288 AN" EGG .FARM. 



rates during the hatching process when carried on by 

 the hen. The shell is porous, permitting the escape of 

 moisture. Although the normal situation for the nest, 

 which is on the ground, is liable to be more or less 

 damp, yet a spell of dry weather might dry up the eggs 

 somewhat before sitting begins, and in some cases a nest 

 of the common species of fowl, or of a grouse, quail, tur- 

 key or any other of the hen's gallinaceous congeners, is 

 liable to be located on a sandy hillock among dry leaves, 

 where very little moisture will reach it in the possible 

 absence of rain and dew. In any case, the time after an 

 egg is laid before the hatching of the same begins is, in 

 a state of nature, only from a day or two to a fortnight 

 or so, and the shell being but moderately pervious to 

 moisture, no great diminution of water in its composi- 

 tion occurs. 



After incubation begins, the heat of the hen's body 

 not only dries the nest and the ground for a little dis- 

 tance under and around it, but by raising the eggs to the 

 comparatively high temperature of about 102, would in 

 a little while render their contents too dry, except for a 

 beautiful provision of nature consisting in the glazing 

 of the shells. A few days after the hen begins to sit 

 upon her eggs a secretion from her feathers or skin par- 

 tially closes the minute pores of the shell. Incubator 

 operators have tried to imitate this glazing by using oil 

 from the oil gland at the rump of a fowl, and other sub- 

 stances, but have never succeeded. Some of the secrets 

 of Mother Nature are very subtle and elusive. Take a 

 dozen eggs and place them under a sitting hen and 

 another dozen from the same lot and put them in an 

 incubator. After the twelve under the hen have become 

 well glazed, place them in a pail of water with the oth- 

 ers from the incubator. The result will be that the last 

 named will absorb water through the shell, and sink, 

 while the glazed eggs still float. But while nature has 



