking after the machinery to see that there is no chafing
or friction on the bearings, etc. It is well toruna machine for
several days before introducing the eggs, for if you cannot run it
without eggs you certainly cannot when full of hen fruit, and it is
well to run no risks.
There are so many different patterns and styles of incuba-
tors, nearly all regulated in different ways, that it would be next
to impossible to give instructions that would apply to all. There
are, however, many points and generalities which are necessarily
common to all machines, such as temperature, moisture, ventila-
tion, uniformity and regularity of heat.
No machine should be put in a room where there is a great
variation of temperature, as it will require regulating each time
there is a great change; for the reason that the amount of heat
required to run a machine in a room of 80° would not be suffi-
cient to run the machine at a temperature of 40°, while the
amount of heat required to run a machine in a temperature of
40° would necessitate an immense ventilation to keep the heat
within limits inside the machine. Though this might be met by
some machines, there is yetone difficulty that cannot be over-
come. The increased ventilation carries off the moisture from
the egg-chamber and that means a hardened egg shell, a tena-
DS >a
cious inside membrane and the inevitable dead chick in the shell.
A very warm place is unsuitable for running an incubator, as it
requires far more care and judgment and would puzzle a novice.
I received a letter from a gentleman in Illinois a few days
ago who is using a Monarch incubator. He was running the ma-
chine during the month of July, when the weather was excessive-
ly warm, in a building exposed to the heat. During the last
three days of the hatch the animal heat of the eggs was so great
that (there were twelve hundred fertile eggs in the machine) he was
obliged to put out the lights entirely and then the heat in the
egg-chamber went up repeatedly to 110° and 111°. Finally he
was obliged to open both outside and inside doors of the machine,
in order to reduce the heat.
Now this was all wrong; for though he reported a fair hatch,
yet there were a great many pipped eggs with dead chicks in
them. Had he sprinkled his eggs profusely with tepid water
and shut the doors of his machine, the rapid evaporation would
have cooled his eggs down to the required temperature, and at
the same time generated all the moisture needed, and there would
have been no dead chicks. Sprinkling about once in four hours
would have met this case.
As arule I do not encourage sprinkling, for reasons already
mentioned in this work, but in this case it was the only way to
secure a good hatch. During the past six weeks (June-August),
I have had the same experience repeatedly in running large
hatches of duck eggs. The animal heat in the eggs alone kept
the machine at 106° to 108° with the lights all out, the excess-
ive heat being kept down only by sprinkling the eggs.
Never use more flame on the lamps than is necessary, as too
much heat is not only a waste of oil, but in most self-regulating
machines means increased ventilation, which for reasons before
mentioned is sure to impair the hatch.
In taking eggs out of the machine to turn them, they should
be handled quickly and carefully. As the center of nearly all
machines is usually the warmest, and the outside near the doors
the coldest, it is well not only to change the drawers endfor end
in the machine, but to change the eggs from the ends of the trays
to the center each day. Always place the thermometer on the
eggs in the center of the drawer, as in most machines the heat is
greatest in the center. Eggs should be turned twice each day.
In running machines regulated by electricity a constant sup-
ply of chemicals should be kept on hand. The solution in the
battery must be kept strong, the metals thoroughly cleaned
and the zine removed often, as a weakened solution and conse-
quent want of action in the battery, because of a little neglect,
have often cost a whole hatch.
Always use the best of oil—160° test. Poor oils are not
only unsafe, but unreliable, as they are sure to crust in a few
hours, clog the extinguishers, and as crusted wicks give out little
or no heat it necessitates trimming several times each day.
Cia Pie Pr.
BROODERS, THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND USE.
HENS AS BROODERS—THE INCUBATOR A SUCCESS, BUT AN ARTIFI-
CIAL MOTHER NEEDED—I MAKE A BROODER—ITS REMARKABLE
SUCCESS—PLENTY OF HEAT AND NO VERMIN—THE MERITS OF
VARIOUS BROODERS—IMPORTANCE OF GOOD ARTIFICIAL MOTH-
ERS—OVERCROWDING—A CHEAP AND EASILY MADE BROODER.
It will be observed that during the first part of my experi-
ence with incubators, my greatest trouble was to get chicks
enough from them to supply my broody hens. During the latter
part the trouble was to get hens enough to care for the chicks.
When hens were laying well and there was a reasonable ex-
pectation of their soon becoming broody, machines were filled
with eggs anticipating that event. But I was so often disap-
pointed that I have sometimes been obliged to put forty to fifty
chicks to each hen. Of course a sad mortality was sure to fol-
low. The situation was becoming desperate and nearly as bad
as at first. There was now no trouble in hatching. I could get
out strong, healthy chicks in any desired quantity, but as I wished
to get them out in winter, the question was, what to do with
them.
In the autumn of ’79, I began the construction of artificial
brooders, anticipating the winter’s hatch. These brooders were
intended to accommodate about two hundred chicks. The heat
was generated in copper boilers, flowed through an iron pipe and
returned to the boiler through a galvanized iron tank. This tank
was eleven inches wide and five and one-half feet long, and sup-
plied the heat to the chicks. I proposed to try one carefully and
satisfy myself as to its utility before using them on a larger
scale.
In pursuance of this plan, I chose one of my chicken houses
some seventy-five feet long for the purpose. In one end of this
building I put eight hens, giving them, in addition to what chicks
they hatched themselves, one hundred chicks from an incubator
3
Spe
started for the purpose. In the other end of this building I put
a brooder with one hundred and fifty chicks taken from the same -
‘incubator. They all received the same care, except that the hens’
department got a great deal the most because they needed it.
Fig. 9. A Good In-Door Brooder.
Those chicks were hatched January 21. On May 25 following,
when four months and four days old, the chicks were sent to
market.
Of the one hundred and fifty brooder chicks, one hundred
and thirty-five were matured, a number had died in the brooder,
one or two were drowned, and as brooder chicks are very tame
and my understanding unusually well developed, as a natural
consequence quite a number were trodden upon. The largest
chicks in the brooder weighed six and one-half pounds. The
ageregate weight was six hundred and thirty-nine pounds, and the
price received, forty-five cents per pound live weight, amounting
to $287.55
Of those chicks which were consigned to the hens, ninety-
eight were left. Their aggregate weight was three hundred and
ninety-two pounds, which brought $176.40. Not one of those
hens’ chicks weighed over four pounds. It is needless to state
that the brooders were brought into requisition at once.
After April 1 the brooders were located out of doors in dif-
ferent parts of the yard. Hens were supplied with chicks and
placed at a proper distance. All were properly cared for, as I
was bound to see the experiment carried ont through the entire
season. In every case the advantage was with the brooders. Not
only was the mortality less, but the chicks were larger and their
condition better. And strange tosay, where the hens were lo-
eated near the brooders, before the chicks were ten days old, they
would leave the hens and crowd into the brooder and some hens
had not a chick left. They had found where there was plenty of ©
heat and no vermin.
ORAS.
That season’s experience perfectly satisfied me in regard to the
utility of brooders. [ have made no use of hens since, as all I re-
quire of them is to furnish me with eggs. I have each season
grown from three thousand to four thousand chicks. These chicks
have been grown principally in the winter and early spring
months, in order to secure the highest market prices.
T am often asked the question, “Do you consider your
brooder the best in the market? If not, which is the best?” Now
this is a very delicate question for me to answer, and then it de-
Fiy. 10. Mr. Rankin’s Brooder.
pends a great deal upon what one wants a brooder for. I will
answer this question by saying, that for durability and for out-
door work for keeping chicks dry and warm, I have never used
anything I liked better; but for inside work brooders can be
made for a great deal less expense that will do equally as
good work.
There are a great many different kinds of brooders in the
market, some of which do very good work, some require more
eare than others, some are altogether too high priced and elabo-
rate in their construction to be of use to the practical poultry
grower. Others are comparatively worthless, being regular
death-traps to the chicks, while others still are evidently built by
men who have little or no knowledge of the business and are of
little practical use.
This question of good brouders is, next to incubators, the
most important in the whole business. It is more than useless to
hatch out strong healthy chicks in large numbers only to have
them smothered in worthless brooders. The worst feature of this
is that incubator men themselves not only injure the reputation
of their own brooders, but those of others, by advertising them
at more than double their actual capacity, thus ensuring a great
mortality to start with. Innocent parties buy them and ignor-
antly fill them up according to instructions, when disaster is sure to
follow through-over-crowding and consequent over-heating.
Serious trouble often arises from over-heating brooders. Too
much heat will surely cause diarrhea. This trouble is often at-
tributed to improper food, when a course of treatment is adopted
which is of little avail so long as the cause is not removed.
I will describe a brooder (Fig. 9) in use in this vicinity,
which I think is the cheapest and best extant for indoor use.
_ Spc.
Take a box three feet square, without either top or bottom; the
sides should be eight inches high. Nail on this box for a covera
piece of zine (A) three feet square, which will cover it exactly.
Nail on the top of this zine, around the outside edges, strips of
board one inch or three-fourths of an inch square, cutting a space
(B) through in the center of each side three-fourths of an inch
wide. Nail over these strips a tight half-inch board cover (C).
Now bore in the center of this cover a two-inch hole. Insert
in this hole a two-inch zine tube three inches long, indicated by
the dotted lines. This tube should lead simply through the board
cover into the air space between that and the zine below. Run
another pipe, smaller and longer, as shown at EZ, down through
the air-chamber into the box, for the lamp smoke to pass up and
away. Now take a piece of board two feet square and nail four
legs to it which will raise it three inches high; then tack some
woolen fringe around the sides of this board cover, slashing it up
every two or three inches. This should stand on the platform
so that the zinc tube will be exactly in the center and leave a
little more than half an inch between the board cover and the top
of the tube. This is the brooder for the chicks. All that is
wanted now is a tin lamp with an American Diamond burner, set
inside the box underneath the zine. By this arrangement the air
is drawn in through the holes left open at the sides between the
zine and the board cover, is heated by the lamps, and passes up
through the zinc tube and radiates out all over the chicks, giving
them a constant supply of pure, warm air.
I consider this the best brooder out for inside work; it will
accommodate fifty chicks. A dollar and a half in money and
three hours’ labor will make it. An incline should be made for
the chicks torun up. The superior ventilation of this brooder,
the ease with which it can be cleaned, and its cheapness make it,
for in-door work, superior to any other.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CARE OF CHICKS.
THE FIRST MiAL—KIND OF FEED—GREEN FOOD ESSENTIAL—FRE-
QUENCY OF MiZALS—EXERCISEL—SKiM-MiLK—BUILDINGS FOR WIN-
TER ClICKS—-TiEIR CONSTRUCTiON AND DESIGN—HEATING—
BROODERS VS. THE BOILER AND PIPES’ SYSTEM—BEST TIME TO
HATCH FOR LARLY BROILERS—AN EXPERIENCE IN POINT—WHEN
TO SELIL—HATCHING WINTER LAYERS—SYSTEM OF HATCHES.
The chicks should be fed for the first time about thirty-six
hours after leaving the shell. The very best feed extant for
that purpose is the infertile eggs boiled hard, chopped fine, and
mixed with one part egg and three parts bread crumbs for the
first three days. Chicks will always thrive on this feed. After
three days, the feed may consist of three parts of Indian meal
with one part scalded shorts.
This diet should be interspersed with green feed, such as
grass, chopped onions, boiled potatoes, refuse cabbage, etc.
Cracked corn and wheat may be added as they grow older—say
when ten days old.
Feed four or five times a’ day, when your chicks are first out,
and never give them more than they can eat clean. Give a little
meat occasionally, and above all give the young things plenty of
exercise; everything depends upon that. Dig away the snow in
front of your poultry buildings if in winter. The chicks will not
need much urging; simply give them the opportunity to go out
when the sun shines. Always recollect that the most active mem-
bers of the body, cither in mau or animals, are the first to suffer
from disease, and that swollen feet, and weak and crippled limbs
in young chicks;—though usually attributed to rheumatism—are
simply caused by too highly concentrated food and too little exer-
cise, thus causing a total want of action in the digestive organs,
and the chicks literally starve in the midst of plenty.
Hose
Skim milk, either sweet or sour, is excellent for mixing the
feed. It will give young chicks a vigor and a growth in cold
weather when other things fail. Plenty of clean water should be
kept by them and milk when obtainable.
Brooders and runs should be cleaned out thoroughly and
often, and the whole premises kept well disinfected.
In constructing suitable buildings for growing winter chicks,
convenience as well as economy should be taken into considera-
tion. For as labor is nearly the most expensive essential in a
poultry establishment, buildings should be gotten up with a view
to economise that even if the original cost should be a little more.
I am more and more satisfied that a walk three or four feet wide
is a necessary adjunct to both poultry and chicken buildings of
over thirty feet in length.
A good building for chicks in winter should be about four-
teen feet wide, facing the south, with a four foot walk on the rear
side. It should be divided off, into pens five feet wide, a brooder
and fifty chicks in each. This would give a space five by ten
feet to fifty chicks. There should be a yard of corresponding
width in front for.out-door exercise. This building can be ex-
tended to any desired length, and need not be more than two feet
high in front, with, say, five feet posts in the rear. It can be put
up with an unequal double roof, with a ten foot slope in front
—_—__ —— ee _ % —
Outside
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Fig. 11. A Winter House for Brooder-.
and a four foot slope inthe rear. The glass should be run from the
eaves about six feet up the slope in front, and need not occupy
more than one-half the longitudinal space on the roof. See Fig. 11.
Ventilation should lead from out the fioor up through the
peck, and will come up by the partition which separates the chicks
from the walk. The sashes should be so adjusted as to slide and
2.30
give additional ventilation during extreme warm weather, and so
arranged that they can be operated upon from the walk.
Opinion is about equally divided as to the best and most
economical method of heating a chicken house. Many prefer to
heat with hot-house boilers, running hot water through the whole
length of the building, and utilizing the heat from the floor and
return pipes as brooders for the chicks. ‘There is no doubt but
that this system will work well, but it is too expensive for a man
with but little or no capital, as it will cost nearly as much as_ the
whole building. Nor is the first cost the whole expense attending
it; for if you have but fifty chicks, it necessitates heating the
whole building, whereas by the system of separate brooders in
each pen one cent’s worth of oil will furnish heat for fifty chicks, so
that your expense can be exactly proportioned to the number of
chicks. Besides, a complement of brooders can be furnished at less
than one-fourth the cost of boiler and pipes.
The best time to hatch chicks for broilers is in January and
February; hold them until the first of June or until just before the
price falls, getting all the weight on them you can. Good chicks
well cared for should weigh at four months old ten pounds per
pair. Chicks of that size will always sell much more readily than
smaller ones, and at better prices, as the market is always full of
the latter size.
I once got out some five hundred Brahma chicks in January.
They throve wonderfully, and the May following, when a little
more than four months old, weighed five pounds each. I tried
to sell them to a prominent dealer in Boston, but when I told
him their weight he was incredulous and said: “ Early spring
chicks don’t weigh ten pounds per pair in this part of the country ;”
and offered me the going price for winter chicks. This did not
suit me. I afterwards sold the chicks alive at the door for some-
thing more than $4 per pair. This same man bought some of
them second handed, saying that they were the best chicks he
ever saw of their age. ‘They must have cost the consumer pretty
high by the time they reached him.
It will readily be seen by this that the profits on one chick
got outin January or February are more than the profits on five
chicks got out in June or July. Indeed no ‘one can afford to
hatch chicks during the summer months, as the extreme heat will
reduce the size and vitality of chicks far more than the cold of
the early spring months. Then, as they are always sure to be off
condition, the price is always low, compared to the more robust
chicks got out earlier in the season.
Chicks hatched before the first of March should all be sold,
both pullets and crowers, otherwise the pullets will lay in July
and August and be in the fall the same as an old hen, and one
ean hardly afford to keep a $2 pullet idle through the winter and
then sell her for less than half that sum in the spring.
ne Ati
The proper time to hatch out Asiatics for winter layers is in
March and April, while the Leghorns and smaller breeds will do
as well in April and May and even the first of June.
During the months of January and February one macnine
was run entirely on hens’ eggs, and our buildings were filled with
chicks all intended for market. During March the machines are
run to their utmost capacity on ducks’ eggs. During April, the
ineubators are run largely on hens’ eggs, to furnish store fowl
for winter laying. Then in May and June they are run entirely
on ducks. As fast as the spring broilers go to market, the
buildings are filled right up with young ducklings, and as ducks
will be as heavy at eight weeks old as a chick at eighteen
weeks, we canreadily see that the one business does not neces-
sarily interfere with the other.
CHAPTER XIV.
RAISING EARLY DUCKS FOR MARKET.
AN EXCEEDINGLY PROFITABLE BRANCH OF POULTRY RAISING BOT
LITTLE KNOWN—DUCKS EASIER TO RAISE THAN CHICKS—TREAT-
MENT—FEED—TIME OF MARKETING—PRICES AND PROFITS—QUAL-
ITY OF THE FLESH—STORE DUCKS—MANAGEMENT OF HATCHES.
Brooders are especially convenient in growing ducks, as the
ducklings seldom need heat more than ten days.
The raising of ducks for market is a business which I sup-
plement to my chicken business. I find it, if anything, more
profitable than chicken raising, as the ducks can be hatched and
grown artificially with far less care and trouble, and with much
smaller percentage of loss, than when grown under hens.
I have got out the present summer some three thousand
ducklings, and can truly say that from the first fifteen hundred,
I lost but cne duck.
These ducks simply require water to drink, and are fed
nearly the same as chickens, except that they need rather more
animal food as they increase in size. They should be carefully
guarded from the rain for the first fortnight. They should also
be yarded while young, for, if allowed free range, they greedily
devour all manner of insects, which they do not stop to kill, and
too often pay the penalty with their lives Boiled potatoes and
vegetables should be fed freely at least once a day to young
ducks, which should have four meals each day until five weeks
old. Cracked corn and refuse wheat may be kept by them, but
while fattening they should have all the soft food they can eat at
least three times a day.
Ducks should be marketed at nine or ten weeks old,
as soon after that the pin feathers begin to grow and they are off
condition and soon become poor, while it is an immense job to
pick them. If not marketed at the time above mentioned, they
will not be in condition again till after they are four months old.
Pekin ducks at nine weeks old, if well fed, will dress from eight
ti49
to eleven pounds per pair. I obtained for the first lot sold this
season three dollars per pair. At present (June 15), the Boston
dealers return two dollars per pair.
An idea may be formed of the profits connected with the
business when a careful estimate places the cost of growing a
duck at less than twenty-six cents per head up to nine weeks old.
Ducks will stand close confinement far better than chicks, are
voracious eaters, and are not particular as to the quality; and to
my mind a pair of nicely roasted young ducks is excelled by
nothing in the poultry or game line, and is a dish fit for any
epicure.
Store ducks should be kept in a warm place and fed liberally
to induce early laying. The incubator should be filled with these
eggs as early in spring as may be, as the sooner the young duck-
lings are hatched the higher the prices obtained. Yet, unlike
chicks, they are very profitable when hatched out as late as the
first of August. I hatch most of my ducks in May and June,
when the hatch of chicks is concluded and the machines would
otherwise be idle. As fast as the spring broilers go to market,
the buildings are filled right up with ducklings. Now as ducks
will be as heavy at eight weeks as chicks at eighteen weeks, it
will be readily seen that the one business does not necessarily in-
terfere with the other.
Up to the present time of writing (June 15), I have some
two thousand ducklings out. Quite a number of these ducklings
have already been marketed, dressing from ten to eleven pounds
per pair at nine weeks old. As these ducks bring thirty cents
per pound at wholesale prices in Boston, and cost but five cents
per pound to grow them, it is easy to see that it is a paying busi-
ness. I do not lose more than one per cent of the ducklings
when they are properly cared for, my hatches running from
ninety to ninety-eight per cent of fertile eggs.
CHAPTER XV.
MARKETING POULTRY, BUILDINGS, SELEC-
TION OF STOCK FOWL.
DRY-PICKING VS. SCALDING—PROPER DRESSING—CAREFUCUL PACK-
ING FOR MARKET—KILLING AND PICKING—DRESSING DUCKS—
BUILDINGS FOR POULTRY—PORTABLE HOUSES—THE LABOR QUES-
TION—VENTILATION—GENERAL DESIGN OF A PRACTICAL HOUSE—
SELECTION OF STOCK FOWL—IN-AND-IN BREEDING—THE AUTHORS:
METHOD.
MARKETING POULTRY.
This part of the business is a most important one, and when
well managed adds greatly to the yearly receipts. A lot of fowl
cleanly dressed and carefully packed will always command. from
eight to ten per cent more than fowl in equally as good condition
but dressed in a slovenly manner, carelessly thrown into a box
with pin feathers sticking out here and there, the skin tern, and
sent to market in that condition.
Fowls for Boston market should always be dry picked, as
scalded poultry will surely be cut from ten to twelve per cent.
For the New York market, it is immaterial, as other things being
the same, the price will not vary much between dry picked and the
scalded. In either case the fowls should be carefully packed,
breast down, and (if shipped any distance) with layers of clean
straw between. Sometimes large-boned, loosely-built chicks that
are in really good condition, will not show for what they are
worth. In such a case the breast-bone may be broken down, just
after dressing, with a soft mallet, giving them a plumper, better
appearance, and making them better for purchaser and consumer.
Parties living at a distance from market will always find it
for their interest to ship their poultry in a first-class condition.
Poultry should always be graded and that poorer in quality
shipped by itself. A few pair of fowls out of condition mixed
with a lot of first-class poultry, will often shrink the whole lot
Pie, ¢, Nae
from two to three cents per pound, when the objectionable sold
by themselves would perhaps shrink no more.
A person by a strict attention to details in dressing and
shipping his poultry will soon establish a first-class reputation
among the dealers, a thing which he can hardly afford to forfeit
just for want of a few moments’ extra care. The writer has
marketed the present season, tons of poultry all of his own
growing and entirely to retailers, thus saving one profit. It was
a great gratification to him a day or two since to hear a promi-
nent Boston firm say, “‘ We never order poultry elsewhere as long
as we can get it from you,” and a member of another firm the
same day said, “ Your poultry commands two cents per pound
more than that obtained elsewhere. We can get all the poultry
we want at two cents less than we pay you, but prefer yours at
the higher price.” I always-have more orders for my poultry
and eggs than I can possibly fill. Ido not mention these facts
through any feeling of egotism, but simply to show that a great
part of the profits arising from the poultry business are secured
through the close attention to this part of the work.
The fowl should always be bled through the mouth. A
clean cut with a sharp pointed knife across the roof of the mouth
just below and under the eyes will do the business. A half-min-
ute will be all-sufficient to bleed, and when the bird begins to strug-
gle give it a smart blow on the back of the head and begin the
picking at once. A smart picker will have the feathers nearly all
off before the bird ceases to move. ‘The ruling price in this vi-
cinity is three cents per head for dressing chicks and five cents
for ducks, and some pickers make from $3to $5 per day at these
prices. Ducks should be thrown into ice water as soon as picked,
and kept there till marketed. They do not require to be drawn.
The wing feathers from the outside joint, with the head, should
be left on.
POULTRY BUILDINGS.
I am often asked to give a plan for practical poultry build-
ings. This isa very difficult thing to do because some people
want their buildings very ornamental, while others, whose purses
are lighter, want structures that are barely practical. Some have
plenty of room, and can colonize their fowl out in small or porta-
ble buildings, and give them plenty of range; this, all things con-
sidered, is the best method.
Others still are limited for room and would like to know
how many fowl they can keep to advantage on a given area.
Now these different situations require differently constructed
buildings.
Then again the labor question as connected with the poultry
business, is one,of the gravest import. It is now difficult to get
faithful, intelligent help. The oid impression that boys and girls
and invalids are adapted to the care of poultry is fast wearing
away. The poultry business means long days, early work and
4B)
late, and there is not only a large amount of drudgery connected
with it, but it is a work of detail, as well as requiring constant
vigilance and activity.
Henee, in all poultr y establishments, got up with a view to
profit, the buildings should be constructed with a view to simpli-
fying the labor question and every facility allowed for cleaning
and purifying. The sanitary department comes first on the list,
for where poultry are reared ona large scale the predisposition
to vermin and disease is in exact ratio to the number kept. Es-
pecially is this the case where the fowl are confined.
Ventilation should always be from below, as this carries
away the cold air and foul gasses instead of the warm pure air of
the upper stratum. A person has only to pass through a_build-
ing occupied by fowls and ventilated in either of the above ways
to satisfy himself of the utility of the bottom ventilation.
Where one is limited for space and large buildings are
necessary, undoubtedly a double roof building twenty-four feet
wide, with a four foot walk in the center, is the most convenient
and best. This building need not be more than four feet high at
the sides, and can be of any required leneth. There should be a
pump connected with this aisle, andthe fowl should all be fed
and watered from it. This reduces the labor and care to a mini-
mum.
By this arrangement an hour each morning and evening
would be all the time required to feed and water one thousand
fowls. Of course a building of this description one hundred feet
long would be ample accommodations for five hundred fowl.
Such a building need not cost over $275, but can be made to cost
twice that sum. The fowl should have access to small dust
rooms and the nests should be arranged so that the eggs can be
gathered from the walk. The whole thing should “be got up
with a view to simplify the labor and sanitary departments, as con-
stant cleanliness is absolutely necessary to success.
SELECTION OF STOCK FOWL.
It has always been a pet theory of mine that only the very
choicest, either in the animal or vegetable kingdom should be re-
served for the reproduction of its species. Especially is this the
case with poultry, where deterioration is so great through natural
causes.
Many experienced poultry-growers maintain that it is abso-
lutely necessary to introduce foreign blood through a change of
cockerels, at least every second year, and every year would be
better. Others still assert that by a selection of the choicest
birds, even by constant inbreeding, the flock may be improved.
A series of careful experiments for the past ten years has con-
vinced me that the latter opinion is correct.
Of course it will be understood that the frequent interming-
ling of blood will be in inverse ratio to the number of fowl kept.
I carefully inspect every fowl of the thousands I raise, when kill-
Ag
ing, and whenever I find a promising cockerel or drake that has
all the required points, and is unusually vigorous, he is thrown
into a yard by himself. The points of merit must be: Short,
yellow legs, standing wide, plump, heavy breast, clean cut head
with a bright eye; and unusual vigor coupled with precocity.
This latter removes the only objectionable point in the Brahma
fowl, which I think, taken all in all, are the best for market pur-
poses and also for the first winter as layers.
In the fall, 1 sometimes have from sixty to seventy-five
cockerels carefully selected from many hundreds. These are
again examined and the number I require, some thirty-five or
forty, are taken out. Of the pullets and ducks, all objectionable
birds are culled out and sold to the carts.
I inbred in this manner for six years in succession, and my
fowls increased in size, vigor and in richness of plumage. My
Brahma pullets at the end of the fourth year of the experiment,
began laying at five months old, or as early as the Plymouth
Rocks, so that with me inbreeding has been a decided success.
A word here in regard to the profits of the poultry business:
A well managed poultry establishment should pay one hundred
per cent yearly on all the capital invested.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DISEASES’ OF POULTRY.
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE—DISINFECTANTS— EXTREME
CLEANLINESS—S¥YMPTOMS OF DISEASE—CONTAGION— USE OF
DOUGLAS’ MIXTURE— ROUP—DIARRHGA— CRAMP— BUMELE-FOOT—
SCALY-LEGS—GAPES—FREATHER-E ATING—FOWL CHOLERA—LICE.
It is well for the amateur poulterer, who contemplates busi-
ness on a large scale, to know at the outset that the predisposi-
tion to vermin and disease among poultry is in exact ratio to the
number of fowl kept; and that nine out of ten of the diseases
to which poultry are subject are the direct result of neglect and
filth, and can be easily avoided by the use of disinfectants
coupled with extreme cleanliness and care.
It is far easier to anticipate diseases in poultry than to cure.
The careful expert can easily detect the symptoms as they appear.
The discolored excrements, dull and ruffled plumage, apparent
lassitude, want of appetite, pale comb and wattles, dull and Ius-
terless eye, are to the expert sure premonition of what is to come.
The utmost vigilance is required and a constant supervision
of the different flocks. All sick and ailing fowl should at once
be removed, as many of the diseases to which fowl are subject
are of the most contagious nature. During the winter months,
and when fowl are confined, the Douglas’ mixture should be
given them in their drink at least twice a week. This mixture
consists of half a pound of copperas and half an ounce of sul-
phuric acid to one gallon of water. One tablespoonful of this
solution or mixture is enough to one gallon of drinking water.
This mixture has a wonderful effect on the general health of the
fowl, when properly and regularly administered, and is besides a
good disinfectant.
ROUP.
This is a disease very prevalent among fowl, and in its in-
cipiert stages sometimes makes its appearance in the form of a
ARTE
cold or slight catarrh. These troubles, if taken in time, are
easily removed, but, if neglected, often result in serious loss.
When fowl are contined in damp, filthy quarters, or when
cold drafts of air come in contact with the fowl, or when they
are kept in poorly ventilated buildings, roup is a frequent
visitor.
As this disease is very contagious, and often fatal, the af-
fected fowl should be removed at once and placed in dry, warm
quarters. The dried mucous should be removed from the nos-
trils; the passage to the roof of the mouth thoroughly cleaned;
the head and throat bathed in kerosene twice each day. The
bird should be fed on stimulating and highly nutritious food. In
the latter stages of the disease, the discharges from the nostrils
become very offensive, the head begins to swell, and sometimes
one eye and occasionally both are closed.
All this can usually be prevented if the birds are taken in
time, but when in this condition must be fed by hand, with soft
food mixed thin with milk anda little red pepper dusted in.
Unless a fowl is very valuabie the axe is the best remedy.
DIARRH@A.
Dust a little powdered chalk and cayenne pepper into boiled
milk, feed on soft food, and withhold vegetables for a few days.
CRAMP.
This trouble, though usually attributed to damp quarters,
is, 1 think, mainly the result of too highly concentrated food,
coupled with too little exercise. Who ever saw chicks troubled
with cramp when allowed to run out of doors, even in warm
rain and dew, so long as they had plenty of grass and insects for
dessert and plenty of exercise to stimulate action in their digest-
ive organs?
On the contrary I was once called to a case where a man
had just lost two hundred fine chicks from this trouble, and three
hundred more a little younger were just coming down with it,
and this in a building the floor of which was made of dry boards
on which had been spread an inch of dry sand. A uniform tem-
perature of 70° had been preserved in the room night and day.
These chicks had been carefully shielded from dampness. This
was in March.
I told him to clear away the snow from his building in front,
turn his chicks out when pleasant, give them plenty of boiled po-
tatoes, chopped cabbage, feed on bread crumbs and baker’s dust
mixed with sour milk with a little animal food, and report the
result tome. At the end of a fortnight a letter from him re-
ported two of the cases dead and the rest as lively as crickets,
every symptom of the disease having disappeared.
BUMBLE-FOOT.
This trouble usually confines itself to the Asiaties and heavier
breeds. When it first appears, the bird shonld be removed to
49.
dry quarters with clean straw. The skin over the inflamed part
should be shaved away a little, and caustic applied, which will
nearly reduce the swelling. If that fails and the swelling be-
comes large, soft, and full of pus, it should be opened, the pus
removed and the wound thoroughly washed out with warm water,
when it will usually heal.
SCALY LEGS.
This is also confined to the Asiatic breeds and is easily cured.
It is caused by a little parasite working itself into the interstices
between the scales on the legs. Carefully apply kerosene to the
affected parts, wipe off and rub in sulphur ointment. One appli-
cation will usually be enough.
GAPES.
This disease is caused by small worms or maggots accumu-
lating in the throat of the chick, and the disease is usually a den-
izen of damp, filthy quarters. The first thing is to thoroughly
clean and disinfect the buildings and yards. Put the affected
chicks into barrels and circulate dry air-slaked lime freely among
them. Inhaling this will cause them to cough and throw up the
worms.
FEATHER-EATING.
This is, I think, more an idle, vicious habit than a disease,
superinduced by idleness and close confinement, or possibly a
craving for animal food. Separate the offending bird, or the
feather-eating will become general.
CHOLERA.
This is a terrible scourge—the worst with which the poultry-
grower has to contend. It not only decimates but often des-
troys whole flocks. Itis far more prevalent in the West and
South than in the East and North. There is no doubt but that
low, marshy grounds, and damp, filthy quarters will encourage
the disease and predispose fowl to its ravages. In careful ex-
periments by Prof. Pasteur of the London international medical
college, it was found that the blood, body and excrements of the
diseased fowl were filled with minute organisms. One drop of
this blood introduced into a little chicken soup will speedily af-
fect it in the same manner, and so on even to the hundredth de-
parture, and one drop of that last dilution is equally as deadly as
the original drop of blood from the diseased fowl.
The disease first makes its appearance in the urates, giving
them a yellowish cast. ‘These discharges, as the disease ad-
vances, gradually become more frequent and copious, and the
bird becomes weaker, sometimes living several days, and often
dying in twenty-four hours. Fowl cholera is not only the most
fatal, but the most contagious of all poultry diseases.
Now as every part of these excrements are filled with the
microscopic life of the cholera, it will be seen how necessary it is
ae
to thoroughly clean and disinfect the Uuilding and confine the af-
fected fowl by themselves.
In an experiment some time since a number of diseased
fowl were confined by themselves, and fed on soft food into
which was mixed a small quantity of medicine composed of equal
parts of assafcetida, hypophosphate of soda and saffron, ground to-
ether, a little cayenne pepper being sprinkled in the food also.
he drinking water was treated with the Douglas’ mixture.
Three-fourths of the fowl thus treated recovered. In another
lot, simply confined and fed without any treatment, the disease
proved fatal in every case.
The great point is to avoid contagion. Deodorize everything
in connection with the buildings and have all infected matter
burned. This alone will destroy the minute organism of fowl
cholera.
LICE.
This pest is a great trouble to the poultry grower, and needs
incessant vigilance on his part. There are two kinds of lice with
which he has to contend.
The larger or body lice finds its home among the feathers of
the fowl. She will usually rid herself of them when provided
with a proper dust bath.
The smaller parasite, or the little red mite, is the most
troublesome. When once they have obtained possession the
only remedy is to fumigate thoroughly with burning brimstone.
No living thing cau withstand that. Then white-wash the whole
inside of the building.
As in everything else, so here, a little prevention is worth a
great deal of cure. These little mites originate on the ‘perches,
and are never on the fowls’ body except to feed. Judging from
sad experience, they have astonishing facilities for the reproduc-
tion of their species. The power of becoming great-grandfathers
within twenty-four hours makes lively work for the poulterer as
well as the old hen.
It is easy to avoid the red mites when you know how. Pro-
cure for perches planed spruce joists, two by three inches in size,
and as long as required. Cover them with hot coal tar, and you
will have no lice for at least one year. I have perches that were
so painted three years ago; they have been in constant use ever
since, and there has been neither tar or lice on them since.
Every one knows that this tar is an oderiferous compound. It
is excessively obnoxious to the lice. They will thrive and multi-
ply daily in all manner of filth and offensive matter, but coal tar
is beyond them. It costs a cent andahalf per gallon. Every
breeder of fowl should have a barrel of it on hand. ‘This tar, be-
fore it is applied, should be boiled, and then a thin coat applied.
It will then harden when it cools and will not tarnish the fowl.
pm a eae
THE PROS AND CONS OF
ARTIFICIAL POULTRY - RAISING.
HOME-MADE INCUBATORS 4xb BROODERS.
BY THE EDITOR.
0 0 gal ae 8 gage Oe A
AGRICULTURAL EDITOR VISITS MR. RANKIN—HIS METHODS
D BUILDINGS—PROFITS OF ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION—ARTIFI-
TAL VS. NATURAL HATCHING IMPARTIALLY CONSIDERED.
A visit to Mr. Rankin’s farm is especially interesting at this
time, May 1. He is running four incubators, mostly on duck
eggs. The day we were there a splendid hatch came out—three
hundred and sixty-four ducklings out of three hundred and _ sev-
enty-eight fertile eggs. Duck eggs generate more animal heat
than hens’ eggs and require more frequent spraying with water to
cool them. ‘This adds to the moisture also, which is a great es-
sential in artificial hatching. Ducks grow much faster than
chicks and if well fed will weigh ten pounds per pair at seven
weeks old. Exclusive of the eggs, their cost at that age need
not exceed twenty cents each for feed, and the average net profit
is a clean dollar apiece.
Mr. Rankin uses Pekin ducks, but is to try the Aylesbury
breed that is so popular in the London market. The Aylesbury is
more fully breasted and makesa better appearanceinmarket. There
~
oo
is a rapidly increasing demand for ducks, since people are discover-
ing that roast duck is better than the most delicate chicken. Ducks
sold all last year at one to two cents per pound above the price of
chicks, starting at fifty cents per pound for early ducks and run-
ning down to eighteen cents as the season waned. It is also to
be remembered that ducks are sold “ green,” that is, they are not
drawn but merely bled, whereas chicks are sold on dressed
weight. The young ducks will lay on flesh faster and do better
every way if not allowed to see water at all. Curiously enough,
hawks won’t touch ducklings, though hawks are a serious pest to
the chicken yard.
The ducklings are fed on shorts, meal, scalded meat scraps,
butter-milk, skimmed milk, ete. They require much more food
than chicks, especially more animal food. A Cayuga drake crossed
upon Pekin ducks produces a desirable market bird. Mr. Rankin
is raising ducks for market extensively, having about eight hun-
dred hatched already and three incubators full (four hundred
eggs each) yet to come. It is more profitable to hatch the ducks
for market than to sell the eggs for $1.50 per dozen, at least in
the early part of the season. A flock of ducks are kept over to
lay eggs another year. It is found that if these old ducks are
confined and well fed their eggs are very much larger than if al-
lowed full range in the swamp.
While the old birds will take care of themselves largely if
allowed to range, it is a fact that the ducklings are much hardier
and more easy to raise than chicks. In fact, Mr. Rankin does
not lose one per cent of the ducks hatched. This is another
strong point in favor of ducks. Like chicks they do better when
colonized in small houses or brooders than where kept in large
flocks.
Persons wishing to start in the business of raising ducks can
do so to the best advantage and the least expense by setting the
ego's in summer when they are cheap, and raise the ducks for an
egg supply the next season. As with chicks, the earlier the hatch
in spring, provided they do well and thrive (which depends on
intelligent care), the greater the profit. Herein is the profitable-
ness of artificial hatching, which enables one to get birds to mar-
ket at almost any season and in larger numbers than would be
possible by the natural method.
MR. RANKIN’S BUILDINGS
are the common nine feet wide house, six feet high in front and
four and one-half feet in the rear, though the pitch of the roof
need not be over fourteen inches. The Standard Roofing adver-
tised by A. F. Swan, 46 Cortlandt street, New York, is used.
The cost of these houses is $1.25 to $1.50 per running foot.
They are better than more expensive houses. The roosts are
along the back-side, with a wide board beneath catching the drop-
pings. Underneath this board are the nests, which the hens enter
from the rear. They are closed in front so that the hen lays in
=
darkness and is not liable to acquire the bad egg-eating habit.
The front of the nests has a hinged door through which the eggs
can be gathered. Wire netting bought for one cent per square
foot from Peter Duryee & Co., 215 Greenwich street, N. Y., is con-
sidered the best and cheapest fencing,as wellas the most convenient.
AS TO THE FEED.
The poultry raisers of all this section feed skim-milk and
butter-milk largely. They buy at C. Brigham & Co.’s creamery
in Boston, paying three and four cents per gallon. The cost of
freight is only twenty-six cents per barrel additional, the railroad
carrying in the empty barrel and returning it filled for this sum.
Charles O. Tribou, of Brockton, formerly worked in the shoe
shops there and made good wages, but commenced in the poultry
business in a small way two or three years ago with such success
that this year he attends to nothing else. His incubator hatched
seventy-five to ninety per cent of the fertile eggs, and he has al-
ready over twelve hundred chicks with as many more tocome. He
has tried making a house entirely of Standard three-ply roofing,
but so much studding has to be used that he has decided it would
be about as cheap to construct entirely of boards, using the roof-
ing only on the roof.
MORE MONEY IS PROBABLY MADE
in the hen business—eggs and fowl for market, not for sale to
breeders at faney prices—by Mr. E. Damon than by any other
man in New England—on an equal number of hens. He aver-
ages to keep eight hundred to one thousand hens per year on about
eight acres,the profit averaging 1.50 from each above every item of
expense. He has done this for ten or twelve years. He runs
two incubators and had twenty-five hundred chicks out when we
were there, and hadn’t but just commenced. He employs one
man and runs the hens in connection with a cider and vinegar
business and other work. He says two men devoting their time
wholly to poultry can care for four thousand fowls. Mr. Da-
mon’s principal fowl house is 12x36 feet. Two winters ago he
kept two hundred and twenty-five hens in a house 26x80 feet and
got an average of one hundred and eight dozen eggs per week
for eight weeks without permitting the hens to step outside the
house. One day the two hundred and twenty-five hens laid two
hundred and five eggs. This is an unparalleled record. He
feeds a great deal of shorts, cracked corn, wheat, ete., mixed
with skim-milk and pigs’ liver cooked and given warm.
A cross of three-fourths Plymouth Rocks and one-fourth
Light Brahma is his favorite strain for both eggs and market
poultry. A Light Brahma and Leghorn cross produces great
layers. Last year he caponized one hundred and fifty cockerels
but it didn’t pay for the bother. A good deal of theoretical
writing is printed about capons, but Mr. Damon does not believe
there is any practical profit or advantage in them.
The chicks are removed from the incubator, when well dried
fae
off, to the “chicken factory,” a house 25x50 feet with six feet
posts and four windows on each side. In cold weather this is
heated by a stove. Pens on each side contain brooders of Mr.
Rankin’s pattern—a boiler in the bottom heated by a lamp at the
end. The boiler is covered with dry sand, upon which the chicks
huddle. This gives better. satisfaction than to have the heat
above by arranging a boiler to have chicks run under it. The
building is well ventilated.
Mr. Damon is a firm believer in the improved incubator.
He would use it for raising fancy breeding stock. He is confi-
dent artificially reared fowl have as much constitution and do
as well, if not better, in every way, than those naturally raised.
He showed us a flock of eighty fowl, procured of Mr. Rankin last
fall, that have averaged sixty eggs per day all winter. Not a
single hen has died or been indisposed, but they are all bright,
thrifty and healthy, and will weigh eight to ten pounds. Not
only were they hatched in incubators and never knew the loving
eare of an old biddy, but their parents, grandparents and four or
five generations preceeding them had known none but artificial
care.
Charles Alford is also very successful in artificial raising of
poultry, so much so that an offer of $1000 a year and perquisites
to run an artificial poultry raising establishment for another
party wasn’t any inducement. He allows his chicks to run out
doors till cold weather, never has the roup or other hen troubles
in his flock, and raises such stock that his eggs are in great de-
mand.
ARTIFICIAL VS. NATURAL HATCHING.
A thorough and unprejudiced investigation shows that the
artificial method of hatching possesses the great advantage of
producing chicks free from vermin, and therefore to all appear-
ances strong and healthy. With an incubator that will hatch
seventy-five per cent and upwards of fertile eggs, far more chicks
can be produced in much less time and less expense than by the
natural way. It is not as much work to care for one hundred
chicks hatched by an incubator and all kept in one brooder as it is
to care for an equal number in charge of hens. Give the former
as much room and care as the latter and they will do as well.
The great trouble of many who go into the artificial way of rais-
ing poultry is that they crowd the chicks too much, often giving
one hundred no more room than an old hen and her little flock are
allowed. While experienced, practical men have demonstrated
that chicks can be successfully raised in small quarters, it is
worse than useless for the novice to undertake it.
The laying qualities of the artificially raised fowl will com-
pare favorably with those raised by the natural method. Mr.
Rankin has for many years surpassed his neighbors in egg pro-
duction. Mr. Damon’s flock, above referred to, which has been
one of the most productive on record, was not only raised artifi-
a= am
cially, but its ancestors for half a dozen generations had been
hatched im incubators and reared in brooders. Certainly no
sizonger test could be made of constitution and strength so far as
egg production and thrift of the fowl is concerned, for a health-
ier looking flock is seldom seen. We wish also to record the fact
that not a single ailing chick was noticed among the four thous-
and or more artificially hatched chickens seen on the trip, notwith-
standing a rain suorm, had preceded our visit. It should also be
stated that our visit was totully unexpected where most of these
chicks were seen, so that the owners had no opportunity to hide
any diseased chicks had there been any cause or inclination for
so doing.
The chicks hatched by hens at Mr. Damon’s were in no wise
superior to those hatched in incubators; if anything the compari-
son was in favor of the latter, though as they were of differ-
ent ages we could not accurately compare them. The only point
on which there appears to be any doubt is whether thoroughbred
fowl artificially raised will possess the perfection of markings
and the strength of constitution to transmit those markings equal
to the naturally raised bird. This isa fine point of interest to
breeders of fancy poultry only. For all practical purposes the
experience of the geutlemen mentioned above and of others in
their vicinity presents strong arguments in favor of artificial incu-
bation. While the great majority of hatching machines are at
present very defective. it is evident that great progress has been
made when seventy-five to ninety-eight per cent of fertile eggs
are hatched. Weare convinced that despite the well founded
prejudice against it, artificial incubation is in its infancy and that
the time will come when reliable hatching machines will be used
by every poulterer and sold at prices within the reach of all.
CHAPTER XVII.
ad
PRO AND CON—MR. HAWKINS’ OPINION—NATURAL VS. ARTIFICIALLY
INCUBATED CHICKS.
We have given our own opinion of natural versus artificial in-
cubation in the preceeding chapter. It is needless to remark that
the many failures in artificial incubation have created a prejudice
against the system which later success is slow to counteract.
Even Mr. A. C. Hawkins, the well known breeder, has expressed
this opinion of incubators, in an address before the Massachusetts
state board of agriculture in December, 1884:
“ Now a word in regard to the use of artificial incubators by
the farmer.’ Some of you, perhaps, may have used them, and, as
you think, suceessfully. I have tried them for several years,
having used all the best machines, and I would not take the best
one that is manufactured to-day as a present, if I was obliged to
use it myself. Chickens hatched by the hen are much stronger,
larger, and finer in plumage; there is as much difference between
artificially produced chickens and natural ones as there is between
Jersey butter and oleomargarine. Nature does her work per-
fectly when she has proper opportunity. Many will ask how
they are going to hatch chickens by the thousand? Just as I
have told you how to hatch them by hundreds. You must keep
more fowl and there will be abundance of sitters at the prop-
er season. [have probably hatched and raised more chickens
during the last six years than any other breeder, and the incuba-
tor has hindered more than it has aided me. I have had hatched
on my place, in one week, over fifteen hundred chickens, all with
hens. That is fast enough. I have probably spent more than two
thousand dollars trying to convince myself that artificial chicken
production was a benefit to me, but after the long struggle I
haven’t an incubator on my place; still the chickens hatch and
erow.”
This brought ont a discussion on the question in THE NEW
ENGLAND HOMESTEAD in which Mr. Hawkins was asked to ex-
plain how the manner of hatching a chick, (either naturally or ar-
tificially), is to influence the plumage. He thus replied:
“Any person who will give this question careful thought can
plainly understand why the conditions through which a chicken
passes before hatching should have as much or even more influ-
ence on its appearance at maturity than the condition which it
aoe
undergoes after incubation. Any practical poultry breeder, who
has tried to hatch and raise chickens artificially, knows that they
mature smaller and that the plumage has not the perfection of
markings as do those hatched and reared by hens, the eggs being
from the same flock under the same conditions. Knowing the re-
sult which is sure to come, let us look for the cause.
“Manufacturers of incubators claim they imitate nature per-
fectly in the construction of their various machines. The ques-
tion is, Do they? I have had on my place and tested carefully
one of the best incubators manufactured. To overcome the dry-
ness of the heat in the machine, they place pans filled with water
upon hot pipes beneath the egg drawers. There is a constant
steam rising from these pans of water upon the eggs above. I
will ask anyone if these eggs are receiving the same amount of
moisture or the same kind of moisture that they receive when
nature is doing the work, or in other words, when a hen is sitting
upon a nest of eggs under a bush or shed? Is the heat adminis-
tered to those eggs the same as that coming from the hen? Do
the manufacturers know that the heat and moisture is right? No.
In proof of this, when the chicks began to hatch on the twentieth
day, a large part of them would pip the shell, and the inner mem-
brane of the shell would quickly dry, and the chick from its
weakness caused by three weeks of unnatural life did not have
the strength to break out from the shell but died in the attempt.
Others that were incased in weaker shells, or that had been less
affected by improper moisture or heat, or had been in a_ location
where the ventilation was more perfect, would hatch out—some to
die young, some to come to maturity in an imperfect state in size,
form or plumage.
“‘T have placed five hundred eggs in this incubator and five
hundred under hens at the same time, and when they hatched all
were placed with hens and given the same food and care. I
raised ninety-five per cent of those hatched by hens and lost
ninety per cent of those from the incubator, from no other reason
than that the former were subjected to nature’s heat, moisture
and ventilation during incubation, and the latter were the pro-
duct of an imperfect art. If the organs of the body are nurtured
by these imperfect conditions during their growth, they cannot
and will not perform the functions for which they were intended
ina perfect manner. As the flesh and plumage of the fowl are
products from the blood, if the organs of circulation and diges-
tion are imperfect, so will the plumage be affected by unnatural
conditions during incubation.”
The side of the incubators was vigorously supported by the
successful experience of others. One correspondent had had
especially good success with the very machine Mr. Hawkins par-
ticularly condemned. A. F. Williams, a Connecticut breeder,
wrote:
_ “In my own mind it is a settled fact that artificial hatching
can be done with more success than with hens. I last season
—58—
placed some five hundred eggs under hens and in an incubator.
They were as near alike as possible under all circumstances. The
hens hatched sixty per cent and the incubator seventy-five per
cent of the eggs. ‘Lhe temperature under a hen must vary more
than in an incubator, but I think good ventilation is very necessary
in the latter—not in direct contact with the eggs, but so they will
have the benefit of the air. Eggs want airing every day. This
is more necessary during the second and third week ; at first
they do not require it so much. Fifteen minutes to half an hour’s
ventilation is sufficient according to the weather. Do not let the
temperature get below 70°
Another thing: Which is the cheaper way and the least
worry,—to spend fifteen minutes tending an incubator, or go once
an hour to see whether your eight or ten hens are on the nest or
have concluded to retire from the incubating business? Or per-
haps they think that in order to get up the necessary degree of
heat it will require at least two or three hens ona nest. Or per-
haps they think they need a little egg omelet or scrambled egg,
and jump on the eggs. If they can’t accomplish it that way
they stick their toe-nails into and through the shells, and behold
they find it so much to their idea that the whole flock gather round
and partake of the feast. Then if the hens sit well and begin to
hatch, just at this time they feel their need of fresh meat, and
commence on the poor chicks, which fall victims as fast as they
hatch. ‘Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,” the incubator
or the hen.
I have not said anything about the expense of feed for these
same eight or ten hens for three weeks. Look at W. C. Baker
of New Jersey, who keeps White Leghorns and Hamburgs and
hatches some twenty-five thousand chicks a year artificially, and
others who hatch their thousands of chicks.
I have had chicks larger at ten days in a brooder than at
three weeks old witha hen. The idea is, that chicks can run in
and get brooded when they want to; they will learn this very
quickly and are not dependent on the old hens’ notions. Then
perhaps they yet fed oftener in the brooder, which makes them
grow faster. If you do not believe this, just try feeding them a
little once an hour, keep ina warm place with a_ brooder, give
some dry sand to seratch in, and you can fairly see them grow.”
We have given space thus liberally to this point,
because of the popular ignorance and prejudice respecting
it. The American Poultry Yard, of June 27, 1885 treats the subject
in a way worthy of insertion here:
“The past season has marked a great advance in artificial
hatching. A great many lessons have been learned which will
be of vaine for next year’s practical work. The question is
not as to the possibility of artificial hatching—that was long ago
settled. Proprietors of immense establishments for the produc-
tion of poultry have availed themselves of other means than the
a.
hen-mothers to such an extent as to demonstrate the practicabili-
ty of thus producing chickens. But there is a great question
still unsettled in the minds of many breeders who do only a mod-
erate amount of business, hatching say a few hundred chicks each
season. Doubiless every such man has asked himself many a
time: ‘Can I obtain a machine of proper size for doing my
work, which { can afford to buy ; which will give me nearly or
quite as good returns as [ would receive from eggs set under
hens ; one not too complicated in its construction or tuodelicate in
its management?” And when the question is asked of us we do
not hesitate to answer in the affirmative. There are just such
machines made ; they are advertised in our columns. If you
propose to buy, select the machiue as you would any other mer-
chandise—by personal inspection where it is possible, receiving
from the inaker full instructions and explanations as to its pe-
culiarities and treatment. Where this is not possible, order the
incubator from a maker of good repute, and expect to serve a
term of apprenticeship before setting up as a finished master of
the art of artificial hatching.
Right here is where most of the trouble comes. Common
sense should teach any man that unless a machine is a perfect au-
tomaton, its use must be learned before the best results can be
secured. Yet, julging from the complaints from time to time
put forth, not a few breeders who have never seen an incubator
order one, fill it with eggs as soon as it can be set up, and if the
first batch is in any way a failure a storm of wrath bursts upon
the devoted head of the maker, and the hatcher is offered for sale
at a great sacrifice.
Really, now, isn’t this about. the long and short of the whole
matter? Half the people who write letters to the poultry jour-
nals decrying incubators; talk as though the machine ought to be
an exception to all the rules of human experience. Such persons,
springing upon a bicycle for the first time, would expect to ride
with the most skillful, and only discover their mistake after a
few tumbles in the dirt. Experience may be costly sometimes,
but it must be had, and its teachings are always the most valuable.
Tuis is the way it happened to one of our friends the present sea-
son: He bought a well-known hatcher, filled it with eggs
bought from the best breeders at heroic prices, and waited the
result. Fora time all seemed to go well, and the exact number
of chickens he was sure of hatching was freely proclaimed among
his friends. In anevil hour the regulator failed to work, and
the heat went away tp towards the boiling point. But our
friend went to work, with less enthusiasm, it is true, refilled the
incubator with less expensive eggs, kept his wits about him, de-
monstrated the reliability of the machine when properly man-
aged, and would not now be without one. The man who is wil-
ling to learn to inanage one will succeed with any of the standard
makes. The man who is not willing to do so had better stick to
the old hen of thirteen-egg capacity.
ae Afjooe
Another Massachusetts poulterer writes regarding his ex-
perience with a machine, that Mr. Hawkins condemned:
“Three years ago this spring I furnished a man in Hudson
with three hundred and sixty eggs, the capacity of the incubator,
and paid him $10 to run it for me. The result was three hundred
good strong chicks. I brought them nine miles in a wagon to my
home. And at night placed them under hens that I had ready,
which had been sitting a short time. The next day I put them
in coops, twenty-five chicks to a hen. They grew fast and were
as smart as any [ ever had hatched by hens. Out of the three
hundred chicks ninety-five per cent lived, and were as strong,
finely marked cockerels and pullets as I ever raised. This was
the Perfect Hatcher, an incubator that Mr. Hawkins had _ tried
and condemned. I have bred one variety of poultry for thirteen
years, and my experience has been that if a flock of hens have an
unlimited range and good young cockerels to run with them and
the eggs are not over one week old when used, they will hatch
just as well in a good incubator as under a hen. I have engaged
parties to hatch for me this spring, although with a different ma-
chine of a capacity of five hundred and eighty eggs. I feel con-
fident of a good hatch and shall have no trouble with sitting hens
and broken eggs.” —[F. A. Houghton, Worcester County, Mass.
CHAPTER XIX.
MR. RANKIN’S EARLY EXPERIENCE.
AS WRITTEN FOR THE NEW ENGLAND HOMESTEAD, AND FOR FARM
AND HOME—A PROFIT OF SEVEN DOLLARS PER HEN—EXTRAVA-
GANT FACTS BACKED UP BY EXPERIENCE—SUPERIORITY OF THE
ARTIFICIAL OVER THE NATURAL METHOD OF GROWING POULTRY—
THE SYSTEM IN CONNECTION WITH OTHER FARM WORK.
In Angust, 1883, Mr. Rankin wrote a long article for THE
New ENGLAND HoMESTEAD and for FARM AND Homkg, in
which he briefly narrated his experience with incubators. This
article attracted instant and widespread attention, and was copied
into almost every agricultural and poultry journal in the country.
We print it here as a matter of important interest.
I have been engaged in the poultry business from my youth,
and have ever found it the most profitable branch of farming.
Much more profitable than ever before has it been since I com-
menced hatching and growing poultry artificially.
I have endeavored as near as possible to reduce the thing to
a system. I never keep a hen after she is a year old, for the
reason that biddy never lays as many eggs the second year as she
does the first. Besides an old hen invariably molts in the fall,
and does not recover plumage in time to furnish eggs to meet
the high prices, or get out chicks for early spring broilers.
My main object has ever been to make eggs and get out
chicks to meet the highest prices in the market. In order to do
this, a stock of early pullets are absolutely necessary to furnish
eggs at the right time. During the last winter and spring I have
hatched out some three hundred chicks. A large proportion of
them were sold during the months of May and June at prices
varying from $1 to $2.50 each, one lot of one hundred and _ fifty
selling at forty-five cents per pound live weight at the door.
- I will give an item of my experience, during the past winter,
ee
= ae
and the reader can judge for himself of the profits of growing
poultry artificially. ;
I took from one of my small incubators, one hundred and
thirty chicks and put them in a brooder and cared for them
through the winter. When four months old, May 25th, those
chicks sold for enough to cover the cost of growing them and the
original cost of both incubator and brooder, leaving a clear profit
of more thah $100 besides. Of course the incubator and brooder
were put right to work doing the same thing over again a second,
third, and fourth time during the same season. I will now give
you a copy of my balance sheet for 1881 and 1882:
Stock on hand Sept. 1, 1881:
138 pullets at $1.25 each, er eabet, es 5 | Cates $172.50
Supplies and food of all kinds, - - - - 337.83
35 gallons kerosene oil at eight cents, - = 2.80
; $ 513.13
Stock on hand Sept. 1, 1882.
314 pullets at 1.25 each, . . - ~ Th 392.50
81384 dozeneggssold, - - - - - = 274.55
137 fowls sold, - = - - - - - 136.23
Br ehicks sald,’ \. v=: gc se, =) ce we 631.24
1444.52
Balance (net.) 931.39
This balance on the right side of $931.39, is a net profit of
nearly $7 on each pullet with which the year commenced. Of
course everyone knows that this is a showing which would be
simply impossible without artificial incubation.
I have not given these items to air my ewn theory and prac-
tice, but to demonstrate the superiority of the artificial over the
natural method of growing poultry. ‘The one can no more com-
pete with the other thancan hand work compete with that of
machinery in our large manufacturing establishments. It en-
ables persons of limited means and narrow quarters to do a much
larger business than by the old method. He can grow two crops
on the same ground inone season, for the high priced spring
chicks are out of the way in time to occupy the buildings and
grounds with store fowl for winter layers. ‘There is not the least
doubt but that within a very few years every farmer or grower
of poultry will have his incubator and brooder, and get ont his
chicks when they will make him the best returns.
My chicken buildings are from sixty to seventy-five feet
long, fronting the south. They are nine feet wide, with a slight-
ly inclined shed roof covered with tin. There is a window in
front, for every eight feet longitudinally. These windows all
have close shutters to prevent extreme cold during the nights in
winter. The b-soders are kept in these buildings during the
winter months, + nd the young chicks are put in when hatched
and dried off.
The chicks are fed for the first forty-eight hours on hard-
boiled eggs chopped fine. After that they are fed on dough
lige
made of three parts of Indian meal and one part of wheat mid-
dlings, and largely with cracked corn and wheat as they grow
older. The young chicks are kept clean and warm, fed freely on
vegetables and given plenty of exercise. Every person should
understand that the sanitary arrangements of poultry yards and
buildings are even more essential than the amount or quality of
feed.
I do not make a specialty of growing poultry. It is simply
in connection with and supplementary to other farm work. y
principal business is making milk and growing fruit and truck
formarket. What 1 have accomplished is nothing msre than
any other farmer can do to a greater or less extent according to
his location and circumstances. The question is often asked, “ If
every body goes into the poultry business will it not glut the
market and cease to pay ?”” When poultry ceases to be a luxury
and is as common an article of diet on every workingman’s table
as beef and pork, it will be time to talk of glutting the market,
and even then poultry can be grown at a profit.
One word in regard to incubators. There seems to be a
great distrust of incubators by poultry men at large. This is
not strange, for there are so many worthless machines in the
market which hatch well on paper but whose only mission seems
to be to disappoint their purchasers and addle his cggs, that it
has made people skeptical. There are thousands of good practi-
cal men in the country to-day who say that artificial incubation is
not and can never be made a success. [I run two machines. I[
will give you the record of the larger one: During the four win-
ter and spring months [ have taken out of that machine some
two thousand chicks. It holds five hundred eggs and part of the
time was not running at its full capacity for want of buildings to
accommodate the young chicks. This machine has always hatehed
a larger percentage of the eggs, than my best hens. It is per-
fectly automatic in its action, so much so that it has run a week
at a time without varying more than one degree in heat. During
this time it has been in the care of different persons. All the
care that is required is to turn the eggs and trim the lights.
I do not wish to see a hen around in any other capacity than
that of an egg producer.”
CHAPTHR XX.
SUCCESS WITH HOME-MADE MACHINES.
HOME-MADE INCUBATORS—THEIR SUCCESSFUL USE IN NEW JER-
SEY—DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THIS AND OTHER
MACHINE S—A $25 INCUBATOR THAT DOES THE WORK OF A $300 AP-
PARATUS—A GOOD AND CHEAP BROODER—HOW MADE—THE CARE
OF THE INCUBATORS, BROODERS AND CHICKS—PROFITS OF THE
SYSTEM.
The poulterers of Burlington county, New Jersey, fora
few years past have been having great success in the use of an
incubator that can be made for twenty-five dollars, and will hold
three hundred eggs each, with brooders that cost only six dollars
each and will shelter one hundred chicks. These machines are
used with as much satisfaction and profit as are the patent ma-
chines costing four times as much, if we may judge from the testi-
mony of those who have used them. The description and detailed
instructions for making this incubator have never before been
published. The apparatus is not patented and none of its
Ah.
parts conflict with existing patents. The inventor has described it
exclusively for this work, as follows:
“ A reliable and cheap incubator, holding three hundred eggs,
may be made in the following manner:
Fig. 1 gives an idea of what is to be made. This incubator
is simply an egg-drawer placed between a heater and ventilator
box, all three being completely surrounded by an outer box or
case holding saw-dust to enclose and retain the heat. A side sec-
tional view showing the internal arrangement and construction
is shown in Fig. 2.
Use well seasoned matched white pine boards one inch in
Vegtilecter lay filled lh |
taur duit up. te delhd bow
thickness, for all parts except the sides and ends of the egg-
drawer, which should be a quarter of an inch heavier.
THE HEATER
Is made first and is shown in Fig. 3. It is three by four feet and
six inches high. It takes two boards six inches wide and four feet
long; and two boards six inches wide and two feet ten inches long
for the sides; the top being made of matched boards nailed on
very tightly, and has seven holes bored in it. The center hole is
for a three-eighth inch bolt seven inches long, with a large, flat
head on one end and a thumb-serew on the other. The other
holes are for six escape pipes, which are fifteen inches long and
three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Bore three holes on each
side three inches from the outside edges of the sides; the first,
; 5
wilige=.
three inches from the corner; the second fifteen inches from the
corner; the third twenty-seven inches from the corner.
Now cut two holes, eight inches from opposite corners (one
is shown in the drawing), in the center of the sides, and four
inches in diameter; and over both the inside and outside tack
stout pieces of tin containing round holes two and one-half inches
in diameter. These holes are for the lamp pipes, and the tin pro-
tects the wood from’fire. Directly under each of these holes in-
side, nail a piece of tin a foot square, putting it half an inch from
the bottom, bending down the two corners not nailed half an inch.
Wher the zinc is nailed on, this will make two thicknesses with
half an inch air space, and will prevent over-heating below the
lamp pipes. Use stout zine for covering the bottom, with a hole
for the bolt in the center of it. Nail it on with double rows of
lath nails, and it will be air tight. Put the bolt in and tighten
up the thumb screw.
THE DRAWER,
Fig. 4, is five inches deep in front, four feet nine inches long, and
two feet eleven one-half wide. After saving a space in front,
eight inches wide, for saw dust, take a piece of heavy, coarse
muslin or tow, and stretch tightly over the bottom and fasten
with tacks. Nail a board nine inches wide under the front space
for saw-dust, but cover the other parts with slats, one inch square,
nailing them on crosswise through the two and place them about
an inch apart.
A very convenient and complete egg-turner may be made by
making a frame with beveled cross-slats. This should be three
inches shorter than the drawer, and just wide enough to slide
nicely. The sides of the frame should be seven-eighths by three-
eighths of an inch; the ends, seven-eighths square. The slats are
seven-eighths of an inch high and one-half an inch across the
bottom, and’are one and seven-eighths inches apart at the top. It
a ae
is well to put the rows two inches apart for extra large eggs or
duck or turkey eggs. By moving or sliding this frame back and
forth, the eggs turn very nicely.
THE VENTILATOR BOX
With the bottom of the incubator, is represented standing upright
in Fig. 5. The box proper is three by four feet, the same as the
heater, but eight inches high. By noticing the drawing, it will be
pereeived that the bottom of the incubator is eight inches larger
every way than the ventilator box, and that the same matched
boards answer for both. The twelve half-inch holes are for
twelve bin pipes to furnish ventilation from below. These pipes
are eight inches long. The sides of the ventilator box extend out
even with the bottom of the incubator for the drawer to slide on.
_ Having made this, place the drawer on it, and the heater on
the drawer, and fasten the heater and ventilator together with
boards nailed on the sides and back. The boards should be one
foot wide, and be nailed so as to allow the drawer to work nicely
between the heater and ventilator. These boards on the sides
must project the same at the front as do the sides of the ventila-
tor. Next fit an eight-inch board over the front of the drawer,
keeping it level with the zinc. This keeps the saw-dust from
falling into the drawer.
Now with the bottom as a guide, build the outer box for saw-
dust, making it nine inches higher than the bottom of the heater,
and taking care to fit the front boards around the end of the
drawer nicely. To allow the lamp pipes to enter, cut holes in
the outer box the same as was done in the heater, but using tins
on the outside only. Where the lamp pipes pass through the
saw-dust, a box for sand must be made of sufficient size to prop-
erly protect the saw-dust. The tinsmith must make the lamp
and escape pipes, as stovepipe is made, but the ventilator pipes
may be soldered, as they are inno danger of melting. The es-
cape pipes must be cut off so as tocome to a point, so that when
EEE
ake 5
they are pushed down and touch the zine only a small draft is al-
lowed, and the draft can not become closed.
THE LAMP PIPES
Should be two and one-half inches in diameter, with an elbow in
the middle allowing the pipe to enter the heater three inches at
one end, and to fit a tin chimney with an isinglass window ix it
one inch in diameter at the other end. A large fount lamp with
a No. 2 burner is placed on a slide that can be pushed under the
incubator (as shown in Fig. 1), when removed for trimming.
The legs and handle are shown on the front of the drawer,
=
and can readily be made from looking at the drawing. The legs
hold up the drawer when drawn out, and the handle is merely a
cross piece fastened to them. The legs are three inches below
the bottom of the incubator, and they just clear the floor when
the incubator is on two pieces of scantling to allow air to pass up
through the pipes.
AFTER SETTING THE INCUBATOR
in the place where it is to be used, put sand in the boxes around
the lamp pipes, and put saw-dust in the ventilator-box up to with-
in one inch of the top of the pipes; also in front of the drawer
and all around the sides, and on top of the heater up to within an
inch of the top of the escape pipes, being careful not to allow any
saw-dast to get in the pipes. Cover the saw-dust with paper, al-
lowing the pipes to be open.
You are now ready to light the lamps. Use head lght oil
(150° test), keep the lamps at a medium height and in a few
days you will have the incubator thoroughly heated. By observ-
ing the two good thermometers in the front and back ends of the
drawer you can easily keep the temperature at 103° by turning
the lamp screw up or down. When you have the machine under
proper control, put the eggs in, and in about twelve hours they
will be warm enough without turning up the lamps, and they will
remain so unless the lamps are changed when filled and trimmed,
By trimming every other day and filling daily, the tempera-
we 0 Seam
ture can easily be kept uniform by looking at the thermometers
every six hours and turning the lamps up or down. From 102°
to 105° is the proper temperature. Good, reliable thermometers
must be used and the bulbs should rest on the eggs with the top
slightly elevated. .
Turn the eggs three times a day when you look at the ther-
mometer. The eggs should be marked so that you can see ata
glance if they are perfectly turned. This is best done by putting
a particular mark on each side of every egg, so that all the marks
will be readily seen to be alike after turning.
AFTER THE EGGS HAVE BEEN IN THREE DAYS
place four shallow pans of water on the saw-dust under the egg
drawer, two in front and two at the back and never let them get
empty. The moisture fram these pans is sufficient until the
eighth day, when a little warm water should be sprinkled over
the eggs once a day, until the twelfth day, when two sprinklings
will be needed until the fifteenth day. After that three sprink-
lings daily is given until hatching. During hatching a thin hot
cloth may be put over the eggs, if the chicks seem inclined to
stick to the shells.
After being in the machine five days all infertile eggs may
readily be told by examining them with a tester. A good tester
is made by placing a lamp in a pasteboard box with a hole in the
top for the escape of the smoke and one in the side opposite the
light against which to place the egg. The testing must be done
in a dark room, and the hole against which the egg is held should
be covered with cloth on the edges to perfectly shut out the light.
All clear eggs are infertile and only those with dark or clouded
places inthem contain germs. The infertile eggs are excellent
food for young chicks, and should be boiled for half an hour
and put away in a dry place until they are needed.
After the eggs are pipped, do not use the turner to turn
them, but keep all the pipped ones turned up or at the side ; and
examine the others occasionally, so that all may have pips up to
prevent smothering. The chicks will come out themselves and
should not be helped except in extreme cases. After the chicks
are nicely dried off and are able to walk about, they must be re-
moved from the drawer to baskets and when about a day old
placed under the brooder and fed. Keep the shells removed from
the drawer and avoid opening too frequently or for long periods.
THE BROODER,
Like the ineubator, has a heater which is four feet long, one foot
wide and six inches high. The top is covered with zine nailed
on tightly. There is no bottom except over one-third of the back
end. The front has a sliding door with a window to look at the
lamp. ‘The inside of the sides are lined with tin, and the chimney
hole is one inch from the bottom in the middle of the back, and
is for a tin pipe one and three-eighths inches in diameter, The
an | We
heater 1s shown in Fig. 6, giving. a bottom view without the
sliding door in front, and with boards one foot wide nailed on the
top through the zine.
Fig. 7 gives a top view of the same after strips two inches
wide have been fitted in at each end of the zine to make a level
surface all around the edge. Before the strips, also two inches
wide, have been nailed all around the edge, except to a, which is
an opening one and one-half inches wide to admit fresh air; b is
a strip ten inches long nailed on to conduct the fresh air to the
zine.
Now if this is covered with matched boards there will be a
warm fresh-air chamber two inches deep over the zine and one
inch elsewhere. Bore a hole in the centre for a pipe three inches
long and one and one-eighth in diameter. Around this pipe on
this floor the chicks keep warm. They sleep under a cover, also
made of matched boards, two inches smaller every way than the
floor. This cover has four round legs which go through holes
and raise and lower by means of nails, used as pegs in the stay
pieces. Around the edge of the cover, hang down tack carpet or
blanket cut in slits every four inches so that the chicks may run
in and out. The blanket should be four inches wide and the
cover kept two and one-half inches from the floor, when the
chicks are first put in the brooder. The warm air is thus con-
stantly flowing over their backs and ventilation is perfect. A tin
chimney twenty inches long will carry off the fumes from the
lamp.
Put the brooder under a warm, sunny shed, and set it in the
ground, or bank up nearly level with the floor and make a pit
for the lamp with an open cover. Be careful not to cover the
hole where the fresh air enters the brooder. A brooder house
may be made of hotbed sash for $12 large enough for three
brooders and three hundred chicks. Place the lamp as far under
as you can reach, using straight tin chimneys with isinglass
windows in them. The same kind of lamps and oil should be
used as directed for the incubator. The lamp need not be turned
up high, nor must the chimney be nearer the zine than two inches,
8° is warm enough forthem. No thermometer need be used in
the brooder. Keep dry sand on the floor and clean off the drop-
pings every morning. Let their run be small at first and do not
let them out when young in damp or stormy weather.
Feed them in troughs with covers which will only permit
them to stick their heads in. This will save feed and keep the
feed clean. Feed every three hours and only as much as they
will eat up clean. Their first feed should be hard boiled eggs
chopped fine and bread crumbs wet with milk. After a few days
scalded Indian meal or cracked corn may be given, as well as a
little green food. Onions chopped fine are very good mixed with
the feed. A little red pepper sprinkled on their food occasion-
ally gives them an appetite.
If at first the chicks do not use the brooder they have to be
Be | pee
put under it and looked after. Generally they are very little
trouble after the first half day. One hundred is enough for one
broodey.
By varying their food, giving them plenty of milk and keep-
ing clean water by them all the time, as well as having regard to
cleanliness and ventilation, any one will succeed in rearing broil-
ers in nine or ten weeks.
Thousands of broilers are being raised every year with these
incubators and brooders with great profit and much more satis-
faction than by hens. Any one who tries rearing poultry by ar-
tificial means must attend to his business, and remember that
failure in all avocations is generally caused by inattention much
more frequently than by anything else.
The most profitable time to sell poultry is in April. Oper-
ations should therefore be commenced in January. If care is
taken to use good eggs and they are turned and sprinkled as di-
rected, success in hatching is assured. A uniform heat of 103° is
best, but slight variation in temperature for short periods do not
injure the eggs. Do not keep the brooder too warm nor allow
the lamps to get empty. Feed regularly, and keep the chicks
dry and clean, and in well ventilated quarters they will grow,
and be a source of great profit as wellas pleasure.
The expensive buildings, and patent, high-priced incubators
and brooders may do for those who raise poultry for pleasure
rather than profit, and have plenty of money; but convenient sub-
stantial brooder houses and an incubator like many of us are
using, involves but little outlay for the profit received.
To operate an ineubator successfully is not an arduous task,
nor is there much trouble attending it. The lamps have been
filled and lighted a few days before you wish to place the eggs
in the drawer, and having the machine running at a temperature
ranging from 103° to 105°, the work of marking three hundred
eggs so that you will know that they are all properly turned at a
glance, when youslide the turner, is about the same work as
marking the same number for nests. To place them in a drawer,
between the slats of the turner, is much less trouble, and much
more pleasant than carrying them out of doors to twenty differ-
ent places in each of which a suitable nest must be made. There
are a few easy but important labors to be attended to daily and
at regular times, such as attending to the lamps, turning the eggs
with the turner, and looking at the thermometers four times a day,
sprinkling the eggs at certain periods and airing them; the eggs
should be tested once in order to save the infertile ones for feed
for the young chicks. During the time for hatching, the ineuba-
tor, like the hens, needs more attention, as the egy-shells and dry
chicks must be taken out, and the pipped eggs kept turned so
that the pip is up, and the chick will not smother. This work all
being in the house, is very easily attended to by a person of ordi-
nary intelligence and judgment, with more satisfactory results
than often obtained from an incubator having clock work, batter-
sstley +
ies, thermostatic bars, mercurial balances, and other delicate con-
trivances intended to make it self-regulating.
An incubator can be used at any time, but hens only sit
when they get ready. The proper time to commence using one is
in January, not later than the middle of the month, so as to have
the chicks reared by the first ot May. As a rule, most hens
want to sit in April or May and their broods are not often sold
till fall or winter. To attend to sitting hens is often a_ trouble-
some task. Some are disturbed by rats, and have to be moved to
better quarters, which are not always acceptable, for they go back
to their old nests when they leave their eggs for food and exer-
cise ; the eggs get spoiled, unless you fasten the bird in, and then
you have to put her off and on every day. Others sometimes
leave their nests, the eggs get cold, the germ dies and they will
not hatch. If you find their eggs before it is too late, you must
either put them under another hen that may happen to want to
sit, or else divide them among those who now have full nests, or
ought to have, unless some heavy hens have broken some of their
eggs, in which cage the nests have to be cleaned out, fresh straw
put in, the smeared eggs washed off with warm water, or else the
nests will smell badly and the chicks die in the shells for want of
air.
One hen is as well satisfied sitting on a rotten or a china egg
in the nest box, as if on a full nest. She has to be moved,
fastened in, and put on and off her nest every day, the same as
other hens that are driven off by laying hens. The hens are
troubled with lice sometimes, and will leave their nests unless at-
tended to, while the laying hens break eggs by crowding on the
nests with the sitters, and have their eggs spoiled if not hunted
out in time. Some of the hens hatch well, some poorly, and
some fail to hatch an egg. To go around to the different nests,
throw out the shells and take in the chickens several times a day,
requires much time and gives much annoyance. Many eggs get
smashed after being pipped, chicks are trampled to death, some
hens leave their nests with one or two chicks, and those eggs
which are pipped as well as the rest are ruined.
None of these things bother one in running an incubator.
But the trouble does not end here. After selecting, as yvu
think, good, careful mothers and have them in the coops, you
find that some hens will peck and kill all tne black chicks.
Others will do the same with the white ones, while others trample
them and eat up all the best food. You try other mothers for
them with more satisfactory results. To visit these coops several
times a day and feed and water them, as well as occasionally
clean out or move the coops, is quite a job, particularly after
they are allowed to run, and yeu want to fasten them up for the
night. You never have this trouble with brooders.
_ Incubators will generally hatch better than hens during the
winter season, From three hundred eggs it is quite common to
pad -/ eo
hatch five-sixths of the fertile ones, frequently more, and occa-
sionally less.
To take the motherless little creatures out of doors, and in-
troduce them to their foster mothers, when about a day old, is a
pleasant and interesting task. By looking after them occasion-
ally, they soon become accustomed to the brooders, running in
and out really as contented and happy as if they had a live
mother who clucked to them, instead of a silent, inanimate contri-
vance made of zinc, wood, and a strip of blanket.
It being natural or instinctive for young chicks to eat, the
same as other very young animals, they do not require any hens
to call and teach them, much less, eat up a large portion of their
best food, consisting of hard- polled infertile eggs, oat meal raw
or bouked? broken ree! meat and other things which will make
them grow much move rapidly than a diet exclusively of cracked
corn or meal, such as is genorally thrown in the coops or feeding
places on dirty boards, or on the ground, much of which gets
wasted or else is unfit to be eaten.
To feed the little fellows with the most economy as well as
satisfaction, covered troughs should be used for food and drink
to prevent waste as well as preserve cleanliness, not only of food,
but of themselves, thereby promoting vigorous health and allow-
ing a rapid growth, until about the first of May, when they are
fit to be killed, and readily sold at a high price.
It is much cheaper to use brooders than to take up the time
of the hens, when they might be laying eggs enough to pay a
large part of the expenses. The cost of running a brooder is less
than two cents a day for oil, as very little heat is required—not
over eighty degrees after the first few days.
In brooders the chicks are never troubled with lice, never
get trampled or pecked to death by careless or cross hens ; they
are always dry and warm, no matter what kind of weather there
is ; they are easily kept clean, with a few minutes labor each day,
by cleaning off the floor where they stand and saving their drop-
pings, and, besides all these things, they are healthier and strong-
er and grow more rapidly than with hens.
My experience in using these brooders has been such that I
consider them preferable to hens in every respect, as a much
larger percentage of the chicks can be raised and with less
trouble and more profit.
Those who have never seen chicks raised by brooders, have
no idea how easily one can take care of several hundred, or how
quickly they grow and become a source of great profit. They
need attention, it is true ; but that attention must be given at
the right time, and in the proper manner, the same as you must
attend to anything else in order to be successful.
PROFITS.
To estimate the profits of poultry-raising from results fre-
quently obtained from actual trial and experiment, is just as
proper as to estimate profits on new grapes, berries, fruit, or
Bee * ae
anything else. The following statement concerning the results
of raising poultry artificially, is based on the practical experience,
not only of myself, but of many others who have given this busi-
ness a fair trial. |
By using one incubator holding three hundred eggs, four
hatches can be secured by the middle of April, if operations are
commenced in January. During that time with proper care,
there can be hatched from twelve hundred eggs, which have been
carefully gathered from good, healthy hens, at least nine hun-
dred chicks. With six brooders, in warm, sunny sheds, with
sash fronts and proper attention, eight hundred of these ean be
raised to weigh one and a half or two pounds each in ten or
twelve weeks. By the last week m April the first lot is ready
for market ; three weeks after the second hatch is fit, and by the
last of June both the third and fourth hatches are ready and sold.
The first killing will bring from sixty-five to seventy-five cents a
pound, the eight hundred chicks weighing twelve hundred pounds,
will bring 5600.
Those who have kept a careful account assert that it costs
but ten cents to feed a chicken ten weeks, when it will weigh
from one and a half to two pounds. The expenses for every
thing attending the four hatches are as follows :
1 ineubator, holding 300 eggs - - - - - $25.00
6 brooders at $6 each, - - - - - - 36.00
1200 eggs, at an average of 2ceach,- - . - - 24.00 ©
Feed for 800 chicks at 10¢ each, ~ - - - 80.00
Oil for incubators and brooders, e = = - 4.00
Total expense, $169.00
Being a profit of $431.00, calling the gross proceeds 5600, as
above stated.
One person can successfully manage three such incubators
and the necessary brooders, by having a handy half-grown boy to
assist in the less important work, and have a profit of over $1200
on broiling chickens alone, besides paying for the incubators and
brooders, which ean be used to raise fall and winter chickens in
large numbers, much more cheaply and with greater profit than
those who, at this time, the middle of April, are only commenc-
ing business by setting their hens.
Those who keep pure, new or fancy poultry, and sell the
eggs as well as the fowls, will find incubators invaluable. With
them, the stock can be rapidly increased early in the season, be-
fore there is any demand for eggs, and thereby obtain earlier
layers, and finer exhibition stock.
Any one who takes pleasure in raising chickens, for either
the fall or spring market, and understands how to manage them
properly, by using incubators or brooders, the profits can readily
be doubled, with half the labor.
In several years’ experience with incubators, I never have
had a poorer hatch than sixty per cent of the fertile eggs, and
oR
have had as high as ninety per cent to live, but generally only
abouteighty per cent. ‘This last is better than is generally ac-
complished with hens. The chicks I have hatched always come
out strong and healthy, and grew as well as any I ever had
hatched by the natural process.
Those who have heard that incubators are not reliable, or
that the chickens can not be raised without hens, because they
are puny and unhealthy when hatched, before believing such re-
ports had better visit some grower of poultry by the artificial
system, and see for themselves what large and fine lots some of
them have before hens generally want to sit.
If you desire to try this artificial method, procure a good in-
cubator, use good eggs, run it with care, provide suitable sheds
or houses for brooders which warm the chicks as nearly like a
hen as possible, have proper ventilation, keep the chicks dry and
eo ane feed frequently on a varied diet, and you will be suc-
cessful.
pert) ves
CHAPTER XX.
MORE HOME-MADE INCUBATORS AND
BROODERS.
ANOTHER GOOD AND CHEAP MACHINE—ONE THAT CAN BE MADE
FOR $20 AS GOOD AS A $200 IVCUBATOR—DETAILS OF CONSTRUC-
TION—BROODERS—THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND USE.
A correspondent of the Indiana Farmer gives the following
description of a home-made incubator which he claims to have
used with practical success:
“The great drawback to most incubators, is their extreme
high price, and their complicated construction. I have examined
nearly all of the best machines, and those meriting the most
praise are either so costly as to be out of reach of the gener-
al public, or so complicated as not to be understood and conse-
uently soon get out of repair and are cast aside and condemned.
The requisite beyond all other with successful machines, is uni-
formity of temperature. Next is moisture and ventilation. With
these three ends attained, eggs can be hatched with little or no
difficulty. Bearing this in mind, and also the cheapness of the
material employed in the construction of even the most expensive
of these devices, the question very naturally arises: ‘“ Wh
would I pay two or three hundred dollars for a machine that I
ean make for fifteen or twenty dollars without infringing on any-
body’s patent?” Any individual with ordinary ingenuity can
with the plans and instructions herewith given, construct a ma-
chine that will hatch on an average eighty-five per cent of all the
healthy eggs put in it. It is not best to make them toosmall,as it
requires more attention to regulate the temperature or heat in a
small machine, than a large one; and again, a one-thousand-egg
machine can be made very nearly as cheaply as one holding half
that number. The plans submitted here, are for an egg ineuba-
tor. Those persons who are not accustomed to using a soldering
iron and tinner’s scissors, will probably find it best to have the
pe, ae
tank and lamp made by a tinner ; and if desired, you may se-
eure a better result in the wood work, by employing the services
of a carpenter. :
To give an idea of the general outward appearance of the
machine, I might say that it looks very much like a carpenter’s
tool chest, if the latter was placed on legs eighteen inches high.
It should be made of one inch poplar or pine lumber (seasoned)
with double walls leaving an interspace of one and one-half
inches to be tightly filled with sawdust. A very convenient size
and holding about one thousand eggs, is five feet long (outside),
two feet and eleven inches wide and about two feet eight inches
deep. ‘
"Phe legs should be three inches in diameter where they en-
ter the machine and half this at the lower end. The required
degree of heat is maintained by means of hot water in four
broad flat tanks ; one over each egg-tray ; the water being kept
warm by the heat of two coal oil lamps under the lower tank.
As the water circulates freely from one tank to another, a uni-
formity of heat is also secured. ‘The smoke from the lamp passes
upward through the flues and does not come in contact with
the eggs. The lamp flues are two tin tubes, one and one-fourth
inch in diameter, passing from the lamp-box outward to the
wall of the incubator, thence upward through the sawdust, and
should project above the top of the machine about six inches ;
they should also have a slight enlargement in the tube just be-
fore they pass through the lid in order to produce a draft.
There should be sufficient room between the top of the upper
tank and the under surface of the box, to admit of the thermome-
ter lying under the little glass door with a small piece of cloth
or wood under it. I would also suggest, that the wood-work be
put together with screws, ‘so that it may be more easily taken
apart should any trouble occur from insufficient ventilation, leak-
ing of the tank or other cause. ‘The apertures for ventilation
should be one inch in diameter, and should have tin tubes fitted
in them, corresponding in length with the width or thickness of
the walls. They should be arranged to close externally with
small wooden buttons, constructed to slide over them. The glass
over the thermometer should be fitted tightly into the lower side
of the upper wall with putty, and the little door over it, made to
fit closely in its place.
There should be a section cut out of the centre of. the floor,
fifteen inches long by eight in width, to receive the lamp-box ;
the lamp-box will be fifteen inches long, eight inches wide and
twelve inches deep ; fitting closely to the under side of the tank ;
having a door on one side its full length, and one or more venti-
lators as may be required. Thelamp should be a square cor-
nered box, twelve inches long, five inches wide by one and one-
half inches in depth ; should be made of tin, with an ordinary
lamp-burner soldered on the top near each end; should have a
mat, (2 Soe
one-fourth inch tube passing from the lamp-chamber outward
through the wall of the lamp-box, so that the lamp may be filled
from the outside.
The water-gauge is a tin tube, one inch in diameter, with a
small strip of glass covering and forming its upper side ; the tube
being on a level with, and passing into the upper tank near its
surface ; this allows the water to run out into the tube ; and the
depth of the water can be seen through the glass. The large
door at the end of the machine should fit snugly and nicely, and
if necessary, small strips of cloth may be tacked on its edges to
insure a more perfect fit. The inside door containing the glass
should also admit as little air as possible and should hang on
hinges. There should also be two or more ventilators in the rear
end of the machine.
The tanks which should be made of sheet zine, or some other
material impervious to rust, should be four and one-half feet in
length, two and one-fourth feet in width, by three inches in
thickness. They should be connected by an upright tank of the
same width and thickness, in the rear end of the machine, which
in a four-tank machine should be two feet high. There should
be astrip of heavy copper in the centre of the bottom of the
lower tank, as the heat of two lamps would soon burn a hole in the
zinc ; this strip should correspond in width and thickness with
the lamp-box. The space between the tanks should be at least
four inches and five would be still better. Strips of heavy zine or
other metal should be soldered cn each side of the tanks near the
forward end, as supports. There should be a stop-cock in the
front end of the lower tank, to draw off the water when desired.
There should be two open tubes passing down into the upper tank,
so that the air may escape through one as the water is entering
the other. That end of the tube fastened to the tank, should not
project more than three-fourths of an inch, so that after the tank
is put in they may be passed through the walls and fitted on
from the outside.
The egg-tray should correspond in length and width with
the horizontal tanks ; and should be at least two inches deep in-
_ternally. The compartments should be about three inches
square, and lined on the sides with heavy canton flannel,
pasted on with glue ; this prevents injury to the eggs by rolling
against the sides of the tray when turning the eggs over. The
sides should be of one-inch lumber and the partitions of one-half
inch. The top and bottom of these trays should be just
alike, and should be a frame on hinges covered with open wire
gauze or netting ; the wire being of some material that will not
rust—the apertures in this netting should not be large enough to
allow the feet of the chicken to become entangled when hatched.
The vapor pans are small, shallow zine trays two and one~-
fourth feet in length, four inches in width, by three-fourths of an
inch in depth ; three to be placed on each tank, one in the middle
and one at each end. These pans are intended to contain water,
aa ae
the vaporization of which, from the heat of the tanks, will pro-
duce sufficient moisture for the supply of the eggs, and without
which the eggs would dry up. The machine should be filled with
water previously heated to the proper degree and the heat regu-
lated before the eggs are put in. The temperature can be suc-
cessfully controlled by keeping the lamps at one height and by
watching the thermometer closely until the heat becomes regular.
If you desire an “electric” regulator go to any electrician and
procure an ordinary thermostat, which you can correct with a
valve to open and close as the temperature gets too high or low,
or with a bell to ring from the same cause ; the entire electric
apparatus will cost you only about $3.
The eggs should be turned every six hours by withirawing
the tray and returning it the other side up. The objection
urged by some incubator men to machines haying one tray over
the other, is entirely unfounded, and is based on a desire to find
some fault with every one else’s invention but their own. The
tanks, however, should be far enough apart so that the eggs will be
hatched by the heat from the tank above it, rather than that be-
low, as the germ floats on top of the egg and this is the part of it
that requires the heat. Keep the temperature as near 103° or
104° Fahr., as possible. Use fresh fertile eggs and keep the ven-
tilators open, and your success is assured.
eee: ee
BROODERS..
D. D. Briggs, of Los Gatos, Cal., who has been very success-
ful in artificial poultry raising, writes :
I have been led after six years of experience, four of them
practical, to the adoption of the following plans: I divide the
life of a chick into three parts or grades: First—the first seven
days after hatching, second—the next fourteen days, third—the
intervals elapsing until they go onto the perches.
For the first grade I have devised and constructed a brooder,
six feet across the front, four feet in depth, and six feet in height.
The walls are of common rough lumber and battened ; the roof
is made of shakes and hasa sharp pitch each way, the gables
closed with grain sacks for better ventilation. ‘There are set in
the front three sash doors 24 by 30 inches each, and made to
swing outward for convenience in getting to the chicks.
About one-half of the interior is floored and sanded. Six in-
ches below the sash doors, a solid door is hung to admit of lght-
ing the lamp, ete. There are three compartments, separated one
from the other by means of wire cloth or netting, about eighteen
inches high from front to rear, and situated in front of the
mother, with height sufficient to permit the ready egress and in-
gress of the chicks. Such a house as described can be built at a
cost not exceeding $6.50. The material employed consists of
one hundred and fifty feet of lumber, four pairs of strap hinges,
three sashes, fifty shakes, and two pounds of nails. As soon as
the chicks are dry I place them in this brooder, inthe sun if it is
shining brightly, if not, then they are placed with the mother,
taking care to provide a shady retreat which the chicks will seek
if it should become too warm.
With the sun obscured, and in need of warmth, they will
seek the mother when near at hand, At times the little ones
pens aie
will persist in remaining out all day and so getting cold. A very
good remedy for this is to cover the glass with something dark to
convey to them an idea that night. is approaching. As soon as
they have learned to seek their resting places for the night with-
out prompting, usually in about a week, I put them in a larger
brooder with larger runs, and only twenty-five together, giving
them plenty of light and ventilatmg much the same as in the
first instance. Here they remain for two weeks longer before
being allowed their entire freedom.
If you want the chicks to feather early keep them quite
warm. When transferred from brooder No. 2 to No. 3, they
may be allowed a limited out-door range if not too cold. Until
well feathered I never allow them out in early morning or in
rainy weather. The feed for the first week is hard boiled eggs
and dry cracked wheat, water provided should be clean and pure.
The wheat is continued for the second and third weeks with let-
tuce added. When they begin to run out, soft feed of bran and
middlings should be given sparingly at first, using only clear wa-
ter in mixing.
To provide the artificial heat necessary several devices have
been employed ; perhaps none better than the artificial mother il-
lustrated above. This may be made of any capacity required ;
a very convenient size is one that will accommodate fifty chickens
until three months old. Two feet wide and four feet long; the
sides are twelve inches high under the glass, sloping to three in-
ches at the back ; the cover of the back or inclined part should
be movable, and lined with sheepskin or with pieces of flannel cut
into strips three inches wide, and tacked to the under surface of
the lid so as to hang down lengthwise with the lid; from the high-
est part of the lid should hang a curtain made of flannel, all
across the box, and to within half an inch of the floor ; this keeps
the cold air out of their roosting place. The front half of the
brooder is covered with four panes of glass, this admits the sun.
The black dots in each peak are intended to represent one-inch
holes for ventilation.
An ordinary stone gallon jug (placed beneath the lid) filled
with hot water four or five times a day, will furnish all the heat
LLL, VV
Minn mA, AA
Fig. 20.
necessary. Feed little and often, and a variety for the first few
days, the yolk of hard boiled eggs, then coarse Indian meal
: 6
<a
scalded or baked, occasionally onions, cabbage or meat chopped
very fine ; after a month old feed cracked corn or wheat screen-
ings at night. Always season their soft food with pepper
and salt, as if preparing it for your own use, but on cold or wet
days add more pepper.
Fig. 20 represents an artificial mother for out-door use, and
a wire run for the chicks. It is very simple in its construction ;
it is made on the same principal as the mother previously des-
cribed, excepting the bottom is separate from the body of the
coop, which can be removed to clean. It is very important that
it should be kept free from the droppings of the chicks, for if
they are allowed to accumulate they will breed lice. If the
weather should be too cold for the comfort of the chicks then a
jug of hot water should be placed within the box; this will not
be necessary unless very cold, as a large number of chicks hud-
dled together will generate a considerable amount of heat.
The following description of the Jacques incubator has been
extensively sold for 50c, the price of this whole work. We do
not consider this Jacques machine as of any value for practical
business.
“In order to make the incubator herein described, you
need only the following articles: a good sugar barrel, a round
tin clothes boiler about twelve inches deep see Fig. 1, a tin milk
a
1 2 3
pan, see Fig. 2 and a kerosene lamp with chimney. Have a bar-
rel without a head, place in it the boiler, which must be the size
of the barrel so it can be supported in its place by its rim resting
on the chime of the barrel. The pan must be of sucha size, as
when it is placed in the boiler (as in Fig. 3) it will have a space
of about five inches between it and the bottom of the boiler. It
will be necessary to solder the pan in this position. All the
space between the pan and the boiler must be filled with water ;
this can be done by punching a small hole in the side of the pan
near the top, and inserting a funnel. It will not be necessary to
refill in three weeks, as the evaporation is so slow you will not
lose a quart. Make a door in the side of the barrel near the bot-
tom, of sufficient size to admit the placing of the lamp under the
boiler. Cover the outside of the barrel with four or five thicknesses
of paper, well pasted on, to secure heat in the barrel. Bore two
one-inch holes in the lower part of the barrel, one on each side,
with tubes running from them to the base of the burner of the
lamp, in order that the lamp may have a supply of oxygen to
gp.
support the flame. Bore three half-inch holes near the top of the
barrel, to allow the gas to escape. The cover must be lined
and wadded, so it will fit tightly to the boiler, then
the heat cannot escape. Cut a hole in the cover 3x4
inches, paste a piece of glass over it; directly under tis place
the thermometer (which can lie on the upper shelf of eggs), then
you can ascertain the temperature without removing the cover;
also bore two one-inch holes through the cover, insert a tin tube
in each for the purpose of ventilating the egg-chamber. Inside
the pan is the egg-chamber, which is of sufficient depth to allow
three layers of eggs; cover the bottom of the pan with a thin
layer of cotton, on which place the first layer of eggs, and at
equal distance apart around the edge of the pan, put three blocks
of wood about two inches'square, on which place a round sieve
with one-half or three-quarters inch meshes; on the top of this
put another sieve larger than the first, so the rim of the lower
one will support it. Cover the bottoms of the sieves with a piece
of a coftee bag or some other light material, so the heat can pass
up through it. The tubes to supply the lamps with air can be
made by wrapping a piece of hardware paper around a broom
handle three times, pasting it together; after the paste becomes
dry, slip it off.
Place the lamp under the boiler, turn on a good flame; when
the mercury runs up to one hundred reduce the flame.so it can
just be seen above the cone of the lamp; keep the temperature at
one hundred and three the first week, at one hundred the second,
and ninety-eight third week. It is very easy to regulate, provided
the temperature of the room is not subject to much variation.
In case of very cold weather, close the ventilators at night and
place a heavy woolen cover over the whole ineubator.
As the eggs need a certain amount of moisture, they should
be lightly sprinkled with warm water every day, or as often as is
a a
needed ; a good way to ascertain the amount of moisture in the
egg-chamber is by keeping in it a small piece of the skin of a salt
codfish; this should never be allowed te get so dry as to crack
when bending it, nor to be so moist as to become wet, but should
always be so you can easily bend it. After the fifth day examine
all the eggs by holding them up to a strong light; if any are per-
fectly clear, remove them, as they are not fertile, yet they are
just as good for culinary purposes.
Do not place the eggs in until you have secured, and are
able to keep, the right temperature. I use a large bracket
lamp, and do not have to fill it oftener than once in twenty-four
hours. After the sixth day, turn the eggs daily, which can be
done by removing sieve; this will give them an opportunity to
cool, as in the case of a sitting hen when off her nest. After the
chickens are hatched they can remain in the incubator twenty-
four hours, when they should be removed to the artificial mother.
PART THIRD.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
IEDR IOYOP RRO VOD
(PATENTED MAY 20, 1881.)
3000 CHICKS FROM ONE MACHINE
IN LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS.
INVENTED, MANUFACTURED AND SOLD BY
JAMES RANKIN, SOUTH EASTON, MASS.
This Machine has made the best public and private record of any Incubator
ever invented. It has never hatched less than 90 per cent of the fertile eggs
wherever it has been exhibited in public.
The Monarch hatched 500 ducks and chicks at the great Pennsylvania Poultry
Show held in Philadelphia, September 24-30, hatching more than 95 per cent of all
the éggs carried. These eggs were taken to Philadelphia in a trunk (a distance of
400 miles), the day before hatching.
The Improved Monarch is substantially built, calculated to last a lifetime, and
is the simplest of all self-regulating machines.
We heartily recommend it to everyone in need of a practical machine. We
append a few of the many testimonials from men well known to the poultry pub-
lic, and whose reputation for veracity no one can doubt.
TESTIMONIALS.
The MONARCH won the first Premium at the great competition of In-
cubators at Madison Square Garden, New York city, February, 1885, for
hatching the greatest number of chickens, and the best percentage of the
eggs, thirty-two machines competing.
The eggs were carried three hundred miles in a trunk the day before
hatching.
TAUNTON, Mass., Jan. 21, 1884.
MR. JAMES RANKIN:
Dear Sir.—We desire to thank you for the fine display you made with your In-
cubator at our fair last week. It was the center of attraction for all. he fact
that you brought about 400 eggs from Easton with the mercury at zero, placed
them in the Incubator, and had them hatching the next day, and gota yield of 90
per cent in fine, healthy chickens, is recommendation enough for your machine.
Wishing you the success you deserve, we remain,
Yours truly, H. &. BISH;,
President of Southern Mass. Poultry Association.
HILANDER WILLIAMS,
Vice-President of Southern Mass. Poultry Association
WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 11, 1884.
The committee on awarding the prize of forty dollars offered by the Waltham
Fanciers’ club, for the best approved incubator in actual operation hatching
chickens during the exhibition, Dec. 9,10, and 11, 1884, award the prize to the Mon-
arch Incubator, invented and exhibited by James Rankin, of South Easton, Mass.
And the committee do hereby certify that the hatch was $5 yer,cent of 475 eggs
which were placed in the incubator the first day the exhibition opened; and that
the eggs were out of the incubator three hours and fifteeen minutes in transpor-
tation, and were transported forty miles by railand four miles by carriage road
before arriving at the exhibition.
J. H. SWASEY, )
W. E. SHEDD, Committee.
GEORGE WOOLEY, 5
FALL RIVER, Mass.
MR. RANKIN:
Dear Sir.—Having tried a number of incubators and found them to be worth-
less, I was tempted to make another trial, and am pleased to state that the Mon-
arch purchased of you has been a success, having hatched as high as 90 per cent
of fertile eggs. My first trial with ducks’ eggs was 328 ducks from 340 eggs, or 95
per cent. Yours truly, R. G. BUFFINTON.
WEST HANOVER, Mass.
Mr. RANKIN: é
Dear Sir —You will be pleased to hear that we have got out 5000 chicks the past
spring with our two Monarchs—never hatching less than 90 per cent, and from two
hatches getting out 100 per cont from machines full of eggs; hatching every egg
with the least sign of fertility. And with good eggs can do the same thing every
time. Yours truly, E. F. DWELLEY.
BRocTON, Mass., June 11, 1885.
Mr. JAMES RANKIN:
Dear Sir.—The following is my experience with the Monarch Incubator: Have
hatched with my machine over 1,500 chicks this season. My first hatch I got 80
per cent; my last hatch, 382 chicks from 406 eggs. ‘The machine runs to perfection
with me. The regulation is simple and positive, and there is no anxiety to be felt
aboutit. I look at the machine morning, noon and night,and never have any
fear of its going wrong—in fact, I consider it the best machine in the market. My
chicks are all strong and healthy. and are pronounced by all visitors to be_as_ fine
a flock of chicks as they ever saw. What more can I say? Cc. O. TRIBON.
en MELROSE, Conn., July, 1885.
Mr. JAMES RANKIN:
Dear Sir.—The No. 2 Monarch Incubator that I bought of you last winter has
been used during the season with good success, giving a better percentage than
the average of eggs set under hens, and as nice chicks as were ever hatched in the
natural manner. In fact, my chicks were the admiration of all who saw them in
the machine. Many visitors saw the Monarch in full operation, and I cannot re-
call a single instance of disapproval from anyone. The simplicity of your regula-
tor, and the absolute certainty with which it operates, delighted all who saw it,
and was highly commended. Thatitis aself-regulator Ican show by my record.
I have left the Monarch from 5.30 A. M., until 8 P. M., wnattended, and found a dif-
ference of Only one-half degree in temperature. And more than this, I have run
the machine for several days at a time without any change of temperature. Give
the Monarch ordinary care, and no one needs to be afraid of roasting eggs, or of
burning up his machine and buildings. Itis a pleasure to use your machine, as it
does the work of fifty old hens, witha tithe of the labor; and I venture to say,
will hatch more chicks. The distribution of heat in the ege-chamber is perfect.
and the arrangement of the egg-drawers is excellent. The Monarch is worthy of
the splendid reputation that it has already obtained, and as a first-class machine I
heartily recommend it to all.
Yours truly, CC ABBR
SouTH EASTON, Mass., August, 1885.
JAMES RANKIN, Esq:
Dear Sir.—Sometime ago you asked me how the Monarch Incubator worked.
In answer I have to say, that it works even better than I expected it would. I had
had no experience with incubators, and was obliged to commence at the begin-
ing; and was also obliged to pick up the eggs here and there, wherever I could
find them. Ihad eggs of six different parties. With these disadvantages, I suc-
ceeded in hatching 409 chicks from 460 fertile eggs.
The machine works even; the temperature is uniform throughout. I feel quite
satisfied that when I can have new eggs from our own hens, the Monarch will
hatch every fertile egg, every time. Lhad taken some pains to examine several
kinds of incubators—had taken note of their work, and also taken some evidence
of the work from their owners; so that I have no vague idea of what constitutes
a good incubator, and have no hesitation in saying that for practical utility, taking
all in all, the Monarch is decidedly the best. :
Yours truly, GUILFORD WHITE.
: NORTH MIDDLEBORO’, Mass., Jan. 14, 1884.
Mr. RANKIN:
Dear Sir.—t am very much pleased with your incubator; it is doing even better
than I anticipated. I have got out over 600 chicks within the last six weeks. My
last hatch was 215 good, strong, healthy chicks from 250 eggs.
Yours truly, Mrs. ADDISON SHAW.
This lady, since writing the above, has up to March 20th, got out 900 more chicks
with this machine, making 1,500 in all.
The Improved Monarch Incubator
Is constructed with two cases—the outer one of wood, the inner of galvanized
iron,—with an inch dead air space and heavy sheathing paper between. It is fur-
nished with three doors,—the two inner ones of glass, the outside of wood,—while
the tank, which is of galvanized iron, and is the source of heat, is packed above
and at the sides with heavy hair felting an inch thick. It is of the best workman-
ship throughout; while every means has been used to render it a complete ma-
chine, impervious to outside temperature. It embraces the four cardinal points
which are absolutely necessary to success in every incubator.
First.—It is a complete self-regulator.
Second.—There is a perfect uniformity of temperature in every part of the egg-
chamber.
Third.—It is so arranged as to give the operator control of any given egg-drawer,
to raise or lower the temperature at will.
Fourth.—lt generates its own humidity of atmosphere, thus avoiding the neces-
ity of sprinkling the eggs, or the use of wet cloths.
The boiler, tank anc pipes are connected together with brass unions, and ean be
easily detached. The whole machine is so constructed that it can be taken apart
in a few minutes.
SEND FOR CIRCULAR.
JAMES RANKIN,
SOUTH EASTON, MASS.
is
CHICKENS ®
ARTIFICIALLY HATCHED AND RAISED
POSEY TS koe.
HATCHER «©? BROODER
ARE THE STRONGEST AND HEALTHIEST,
AND OBTAIN THE HIGHEST PRICES.
Chickens by our system can be hatched and raised to three months of age,
atacost of five to eight cents per pound. The prices obtained are from 20 to 80
cents per pound the year through.
CAN YOU “SEE, THE” PROFIT?
The artificiai production of poultry is daily increasin » in popularity, and is des-
tined to become a great and remunerative industry. It is a business suitable for
all classes of people, and can be conducted with success by the clergyman and
his family, as well as the farmer and fancier. It is easily managed, and is already
carried on by the sons and daughters of many prominent eitizens as well as me-
chanics, ete. The invention of
The Perfect Hatcher and Brooder
Has completely revolutionized this trade and thousands of chickens are now be-
ing hatched weekly to be sold as broilers, for which there is an ever increasing
demand, at such prices as cannot fail to be remunerative.
The great problem, never before solved, is how can a young man with a moder-
ate income and a growing family, and a wife who is ambitious to assist in earning
and support of family—how can she do her share and still remain at home to care
for the children and house.
THIS PROBLEM IS NOW SOLVED BY OUR SYSTEM.
Anyone with a good, ordinary city lot, say 60x 125 feet, can put up a building
that will hold and raise to three months of age 2,600 chicks, and place in the mar-
ket at least 800 chicks per month, on an average profit of 20 cents each, eight
months in the year; they can use our Portable Brooder, if on a rented spot, and
place 400 chicks in the market per month, from same space. This business also
commends itself to widows with a growing family—clergymen, old people who
can do light work, and a host of others to whom most avenues of employment are
closed, and remain at home and be independent. The market for this product is
unquestioned. See our large circular for facts on this point.
The largest part of our trade to-day is from our old customers, which is
’
PROOF POSITIVE OF THE MERITS OF OUR SYSTEM.
Our incubator is known throughout the world as the standard incubator. We
have during the past year filled orders for the Ostrich Farms in California, be-
sides others for export to the following countries: Japan, Constantinople, Tur-
key; Brazil, Panama, New Zealand, Gibralter and Barcelona, Spain; Sweden,
England, Paris, France; Mexico, Sandwich Islands, and many other parts of the
world. All this in addition t@our domestic trade, which extends to every part ot
the Union. We can furnish testimonials by the hundreds—they come in every
mail.
(&— For further facts and information, address,
Dee Peal EC de ACen 3C'O..
ELMIRA, NEW YORK.
— = wo :
~ ChkossewP& west. PHA.
IN OFFERING OUR BROODER,
With its Latest Improvements,
——We are Confident it is in Every Respect——
What its name implies. We are conscious that our earlier plans of brooders
were not a success; but it took time to develop all their defects. We
therefore have been steadily advancing, until now we know it will do its work
successfully, and is the successor and
RIVAL OF THE NATURAL BROODER—THE HEN.
It is well known by all how she broods her chicks, viz., she sits upon the ground;
the chicks run under and around her body, with which they come in contact;
they are enveloped in her feathers and are surrounded on all sides by her warmth.
She even warms the ground slightly, and thus keeps their feet and legs warm,
which we find to be of the utmost importance. It would therefore seem that from
the teachings of the mother hen, a successful brooder should Jong ago have peen
devised, but strange as it may seem, we have all gone astray. But we claim now
to have solved the problem. The suecessful brooder must be
BASED UPON THE PRINCIPLE OF THE HEN,
Viz: A comfortable warmth surrounding the chick, a warm floor—but not too
warm—and a comfortably warm atmosphere surrounding the chick. The chick
needs to lie down and sleep like any other animai. They cannot lie down ona
cold floor; it must be warm or they’ will huddle together, and then the mischief is
to pay. The atmosphere must be warm or they will suffer. There must be good
ventilation, and constant, or they will be
POISONED BY THEIR OWN CARBONIC GAS,
The same as would result from a dozen people sleeping in asmall room with all the
doors and windows closed. The brooder must be portable; it must be placed on
the ground, so the chicks can runin and out at their pleasure on pleasant days;
it must be storm proof, and proof against all animals dangerous to chickens; it
must have
AMPLE ROOM FOR THE CHICKS,
So they can be kept inside on all cold and rainy days; it must have a glass run, so
that when the wind is sharp in March and April, November and December, the
chicks can bask in the sunshine and bid defiance to the cold and shivery winds.
Tt must be of that adjustable character to circumstances and seasons, that it can
be placed in a building of any suitable character, or out on the lawn, or in the
field, at the
PLEASURE AND CONVENIENCE OF THE OWNER
It must be so arranged thata person can raise the largest number of chicks pos-
sible. in a state of health, on the smallest possible spot of ground.
SUCH A BROODER
We offer to the public, to whom we appeal to judge it upon its merits and with
good common sense.
Our system of brooding is in every respect equal to our system of hatching, and
we can show that aloss of five per cent in raising is too large, if proper care is
given.
WE INVITE ALL INTERESTED TO CALL AND
SEE US, 3
See our factory, our brooding house, which holds 3,500 chickens, and see the
chickens themselves. We can prove what we claim.
All information free.
PERFECT HATCHER CO.,
| ELMIRA, N.Y.
>tHALSIED'S PERRECTEDA<
Thad
The First Suecesstul Self-regulating*Ineubator Ever Constructed
TEN YEARS OF UNVARYING SUCCESS
Winning FIRST PREMIUM in every Competition for Nine Years.
Perfect#in« Regulation, «Ventilationsand« Moisture.
ALL IMITATE!
NONE EQUAL IT!
Simple, Durable, Reliable and Beautiful,
And will positively hatch the largest percentage of Strong, Healthy Chicks of any
Machine in the market.
PRICES, FROM S820 UPWARDS.
& => : Sm Nw Bal ~
With capacity of from 20 to 500 Chicks. Five
different styles, either top or bottom heat.
PRICES FROM $5 UPWARDS. Send stamp for circulars to
CENTENNIAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
Box 370, Rye, N. Y.
20 years in Artificial Incubation.
N. B.—Mr. Halsted has had 35 years’ experienee in Poultry Raising, and over
——THE NEW——
SUCCESS FATCHER
mM I ih: 3 ee
BEST ELECTRIC REGULATED INGUBATOR
IN THE WORLD, WITHOUT AN EXCEPTION!
The Batteries Last Two Years Without Renewing.
NO CLOCK-WORK ATTACHMENT!
SELF-FEEDINC SAFETY LAMP
ATTACHED ONLY ON THE SUCCESS.
——THE NEW SUCCESS WAS——
AWARDED FIRST PREMIUM,
— —_A DIPLOMA AND 820,
At the Great St. Louis Fair in 1884 and 1885 in competition with the
leading machines in the market.
Before purchasing send for a circular. Address,
THE SUCCESS HATCHER CO.,
LANCASTER, PA.
ce
——BY THE—— .
ECLIPSE INCUBATOR
CAN BE OPERATED BY A CHILD
SEND FOR PRICE LIST AND CIRCULARS.
E. VAN NOORDEN & CO., BOSTON, MASS.
Cc. V. GROSS,
MANUFACTURER OF THE
WESTERN INGUBATOR,
——AND THE——
a
|
oF
‘
< Q
lit Bil = -
=
i
=) ¥ 1
a!
i H
aa |
i ‘|| K
illets
STERN IMPROVE
| 2=INCUBATOR.
SELF-FEEDING INGUBATOR LAMP,
2117 AND 2119 STATE ST.,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
Drinking Fountains, Egg Testers, Tested
Thermometers,
——AND——
POULTRY BREEDERS’ SUPPLIES.
mers
Poultrymen and Far
IS CALLED TO——
Swan's Standard? and 3-ly Roofing
SANDEE
TARRED FELT FOR LINING.
* ae
Cheap, Durable, Fire Proof!
SUITABLE FOR STEEP OR FLAT ROOFS.
CAN BE APPLIED BY ANYONE.
COSTS LESS THAN TIN, SLATE OR SHINGLES.
Is being Used by Farmers and Poultrymen
in Every Part of the United States.
Send for samples and circular ‘‘How to Build a Cheap Poultry House.” Mailed
Free on application. Mention this publication.
A.F.SWAN, - - - 46 Cortlandt Street,
(ee
=
EX
(
7, =
F
GALVANIZED WIRE NETTING
POULTRY FENCE
ONE GENT PER SQUARE FOOT,
FOR BEST QUALITY z2 INCH MESH, NO. 19 WIRE.
Ber) bare Rey,
Stik. PRICES PER BALE
NS ER SEE BEE ORE RNS >
| ——aj MOPe)| POPs ePs ele reeerereeoraeWe meu ess ;
pda Rage: iBes seesssesceces SS of 150 lineal feet:
IES ne eesacese EB HRN 2 ‘
i ma Kes ae ees seosees: 2 oa 9 263 SS $3 $3.75 $4.50 46 $7.50 $9
is th ges 6. SoisSS 24 30 36 48 60 72inch
ESL SS - Aer
SSS Write for descriptive cir-
va Ss cular, with special discount
HN sess for large lots.
aint ADDRESS,
ith SS
ess. Peter Duryee & Co,
215 Greenwich St.,
Hing
Hi
(I)
iT IS NOW ADMITTED BY ALL WHO HAVE USED IT, THAT WIRE
NETTING MAKES THE
Best Fence for Poultry
AND THE GARDEN.
It is Cheaper than wood because far more durable (being coated with zine
it cannot rust).
MAKES A HANDSOME FENCE,
Admitting light and air freely, and is easily attached to posts and boards by
small staples. We furnish Nettings of all sizes and guarantee them to be
THE VERY BEST QUALITY.
SEND FOR PRICE LIST.
PETER DURYEE & CO,,
Gs AND 70 VESEY ST. NEW YORK,
ra
HE TUBAAOSTATICINCLBATOR,
—~e “ SELF AUTOMATIC
REGULATING VENTILATION
WITHOUT AND ~
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
OR OF
CLOCK WORK. MOISTURE.
ee
IT IS PERFECTLY RELIABLE,
AS SHOWN BY THE FACT THAT EVERY MACHINE NOW IN
USE IS GIVING GOOD RESULTS.
Simon Walsh, Montgomery, N. Y..says: “ My last hatch (from a No. 2, Ther-
mostatic Incubator), was 200 Chicks from 218 Eggs put in the machine.”
William Newcomb, Tenafly, N. J., hatched 188 Chicks from 198 tested eggs.
EVERY PURCHASER IS DELIGHTED
And anyone about entering the Poultry business should make himself thoroughly
acquainted with the merits of my machine.
VENTILATING BROODERS
Apply heat at the bottom, through a perforated floor, thus securing perfect ven-
tilation and full supply of heat. Correspondence solicited. Address
E. S. RENWICK,
19 Park Place, NEW YORK.
Mention this publication. ei
we <
Nahe o/h
rie a. 43
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