CHAPTER XVII. 



NATURAL HATCHING. 



Some people are prejudiced against artificial hatching, 

 and prefer letting the birds sit. If it is intended 

 to take the chicks away as soon as hatched, it is 

 then an immense waste of time and condition of the 

 parent birds to allow them to sit; and by the incu- 

 bator a much larger percentage of chicks can be 

 obtained, of equal if not superior robustness. But with 

 the incubator experience is required; some have not 

 a room adapted for the machine ; some cannot afford to 

 purchase a thoroughly good machine, and unless this is 

 done they are better without one, so that natural 

 hatching is still largely practised, though it was fast 

 going out of date till the yellow liver disease appeared, 

 when some farmers were driven into letting their birds 

 sit, so that the parent birds might rear them for the 

 first month or so, as the only way of getting over this 

 delicate time. 



Whilst some pairs will bring out nearly every egg, 

 nest after nest, others again never bring out more than 

 a small percentage. This is generally caused by one of 



