HATCHING-OUT THE CHICKENS. 



85; 



results and state of the cell in different kinds 

 of weather, will be armed at all points. In 

 America, at all events, with the slow ventilation 

 there usual, it is found that the greater pro- 

 portion of failures occur from insufficient drying- 

 out of the air-cell. There is another important 

 point in favour of slow ventilation (which must 

 nevertheless be sufficiently free ventilation — a 

 quite different thing) and a dry egg-chamber. 

 It has been proved conclusively that over-heat- 

 ing, should it occur, is four or five times as fatal 

 when the air is charged with vapour. 



On the whole, it has become the general 

 practice amongst American hatchers who will 

 not "fuss" about the size of air-cell, to give no 

 moisture for about seventeen days, as above, and 

 then supply a little during the last two or three 

 days of hatching. This would hardly be safe 

 without the air-cell test, with the different types 

 of machine used in England. We believe that 

 even in America, to use no moisture at all, under 

 all circumstances, is a practical mistake. Such 

 hatches are not quite all successes; and though 

 we have already indicated the former general 

 mistake of overdoing moisture with the old sit- 

 ting-hen, the fact remains that there are cases in 

 which, even with hens, some vapour does greatly 

 help a hatch. It must be the same with an 

 incubator; though we believe that with many 

 American machines all that is necessary would 

 be best done by placing, in brisk, dry weather, 

 large shallow pans of water about in the incu- 

 bator room, or to water the floor of the room, so 

 as to moisten the air outside rather than inside 

 the machine. 



It is found that eggs themselves may differ 

 greatly in behaviour, and this is no doubt one 

 reason why selection is so important for in- 

 cubator hatching. IVIr. Rankin ascertained by 

 repeated experiment, that when hatching without 

 moisturfe in his "Monarch" incubator, the sound 

 good shells hatched all right, but that some eggs 

 dried up too much. These were found on ex- 

 amination to have porous places in the shell, 

 and to have dried up much more than the others. 

 He made the remarkable experiment of coating 

 two-thirds of an egg, from the small end, with 

 shellac, and hatching without moisture. They 

 hatched well several times, but when he much 

 reduced the clean space at the large end, they 

 failed. Here the hen has an advantage, in 

 slightly greasing her eggs by contact with the 

 skin ; and we have often thought that turning 

 the eggs with very slightly greasy gloves might 

 have good results. The air-cell may not be too 

 much dried out, and yet the membranes may 

 be rather too '.ough and leathery at the last 

 for easy hatching ; hence the American practice, 



above alluded to, of giving some moisture the 

 last three days, which is tantamount to the hot- 

 water final soaking-test described when dealing 

 with hatching under hens. 



With a view to the final hatch-out, if the tray 

 admits of it, the eggs should always be kept 



with the large end slightly higher 

 Hatching- ^j^^j^ ^j^g ^^j^gj. jj^jg ^g^jg jQ 



prevent the chick's head being at 

 the small end. The eggs should not be turned 

 during the last three days, in order that the chick 

 may have a better chance to " get its head up." 

 When eggs are pipped, the fracture should be 

 turned upwards, if not already so, which will 

 probably be the case when turning has been 

 discontinued ; and it is better to move such eggs 

 near the door, where they can be seen — another 

 reason for glass doors. They should not be 

 meddled with oftener than about every six hours ; 

 but a lot of damp struggling chicks, breathing 

 freely, do not help the others, and the egg- 

 chamber is, moreover, too hot for them. Every 

 six hours or so, therefore, they shc-uld be re- 

 moved to the drying-box (which is usually in 

 England on the top of the machine, or else sup- 

 plied as a separate apparatus), although in some 

 the admirable American method is adopted 

 of automatic delivery of the chicks to a nursery 

 below the egg-trays. They should be entirely 

 out of the shell in from eight to eighteen hours 

 after pipping ; after the longer period it is pretty 

 plain that they need assistance. If only the 

 shell is broken, break the membrane through 

 also to give air, and if it appears too leathery, 

 a little warm water may be introduced, avoiding 

 the beak and nostrils. This may be sufficient. 

 If still no progress, the shell may be gently 

 cracked round, when a fairly strong chick will 

 generally be able to burst it asunder, especially 

 if moistened with a camel-hair pencil round the 

 crack. Sometimes, by immersing in warm 

 water, a tough membrane may be gently peeled 

 off, but so far as our experiments went, more 

 than the above rarely proved worth while. ■ 



It will be seen, that when we are asked "why 

 chickens are found dead in the shell," or addled 



at an earlier stage, there may be 

 ChickGns many replies. The eggs themsehes 



Dead in x, x^ ^.iir 



Shell. may have been too weakly, from 



the parents being too old, or too 

 young, or too fat, or too in-bred, or the male- 

 being over or under-mated, or the stock being 

 badly fed. The eggs may have been chilled, or 

 may have been over-heated. They may have had 

 too much moisture, or they may have had too 

 little for the ventilation. The air may have 

 been too damp to dry cut the air-cell sufficiently, 

 or so very brisk and dry as to toughen the 



