C97 



POULTRY. 



POULTRY. 



C98 



combined with straw. The fires are kept up for as many days 

 (according to the temperature of the weather) as are sufficient to 

 impart such a degree of heat as will continue to the expiration of the 

 twenty-one days required for the hatching of chickens, care being 

 taken to confine the warmth by closing up all the orifices communi- 

 cating with the external air. One hundred millions of chickens are 

 said to be thus annually produced in Egypt. For the details and 

 statistics on this interesting subject, see the Domestic Habits of Birds, 

 ' Library of Entertaining Knowledge,' p. 138. 



M. Reaumur made various experiments in hatching with fermenting 

 dung in hotbeds, but unsuccessfully ; life was developed, but never 

 matured; the chicks were in some cases even feathered, but long 

 before the full time they lost vitality. He succeeded at length, "after 

 trials enough to wear out the most enduring patience," with an oven 

 free from the influence of the vapour exhaled from the dung, which in 

 the previous experiments had been destructive of the embryo. He 

 afterwards succeeded to a great degree by using a box or shelves over 

 an oven, with due regard to uniformity of temperature. Several of 

 the eggs in this latter case were hatched on the twentieth day, by 

 which the usual course of nature was anticipated by one day. But 

 though artificial hatching has long been practised with success in 

 Egypt, it has not been found worth the expense and trouble in France, 

 from the variableness of temperature there compared with that in the 

 Delta, where, in the autumnal season, when the mamals (hatching- 

 ovens) are used, it is remarkably steady and extremely warm. 



As the attempt to pursue the Oriental system has failed in France, 

 there is no probability of its succeeding in the climate of Great 

 Britain ; but it by no means follows that success may not attend such 

 management as will obviate the obstructions which arise from irregu- 

 larities of temperature. The object was indeed attained some years 

 ago by means of the application of the Eccaleobion (from 'EitKoAVa, " I 

 call forth," and Bios, "life") machinery exhibited in London by 

 Mr. Bucknell, the inventor and proprietor. .According to Mr. 

 Bucknell, his eccaleobion possessed a perfect and absolute command 

 over temperature from 300 degrees of Fahrenheit to that of cold water ; 

 so that any substance submitted to its influence would be uniformly 

 acted upon over its whole surface at any required intermediate 

 degree within the above range, and such heat maintained unaltered, 

 without trouble or difficulty, for any length of time : and " by 

 means of this absolute and complete command over the temperature 

 obtained by this machine, the impregnated egg of any bird, not stale, 

 placed within ita influence at the proper degree of warmth, is, at the 

 expiration of its natural time, elicited into life, without the possibility 

 of failure, which is sometimes the case with eggs subjected to the 

 caprice of their natural parent." 



That chickens were thus hatched in considerable numbers is 

 unquestionable, many thousands having been brought into exist- 

 ence by this single eccaleobion machine; nor was any difficulty 

 found in the subsequent rearing of those chickens when proper 

 yards and suitable temperature were provided, more than in the 

 natural way ; indeed in some respects leas BO, as the losses sustained in 

 poultry by the sudden changes of the weather, and the influence of 

 dampness in particular, and accidents from various causes, are very 

 considerable. But probably, from not proving sufficiently economical 

 for commercial purposes, the machine does not appear to have come 

 into use. 



The eccaleobion machine, capable of containing 2000 eggs, resembles 

 an oblong box, nine feet in length, three feet in breadth, and the same 

 in height. It has no connection with the walls, against which it is 

 placed on the table on which it stands; it regulating power is within.* 



The contemplation of the progressive stages through which life is 

 developed and matured in the egg, is highly interesting. The contents 

 of the shells, of the species under immediate consideration, taken out 

 and placed on a plate or a saucer on 11 r. Bucknell's table, present the 

 following appearances, according to the respective periods : 



On the third day, the embryo organisation of the skull, brain, heart, 

 and blood is perceptible by the aid of a magnifying glass. 



Fourth day. The pulsation of the heart is distinguishable by the 

 naked eye. 



.Sixth day. The chief vessels and organs rudimentally formed ; the 

 pulsation and circulation of blood apparent. 



Ninth day. Intestines and veins formed, and the deposition of flesh 

 and bony substance commenced ; the beak for the first time open. 



Twelfth day. The feathers have protruded, the skull has become 

 cartilaginous, and the first voluntary movement of the chick is made. 



Fifteenth day. Organs, vessels, bones, feathers, closely approaching 

 in appearance to the natural state. 



Eighteenth day. Vital mechanism nearly developed, and the first 

 sign of life heard from the piping chick. 



Twenty-first day. The chick breaks the shell, and in two or three 

 hours is quite active and lively. 



The exit of the chick from the shell is assuredly one of the most 

 interesting processes of animated nature ever investigated by naturalists. 

 It was supposed that the mother bird broke the shell ; but M. Reaumur 

 has long since detailed the processes, and we ourselves have witnessed 

 the evolution of the chick in the cccaleobiou by its own unassisted 



'Treatise o ArtificUl Incubation,' by W. Buekncll, Eq., p. 0. 



efforts. The French naturalist to whom we have just now referred 

 thus explains some interesting facts : " I have seen chicks continue 

 at work for two days together. Some again work incessantly ; others 

 take rest at intervals, according to their physical strength. I have 

 observed some, in consequence of their impatience to see the light, 

 begin to break the shell a great deal too soon ; for they ought, before 

 they make their exit, to have within them provision enough to serve 

 for twenty-four hours without taking food, and for this purpose the un- 

 consumed portion of the yolk enters through the navel. The chick, 

 indeed, which comes out of the shell before taking up all the yolk is 

 certain to droop and die a few days after it is hatched. The help 

 which I have occasionally tried to give to several of them towards their 

 deliverance has afforded me an opportunity of observing those which 

 had begun to break their shells before this was accomplished ; and I 

 have opened many eggs much fractured, in each of which the chick 

 had as yet much of the yolk not absorbed. Besides, some chicks have 

 greater obstacles to overcome than others, since all shells are not of an 

 equal thickness nor of an, equal consistence ; and I think it probable 

 that the same inequality takes place in the lining membrane. The 

 shells of the eggs of birds of various species are of a thickness 

 proportional to the strength of the chick that is obliged to break 

 through them.' (Domestic Habits of Birds, ' Library of Entertaining 

 Knowledge.') 



There is a caution to be observed in all cases regarding the eggs 

 when the chicks are on the verge of maturity : they should not be 

 stirred when within two days of the evolvement of the chicks. If any 

 circumstances render it absolutely necessary to do so, care should 

 be taken to place them with the broad end inclining upwards, an the 

 beak of the chick is then in its proper position ; and if this be reversed, 

 the chick becomes unable to chip the shell, and must therefore die. 



Chickens should be fed the day after their birth with crumbs of 

 bread soaked in milk, or with the yolk of an egg boiled hard ; and they 

 will quickly learn to eat curds, grits, and barley-meal and milk. If 

 not designed for immediate use, they should soon get raw corn, and 

 occasionally alteratives of green food, such as bruised leeks, nettles, 

 lettuces, &c. For the first week they should be confined to the house 

 altogether : after that time they may be let out for a short time in the 

 sun, and gradually habituated to the weather. To render the hen, 

 which has already discharged her duty, still more productive to her 

 owner, she is frequently confined to a coop, called in Surrey a rip, for 

 some weeks after the chicks have seen the light. Her offspring during 

 this time pass freely through the prison bars, returning at her call, or 

 on occasions of alarm, to the maternal wings, and then hopping out 

 again, to the inexpressible misery of their imprisoned mother, who is 

 kept in this state of confinement until she becomes indifferent to the 

 chickens and disposed to lay again. 



The courage of the hen in defence of her offspring has been a common 

 theme of admiration ; the force of her maternal solicitude effects the 

 most surprising change in her disposition and temper. Before she 

 attained her matronly character, she was greedy, and always searching 

 for food, fond of gadding about, and timid in the extreme. Mow she 

 becomes generous, self-denying, and intrepid ; she assumes the fiery 

 temper of the cock, and becomes a virago in defence of her helpless 

 brood. An anecdote is told by White, in his ' Natural History of 

 Selborne,' of the punishment inflicted by some hens upon a hawk 

 which had at different times killed their chickens. By some means 

 this hawk was caught, and the owner gave him up to the tender 

 mercies of the bereaved mothers. In his own words, " Resentment 

 suggested the laws of retaliation. He clipped the hawk's wings, cut 

 oft' his talons, and fixing a cork on his bill, threw him down among the 

 brood hens. Imagination cannot paint the scene that ensued ; the 

 expressions that fear, rage, and revenge inspired were new, or at least 

 such as had been unnoticed before. The exasperated matrons up- 

 braided, they execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. In a word, 

 they never desisted from buffeting their adversary till they had torn 

 him in a hundred pieces." 



Poultry are the better for high feeding from the very shell, and on 

 this account the heaviest corn is often far cheaper for them in the end 

 than tailings, as regards the flesh, or the size and substantial goodness 

 of the eggs. Young chickens may be put up for feeding as soon as the 

 hen has ceased to regard them, and before they lose their first good 

 condition. When chickens are wanted for domestic purposes, they are 

 often left at liberty in the farm-yard, and if they have plenty of good 

 food, they will be in the most healthful state for the table, and rich 

 and juicy in flavour. Mr. Moubray ascertained that pullets hatched in 

 March, if constantly high fed, laid eggs abundantly in the autumn ; 

 and if killed in the February or March following, were so excessively 

 fat from the run of the yard as to open more h'ke Michaelmas geese 

 than chickens. Experienced poulterers will fatten fowls in two or 

 three weeks with the aid of grease, which gives a luscious, but, in our 

 judgment, a very disagreeable flavour to the flesh, which, though not 

 actually diseased, is very inferior to that of the fowl fed at large in the 

 common way at the barn door. 



The practice of cramming poultry by the hand is quite common. A 

 machine for this purpose is used in France, by which one man can 

 cram fifty birds in half an hour. It is somewhat on the principle of a 

 forcing-pump. The throats of the birds are held open by the operator 

 until they are gorged through a pipe, which conveys the food from a 



