The Eastern poultryman easternpoultryma59unse Year: 1904 THE EASTERN POULTRYMAN . 137 good, strong chicks, and think that we would have done better still if we had added more moisture earlier in the hatch. In the second hatch moisture was added at the last of the hatch and a hatch of over seventy per cent, was the result. All poultrymen report hard luck in get- ting fertile eggs this year. We have had unusually bad luck with our ducks' eggs. As a rule at least ninety-five per cent, of them are fertile, but this year we got no more than thirty per cent, of good, strong eggs. A young man of my
The Eastern poultryman easternpoultryma59unse Year: 1904 THE EASTERN POULTRYMAN . 137 good, strong chicks, and think that we would have done better still if we had added more moisture earlier in the hatch. In the second hatch moisture was added at the last of the hatch and a hatch of over seventy per cent, was the result. All poultrymen report hard luck in get- ting fertile eggs this year. We have had unusually bad luck with our ducks' eggs. As a rule at least ninety-five per cent, of them are fertile, but this year we got no more than thirty per cent, of good, strong eggs. A young man of my acquaintance has irecently started in the business and what ihe doesn't know about it now, after hav- ng been at it for about eight months, sn't worth knowing. He attended a two weeks' course at the University of Maine this spring, and since then has been there several times to give the instructors pointers which they are ignorant of. For one thing he claims that he can tell whether an egg is fertile or not by merely looking at them before they are ever set at all. He engaged 200 eggs early this spring and after looking them all over re- fused to buy any of them, on the ground that they were all infertile. Soon after he tested a number for an aunt of his and said about five per cent, were fertile. She then set the eggs under hens and hatched 80 fine chicks out of 104 eggs set. Another theory of his is, that the rea- son hens' eggs usually hatch better under hens than incubators is because the hens' body supplies something necessary to the perfect development of the chick. If that is true, however, contrary to all former beliefs, why do ducks' eggs also hatch better under hens than in machines? We would hardly suppose that hens would supply this mysterious 'something' in such a manner that it would influence the growth of a bird, altogether different in make-up than its own breed. He has also discovered that green bone is not good for hens. I was very much pleased at his way of
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