flour, with about twelve or fifteen per cent. of animal food. One fourth
of this food should be composed of vegetables cooked--say, small
potatoes, turnips, etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they
will eat. We feed this compound morning and evening with a little corn,
wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat clean and no more.
The birds, young and old, may be expected to lay in three weeks from the
time they are housed. This part of the thing seems to be under perfect
control. You turn in the proper variety of food and they cannot help
turning out a generous supply of eggs.
The fertility however, cannot, at this season of the year be so
perfectly controlled, as the standard of fertility in the first eggs is
apt to be very low, but soon comes to a high point. The fecundity of
these birds is wonderful. As a general thing each bird can be depended
upon for 140 eggs each season, and as the eggs always command from 5 to
10 cents per dozen more than those from hens it makes the Pekin ducks
more profitable for eggs alone than any other fowl.
Incubators.
With the necessary buildings constructed and the stock selected, the
next thing required is the incubator, for I do not suppose the modern
poultry grower is going to do his incubating with hens, for the simple
reason that he cannot afford to. Hens show no desire to incubate when
you want them to the most, or in time to command the high prices for
ducks and chicks in the early spring, and this is attended with a loss
of at least one-half of the season's profits.
I often have letters filled with questions concerning incubators. Which
is the best incubator? Can a person of ordinary intelligence run one
successfully? Do they require watching during the night? Is there an
incubator in the market today that will hatch as well as the average
hen? and many more of like import. To the first I would say that modesty
forbids a candid answer. There are objections to many machines, though
the same do not apply to all. It does not become me to mention their
failings. But first of all do not buy a cheap incubator, as the
conditions to which the material of an incubator is exposed are of the
severest kind. It must be exposed constantly to a temperature of 103
degrees, and that in an atmosphere surcharged with moisture; and unless
the material of which the machine is constructed is of the choicest
kind, well kiln-dried and put together, the chances are that it will
warp out of shape, admit drafts of air and injure, if not destroy, the
regulation.
I do not think an incubator can ever be complete unless it is a
double-cased machine. It requires that to effectually resist thermal
changes. Years of careful experiment, and of experience in the
competitive show room have convinced me of the truth of this. Extreme
cold will affect the uniformity of heat in the egg-chamber of
single-cased machines. Imagine if you can a single-cased machine
constructed of five-eighth inch stuff, with a temperature of 103 degrees
inside, and that of freezing outside. How can the eggs at the extreme
corners and the thin cold sides of that machine be as warm as those in
the centre? Of course that difference does not exist in warm weather,
but that is the time when incubators are usually let alone and the
business is given up to the old hen. Now, I say this frankly, as much
for the benefit of incubator manufacturers as for their customers. I
have letters every day from parties ordering circulars and saying that
they have used from one to three machines of different makes, denouncing
the machines and their makers in the most emphatic terms as frauds. Now,
this is all wrong; one-half of the time you will find that it is the
purchasers, not the makers, who are at fault. There are probably just as
many honest incubator makers as there are in any other branch of
business. But there is such a thing as a man being honest and yet
ignorant.
Many of the manufacturers of incubators know very little about the first
principles of artificial incubation. They have the idea that a simple
heat regulator is all that is necessary to insure the success of an
incubator, when in reality it is only one of the many requirements. I
will enumerate some of the most essential points, viz.: heat regulation;
uniformity of heat in egg-chamber; absolute control of heat by the
operator on any given egg-tray; automatic moisture supply; accurate
thermometers; thorough construction and good material to avoid warping
and shrinkage, together with a safe lamp adjustment.
There are many other minor points which will come up with care of
machines. I am often asked, "Why do so many fail to hatch with
incubators?" I will answer by saying: "Not because it is difficult; for
I have always found it a far more difficult thing to grow ducks and
chicks successfully after they are hatched, than it is to hatch them."
Doubtless everyone knows that an incubator, different from other
machines, must run three weeks continually night and day, (and when
filled with duck eggs, four weeks,) and preserve an even temperature all
the while.
Some machines as described above, are not adapted to this business, and
some men are not adapted to the use of machines even when they are good
ones. They are not willing to bestow the little but intelligent and
regular care required, and many times during the four weeks they will
forget some of the most essential points, such as replenishing their
lamps, or forget to attach the extinguishers, thus depriving the machine
of all self-control, or they neglect to trim the lamps for days, and
perhaps a week, allowing the wick to crust and the heat to decrease.
Others of nervous temperament will open their machines every fifteen
minutes during the day and get up many times during the night to do the
same thing, necessarily creating a great variation in the temperature of
the machine. Now, all these, when repeated often enough, mean disaster
and grief. One man who had been very successful, said he liked the
hatching very well, but there was too much confinement growing chicks
and ducks, and he was not going to make a slave of himself any longer.
Another very young man who has been uniformly successful, and is running
four large machines, said that the hatching and care of incubators was
nothing, as he simply looked at his machines twice per day, but that the
care of chicks and ducks was hard work; but there was more money in it
than anything else he could do, and he should stick to it. Another man,
because his machine did not run to suit him, threw his boot at it,
knocking the regulation all off, which he called upon me to duplicate.
(This man has done better since and increased the number of his
machines). So the reader will see that there are cranks even among the
poultry men, and that many of them enter the poultry business simply
because they are looking for an easy job,--a sad mistake on their part.
I have always noticed that the man who knows the least, but is willing
to acquire knowledge and follow instructions implicitly, is the man who
generally succeeds.
Best Place for Incubators.
Having secured a good machine, the next thing is to locate it where it
will give you the least trouble to run it, and at the same time do you
the most good. The best place for this is either in a barn or house
cellar or in some building partly under ground, for obvious reasons.
Though a good machine can be regulated to run in any temperature
(provided it can generate heat enough), yet constant thermal changes of
30 or 40 degrees between night and day will necessitate regulating to
meet them,--as the amount of flame required to run a machine in a
temperature of 40 degrees, will be far in excess of that needed to run
it in one of 70 degrees, for, though the change will be very slow in a
nicely packed double cased machine, yet in time even that change will
affect.
This, of course, could be easily overcome with a little care, yet it is
just as well to avoid all unnecessary care and trouble in the beginning;
there will be still enough left to keep you thinking. In a common
building above ground during the winter months it will often freeze
around your machine, and in turning eggs in a freezing atmosphere do it
as quickly as you can, as it will always cool your eggs perceptibly,
and more or less derange the temperature of your machine. This is of
course decidedly injurious and will more or less impair the hatch. Now,
this is a very important matter, and people do not give it sufficient
consideration.
It is even advocated by some incubator manufacturers, that eggs should
be cooled every day to 70 degrees, for the simple reason that the old
hen does. They do not take into consideration that it is a necessity for
the old hen, but may not be for the embryo chick. When the hen leaves
her eggs to feed, and they become partially cold, when she recovers them
and brings those eggs in immediate contact with the rapidly-pulsating
arteries of her body, in fifteen minutes they have acquired their normal
heat. With the machine it will require an hour or two.
To meet this difficulty, suitable instructions should be given with and
to suit different machines. Where the eggs are turned automatically
inside the machine, it is necessary that they should be cooled at least
once a day during the last two weeks of the hatch. Taking the eggs out
to turn twice each day, as in the Monarch, cools them sufficiently
during the winter months; in warm weather, leaving the outside and
inside doors open while turning cools them sufficiently.
Some incubator manufacturers will tell you that thermal changes, however
great, will not affect their machines. Their patrons tell a different
story. No machine was ever made, or ever will be, that will run as well
or give as good results amid constant thermal changes as in an even
temperature. It is true that they reduce the heat, but it is by
admitting large draughts of air, running off the moisture and completely
destroying the humidity of atmosphere in their machines. Then, how about
those little ducklings which have been pipped forty-eight hours? They
can never get out unless you help them.
Suitable Buildings.
Many insurance companies object to incubators being run in buildings
covered by their policies, and will often cancel them. This originated
from the fact that so many fire-traps, which were thrust upon the public
in the shape of incubators, had consumed the buildings in which they
were operated. The insurance companies were obliged in self-defence to
prohibit their use in insured buildings. But the interdiction is usually
removed upon the representation that the machine is safe. Sometimes a
slight premium is exacted. In the event of insurance companies being
obdurate, it is very easy to excavate a place in a side hill, or on
level ground. Stone it up five feet high at the sides. It is not
necessary to dig more than two or three feet deep, as the excavated dirt
can be used to bank up with on the outside. Upon this stone-work put a
simple roof. I use a building of this description. The original cost,
exclusive of labor, was $15. It was large enough for two machines. My
new incubator room is ten times as large, but the cost was in
proportion.
This building never freezes in winter, and is always some ten or fifteen
degrees colder than the outside temperature in summer, making a very
handy place to keep eggs for incubating purposes. It is well to run your
machine a few days and get the control of it. The next thing is to fill
it with fresh fertile eggs. In the winter time, if one does not have
eggs himself, this is sometimes a very difficult thing to do, for the
eggs must not only be fresh, but fertile. The young beginner is often
obliged to depend upon others for his eggs when first starting in the
business, but the poulterer, as a rule, cannot afford to do this,
because he can grow them a good deal cheaper than he can buy; and not
only this, and what is more to the point, he, by proper care and feed
during the winter months, can make his own eggs a great deal more
fertile than any he can buy of others. Usually about one-third of our
novices go right to the stores and purchase eggs to fill their machines
with.
[Illustration: OUR INCUBATOR HOUSE.]
This is running a great risk, especially during the winter months, but
will give the reader an idea of the amount of knowledge that many of our
would-be poultry men have acquired to begin with, and when he knows that
the incubator has to shoulder all these mistakes, he will naturally have
a little sympathy for the maker. Several years ago I sold a six
hundred-egg machine to a lady, who, on receiving it, filled it promptly
with eggs obtained from the grocers. Now, as this was in the month of
December, it was, to say the least, an exceedingly doubtful operation.
As she only got about forty chicks she was naturally very much
dissatisfied, and strongly denounced both the machine and the maker. Her
husband suggested that possibly the machine was not to blame, and that
the eggs might have something to do with it. They went to the grocer to
enquire about it. He told them that he had had some of those eggs on
hand for several weeks, and that they had been exposed to the cold and
freezing weather, and that probably the farmers from whom he had
obtained them had held them for high prices.
They found on enquiry that this was the case, and one party especially,
who kept a large number of hens, and from whom he had collected the
largest share of his eggs, kept no "crowers" with his hens. This threw
some light on the subject, and stock on that incubator went up at once.
The next time she had parties save their eggs for her, taking them in
several times each day. She then obtained a hatch of ninety per cent,
and was uniformly successful afterwards, getting out some 3,000 chicks
and ducks during the season with her machine.
How to Keep Eggs for Incubation.
The above is only one case out of many that are constantly taking place.
In nine cases out of ten, failure with good machines may be traced
directly to the operator or the eggs. Occasionally there is a defect in
a machine overlooked by the maker, which he is in honor bound to make
good.
The best way to secure good eggs is to engage them beforehand from
reliable parties, who will gather them carefully several times each day
in cold weather to prevent them chilling, and turn them at least every
other day. If these eggs are kept on end it is not necessary to turn
them as often.
I have egg boxes for the purpose, in which the eggs are set on end, like
the common market box. These boxes and contents can be turned as readily
with a dozen as when full. Eggs intended for incubation should always be
kept in a cool place,--duck eggs especially,--as the fertile eggs will
change at a temperature of eighty-five to ninety degrees, and spoil
within three or four days. One may safely calculate on one-half of them
being spoiled in a week at a temperature of 80 degrees. All kinds of
eggs can be safely kept three weeks for purposes of incubation, say, at
forty-five to fifty degrees, though I always like to have them as fresh
as possible.
In filling orders for eggs at a distance I make it a point never to send
eggs more than four days old, or with less than seventy-five per cent of
fertility. Transportation, even over rough roads, does not affect their
hatching, except in extreme warm weather, when the contents, becoming
thin and slightly evaporated through the heat, are apt to mix, when they
will surely cloud and rot. I have often sent eggs 2,000 miles, with the
report that every egg produced a duckling. With machine ready and
running steadily the eggs may be introduced at once. They need no
moisture now, and it is not necessary to disturb them for the first
forty-eight hours.
How to Choose and Use Thermometers.
Place your thermometer on the eggs in middle of egg-tray. Be sure, in
the first place, that you get a good glass, as all depends upon its
accuracy. Do not use one with the mercury bulb lying upon a solid metal
plate, as the refraction of heat upon the plate from the tank above will
always run that glass one or two degrees higher than the heat in the
egg-chamber, but get one, if possible, with a hole in the plate opposite
the bulb, so that the heat can play around the bulb and through the
plate, giving the correct heat of eggs and chamber. Do not hang your
glass up over the eggs, or put it down between the eggs, but lay it on
them, for the reason that, though either of these positions may be all
right during the first twelve days of the hatch (if your eggs are
fertile), they will surely be all wrong during the last part.
I will endeavor to explain this thing, so that the novice will
understand how important it is. Before circulation begins in the embryo
chick or duck, and there is no animal heat in the egg, the temperature
of the egg chamber regulates that of the eggs. But after circulation
begins, and especially during the latter part of the hatch, when the
rapidly-developing young bird throws out a great deal of heat, the thing
is often completely reversed. For instance, a glass may be hung one inch
above the eggs and another placed immediately on the eggs beneath. The
one above may register 102 degrees; the one below, on the eggs, will
register 105 degrees,--conclusively showing that the eggs are now, by
their own caloric, heating the egg-chamber.
I have often, during the last part of a hatch, when the thermometer was
ranging from 70 to 80 degrees outside of machine, placed a glass on the
hottest part of the boiler, where but one lamp was dimly burning,
carefully covering the glass. In that position it would register perhaps
96 to 98 degrees, while a glass inside the machine, and on the eggs,
would register 103 degrees, proving beyond a doubt that the eggs, by
their own caloric, were not only heating the egg-chamber, but
contributing their quota towards heating the water in the tank. Now, who
will pretend to say that a glass hanging above the eggs will give the
correct heat of the egg after circulation begins. So that, even in cold
weather, the amount of oil consumed during the last week of the hatch is
less than half the amount required during the first part.
The operator must not expect the eggs to heat up at once. On the
contrary, they will cool the air in the egg-chamber very sensibly,
though they will not affect the heat of the water in the tank. It will
be from five to eight hours before they arrive at their normal heat.
How to Turn Eggs.
At the end of forty-eight hours they may be turned. This should be done
by gathering up the eggs at the end of egg-tray and placing them upon
the eggs in centre of the tray, rolling the centre ones back to the end
of the tray. The tray should be reversed, and the same thing done to the
other end. It is not necessary that the eggs should be completely
reversed,--simply change the position, rolling over one-half or
one-third.
The egg-trays should always be turned end for end, and changed from end
to centre of machine. This is necessary in case there should not be a
uniform heat in egg-chamber, as it will equalize matters, and, in a
measure, obviate the difficulty. Now, all this, though it takes some
time to describe it, can be done very quickly, requiring only a few
moments for each machine. I usually allow about ten minutes for each
1,000 eggs, though it can be done much quicker if one is in a hurry. I
am often requested by people to put in patent automatic egg-turning
trays in my machines, it would so simplify matters. I reply:
"So it would; and when you can produce a machine with a perfect
uniformity of heat in the egg-chamber, I should be most happy to use an
automatic tray, but I have never yet seen that machine." In our own
double-cased Monarch, in cold weather, there is at least one degree
difference between the end and centre of egg-tray. In single-cased
machines this difference must be largely increased, and in automatic
trays the eggs must necessarily remain where they are placed through the
entire hatch. Now, under these conditions, if the heat is right in the
centre of trays it must be all wrong in the ends. The hatch will be
protracted long after the proper time, and if those on the ends of trays
come out at all it will be forty-eight hours behind time and with
weakened constitutions, keeping one in constant stir with their sickly
plaints. It is needless to say that there is a great mortality among
birds of that description, and at the end of ten days they are usually
among the things that were.
Hatching the Eggs.
The next thing is testing the eggs. This matter is essential as well as
economical, with both hens and incubators. I once knew a man who ran a
six hundred-egg machine for three weeks on one fertile egg. The other
599 proved infertile, and he did not know it until they refused to hatch
at the end of three weeks--a great waste of oil, but a greater waste of
time,--three whole weeks in the best part of the season. Another man
kept forty hens sitting three weeks with an average of one fertile egg
to each bird, when three of them could have done all the hatching just
as well, and then, at the end of four days, could have had the rest put
upon better eggs.
A great waste of hen power, you will say, with time lost, together with
forty dozen eggs, which would have been just as good for table use had
they been tested out in four days. It often happens in the winter, when
eggs are apt to be infertile, that, after testing the contents of four
trays, they can be contained in three, when the other can be filled with
fresh eggs. Here is where the advantage of adjustable trays comes in.
Often the operator running a large machine has not eggs enough to fill
it without a part of the eggs becoming very old, and also losing ten or
twelve days of valuable time; with the adjustable tray, eggs can be
introduced at any time, and the same heat preserved on all. I usually
test duck eggs at the end of the third day. The fertile germ is then
plainly visible, and the eggs can be passed before the light, several at
a time.
The novice had better postpone the operation till the fourth day, when
he, too, will have no trouble in detecting the germ. The same rule will
hold good with all white eggs, but dark-brown eggs should not be tested
till the sixth or seventh day. This can be done much sooner, but a large
machine full cannot be tested in a minute, and the eggs should be far
enough advanced so that the operator can take two or three in his hand
at once, and passing them before the flame, readily detect the germ. I
never use a tester for duck eggs, as a simple flame is sufficient, the
egg being translucent.
During the first stages of incubation the germ is very distinct, even at
the third day. The clear eggs are reserved for family use or disposed of
to bakers. An expert cannot distinguish them from a fresh-laid egg,
either in taste or appearance. There is usually a small percentage of
the eggs that are slightly fertilized, in which the germ will die during
the second or third day. These can be readily detected at the end of the
fifth day, and should be taken from the machine, and reserved as food
for the young ducklings. Another and potent reason why all infertile
eggs, and those with dead chicks in them, should be taken out of the
machine, is that after the circulation begins in the egg, especially
during the last part of the hatch, the temperature of a live egg is
several degrees higher than that of a dead one. The one radiates heat,
the other absorbs it; so that if the operator is running his machine 102
degrees, with his glass on a dead egg, he may be all unconsciously
running it at 104 or 105 degrees on a live one.
I had a letter from a man some time ago stating that his thermometers
were developing strange freaks,--that though they registered the same
while in water, at 103 degrees, when lying on the eggs a few inches from
each other in the machine, they were several degrees apart, and wishing
to know by which he should run, the higher or lower. I wrote him that
his glasses were all right, and that he was the one at fault, and had he
followed instructions and tested his eggs he would have had no such
trouble. He wrote that as his machine was not quite full, and as he had
plenty of room, he neglected to test them, thinking it would make no
difference.