Incubator eggs might hatch better if less attention were paid to uniform temperature and more to reproducing actual conditions beneath a setting bird. That idea occurred to N. A. Meshcheryakov of Moscow's Zoological Park. Eggs beneath a setting mother are several degrees warmer on top than at the bottom. Every time the bird leaves the nest for food or exercise the eggs cool off a little.
Accordingly Comrade Meshcheryakov devised an incubator with heating units so placed and controlled as to provide a 2-to-7-degree difference between egg tops and egg bottoms and overall cooling two or three times every 24 hours. Hatchings...
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