Figure 10.
When the hatch is well underway a little more air should be allowed to circulate in the egg-chamber, and a part of the evaporating surface can be removed, for as each duckling makes its appearance he becomes a little sponge, until dried off, and furnishes plenty of moisture for the machine. When nearly dried off the duckling should be dropped into the nursery below the egg-trays. While hatching, the eggs should be kept pipped side up in the trays, as the birds sometimes get smothered when the orifice is underneath. The dry birds should be dropped below about once in four hours, for, if allowed to accumulate, they will roll the egg upside down, crowd the egg-shells over the pipped eggs, or pile themselves over the egg, smothering the young birds.
This work should be done very quickly, so as not to derange the temperature of the machine. Be sure to keep the heat up in your machine, for its tendency is always to go down during hatching, for the reason that the egg radiates a great deal of heat, while the little duckling, with its woolly covering (which is a non-conductor), retains it. Many people advocate allowing the little fledglings to remain with the eggs until all are hatched, but this is all wrong, not only for the above reasons, but for one which is far more important than either.
The amount of heat requisite to hatch the eggs is too much for the young birds already hatched and dried off. With chamber at 102 degrees, they will be seen crowding around the sides of machine with their little bills wide open, gasping for breath, when, had they been placed below, the proper temperature can be maintained in both, as the bottom of machine runs at least five degrees lower than the egg-trays.