Poultry and Profit 



i93 



temperature and almost of the same nature as that 

 which emanates from the body of the parent bird. 



The hen on her nest warms her eggs from above, 

 and the Incubator is so constructed as to supply the 

 heat from the same direction. The hen turns her 

 eggs once or twice a day, removing those that are in 

 the centre of the nest to the outside, and those that 

 are on the outside into the centre, so that an equable 

 heat is diffused throughout. This operation on the 

 part of the parent bird may easily be traced by mark- 

 ing the eggs with pencil, and arranging them in a cer- 

 tain order before the sitting commences. In using 

 the Incubator, the same process of shifting and turn- 

 ing is strictly observed. The hen quits her eggs once 

 or twice a day, for a few minutes — about a quarter of 

 an hour — in order to take the nourishment necessary 

 to sustain life, and thus the eggs are allowed to cool 

 to some extent during the interval, the variation of 

 temperature being considered favourable to the pro- 

 cess of incubation. In using the Incubator we take 

 out the drawer and expose the eggs to the air of the 

 room, thus imitating the natural process in every 

 minute particular. 



Timid hens are bad sitters, and if from any sudden 

 alarm a shock is given to the eggs, the hope of 

 chickens may be considered as gone for ever ; but in 

 the case of the Incubator, with its softly-lined drawers, 

 the eggs are not injured, though the apparatus be kept 

 in a workshop in which the din of the hammer is con- 

 tinually heard. 



With regard to the economical advantage of using 

 the most improved hatching apparatus, we have to 

 inquire what is the cost of the grain consumed by a 

 hen hatching fifteen or sixteen eggs only, compared 

 with the cost of the oil or gas required to maintain the 

 temperature in an Incubator hatching loo or 200 

 eggs. Experiment proves that the artificial heater 

 costs about twopence every twenty-four hours, so that 

 the expense of hatching the brood of from one to two 

 hundred is under 4s. In summer, when the temper- 

 aluie of the atmosphere is naturally high, the expense 

 is considerably less. On the other hand, the brood 



hen is not fed at a less expense than one penny per 

 diem, and at this rate no more than thirty eggs are 

 hatched naturally, at the outlay which, by using the 

 Incubator, will ensure the hatching of two hundred. 

 Besides this evident advantage, it is to be remem- 

 bered that in artificial hatching the mother bird is 

 free to continue laying iminterruptedly — thus paying 

 its own way. 



When the chickens are hatched, dried, and covered 

 with down, at which condition they will arrive about 

 two-and-twenty days after incubation they are placed 

 under the "Artificial Mother." The water boxes 

 being properly heated, are covered with lambskin, 

 under which the chickens shelter and warm them- 

 selves. In this mirsery they are kept and fed for 

 about a week ; they are then let out, but still kept 

 near the nursery, the runs of which remain open so 

 that they may enter when alarmed or when called 

 to feed. 



We do not hold out such Arabian Nights 

 prospects about the value of fowls as 

 some writers (and the one under review 

 seems not quite averse to the same strain) 

 have done. Their glowing pictures of wealth 

 derived by some monster poultry feeders, 

 whose hen-houses, by the way, can never be 

 discovered by the keenest fowl-hunter, are 

 calculated to prevent rather than promote 

 the more extensive cultivation of poultry in 

 this country. The actual state of matters 

 not being quite so blooming as they are de- 

 picted is apt to disgust the over sanguine, 

 whose hopes have been so buoyed up. We 

 are persuaded, however, that under ordinary 

 careful management there is good profit to 

 be made out of the sale of eggs and rearing 

 of chickens. 



