A cheaper method of securing the foundation stock is in buying the hatching eggs, but not quite as satisfactory as the first method. These eggs are usually sold by the sitting, amounting to fifteen eggs, or by the hundred. When buying by the sitting, one buys from a regular breeder, and pays anywhere from $1.50 up to as high as $50 per sitting. It is not advisable for the beginner to pay either of these extremes, but to plan to buy eggs not over $5 per setting. Then as you progress in the business, you can purchase males to mate with your females to gradually improve your flock. This method necessitates the use of an incubator, unless you can arrange with some friend who will loan you the use of his incubator. Of course, if you already have some mature birds, even of a different breed, you can set these eggs under these birds, when they become broody in the spring, and secure even a larger hatch than you can from the use of an incubator. Generally, a mature bird can set on about fifteen eggs, and hatch every fertile egg in the sitting. A more detailed discussion on incubation will be given in the next chapter. The third way that one can secure a start in the poultry business, is by buying day-old chicks. This is an industry that has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. The price generally charged for these day-old chicks is twice as much as is charged for the hatching eggs. A fair price for 100 day-old chicks is from $15 to $20. Of course, the quality of these chicks is inferior to the higher priced sittings of eggs, but if one is not so particular as to type and show purposes, this method is very satisfactory. The day-old chick business is founded upon the principle that it is not advisable to feed the chick for the first forty-eight hours of its life, because just before the chick emerges from the shell, it absorbs the remainder of the yolk of the egg, and it is exceedingly dangerous to feed the chick any food during that period, as the chick will be sure to experience digestive troubles, if any thing besides water and grit is given to the chicks for the first two days. Therefore, these chicks are placed in a well ventilated box and sent by parcel post often as far as a thousand miles, with no loss in mortality. For one that has no incubator or mature hens, this offers a very satisfactory method of starting out in the chicken business. There are commercial hatcheries all over the country that make a business of purchasing hatching eggs from raisers of purebred poultry, and hatching these eggs in mammoth incubators, selling the chicks as soon as hatched, in the manner described.