PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



it perfectly level, in a room free from draughts, and in as 



quiet a place as possible. Two or three days before eggs 



are expected to chip you will start your incubator, bringing 



up the temperature to 104°. We will now suppose the eggs 



to be chipped. You will remove the bulk of them from 



under the hens, only leaving a few with each hen to hatch 



herself and keep her quiet. Place them in an incubator, 



taking care not to disturb them until ready for the rearing- 



field. You will know this by the eggs you have left under 



the mothers. The only attention required by the incubators 



is to attend to the lamp, and to keep the heat regularly up 



to the 104°. By doing so you will insure strong chicks ; as 



a rule with me they turn out stronger than those left with 



the hen. Your hens will have now brought the ones 



left under them. Count them up (you will already know 



what you have in the incubator) and transfer them along 



with their mothers to the coops in the rearing-field. As 



soon as the hens have settled down, empty the incubator, 



take chicks to coops and make batches up. The hens 



will be perfectly quiet and make no demur. A lot of 



attention is now required by these, as the chicks are apt to 



get from under the hens and consequently chilled ; in such 



cases place them again in the incubator until recovered. 



I have saved many by these means. I prefer this method 



of hatching to bringing out altogether under hens, as I 



consider immediately after the eggs are chipped to be the 



most critical time in the life of the chicks, many being 



trampled to death in the sitting-boxes by excitable hens, 



before they have fairly left the shells. You will now wash 



out your incubator and make ready for the next batch of 



eggs which will be at the point of chipping. Repeat the 



process and so on through the season. You will frequently 



find hens refusing to sit, after doing so for some time ; or 



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