INCUBATION. 231 



and which, when the chickens were hatched, were so exhausted 

 as scarcely to be able to attend to them. He recommends such 

 hens to be fed on the nests. 



Mr. Richardson gives the following excellent advice as to 

 the choice of eggs for sitting, and his remarks comprise all that 

 is necessary to be known on the subject. 



" In selecting eggs for sitting, choose such eggs as you 

 have reason to know or believe to have been rendered produc- 

 tive. Those of medium size i. e., the average size that the 

 hen lays are most apt to prove productive. Sketchley tells 

 us that he has always found the round egg to contain the female 

 chick, and that of oblong shape, the male. This, however, 

 though it may have been newly discovered by Sketchley, was 

 known to Columella and Stephanus. If you examine the 

 egg between your eye and a candle, you will be able to dis- 

 cern the position of the vacancy caused by the little air-bag at 

 the blunt end of the shell. If this be in the centre, the egg 

 will produce a cock ; if at one side, a hen. You may form a 

 very fair judgment of your eggs from their specific gravity. 

 Put them into a bowl of tepid water, and reject such as do not 

 sink to the bottom. Choose, also, such as present a marked 

 disparity of size between the two ends. Such as are equal in 

 size at both ends usually contain two yolks ; and these, be it 

 observed, instead of producing twin chickens, as might natu- 

 rally be expected, commonly produce monstrosities : reject 

 them. The number of eggs to be placed under a hen is from 

 nine to eleven. The number is, however, of course, dependent 

 on the size of both eggs and hen ; an odd number is to be pre- 

 ferred, as being better adapted to the covering in the nest. Be 

 sure that they are all fresh ; and carefully note down the day 

 on which you place them beneath the hen. Never turn the 

 eggs ; the hen can do that better than you. About the twelfth 

 day of incubation, you may be enabled to reject such eggs as are 



