A WOED ON INCUBATORS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 12 September 1908, Page 1

A WOED ON INCUBATORS.

When people have an incubator, and they put their eggs in it, they are very particular in looking at the thorinometer several times a day, and they run it between 102 and 104 deg. When hens aro not kept up to the proper heat many of the chickens die in the shell up to tho fourteenth day, particularly thoso which are on the outside of tho nest, which are frequently down as low as 70deg. Tho hens often do not begin to hatch the oggs before tho twenty-second or twenty-third day, and many of them leave their nests altogether, because they have not strength to sit out the time, simply through improper feeding. For tho first seven or niuedays they should be kept off the nest quite ton miuutes when they come off to food. Tho food should consist of barloy nnd Indian corn mixed, and if they do not pat much a little hemp seed in addition should be given. If they do not cat at all, they should have a teaspoonful of roup powder, mixed up with two teaspoonfuls of barley moal and oatmeal, made up into pellets, and pour down their throats. If treated in this way, as a rule next morning they will go straight to their food, aa the powder acts as a tonic, and revives the hens' strength. When a sitting hen will eat corn, she does not require soft food. Unless tho weather is very cold tho hen should bo providoJ with n. dust hath nnd water, and good sound grain should always bo given her. Sitting hens should never bo fod more than onco a day, and this in the morning. When a sitting hon has diarrhoea it is a good plan to give a little dry rice, if she will oat it, and mix half a toaspoonful of powdered chalk and a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground ginger with any kind of meal and put down her throat. This, as a rule, will stop the worst cases of diarrhoea. Whe-n a poultry keeper is a little undocided as to whothor thoro is sufficient heat in the hen's body or not, it is woll to put a small thermometer under the breast for half an hour, then look at it quickly, because the temperature soon goes down. It should run from 100 to 102 deg.; but occasionally, it will be up to 103 deg.. When the hen is not eating well on a cold night, the temperature will often drop down to 80, 90, and 95 deg. It is very necessary oggs should be tested, particularly during the cold weather, to sco whether they are fertile or not, or tho chickens have died in the shells at early stages. When they are are clear they should be taken away at once. — Prom an English poultry journal.