Book VII. 



BREEDING OF POULTRY. 



1087 



intensely increased, when she first hears the voice of the chicks through the shells, and the strokes of 

 their little bills against them. The signs of a need of assistance, the former author observes, are, the egg 

 being partly pecked, and the efforts of the chicken discontinued for five or six hours. The shell may then 

 be broken cautiously, and the body of the chicken carefully separated from the viscous fluid wiiich lines 

 it. Reaumur gives "it as his opinion, that no aid ought to be given to any chickens but those which have 

 been near twenty-four hours emploved without getting forward in their work. 



7461. The chickens first lintched should be taken from the hen, lest she be tempted to leave her task 

 unfinished. Those removed may be secured in a basket of wool or soft hay, and kept in a moderate heat, 

 if the weather be cold, near the fire. They will require no food for many hours, even four-and-twenty, 

 should it be necessary to keep them so long from the hen. The whole brood being hatched, the hen is to 

 be placed under a coop abroad, upon a dry spot, and, if possible, not within reacn of another hen, since 

 the chickens will mix, and the hens are apt to maim or destroy those which do not belong to them. Nor 

 should they be placed near numbers of young fowls, which are likely to crush young chicks under their 

 feet, being always eager for the chickens' meat. The first food should be split grits, afterwards tail wheat ; 

 all watery food, soaked bread, or potatoes, is improper. Eggs boiled hard, or curd chopped small, are much 

 approved as first food. Their water siiould be pure and often renewed ; and there are convenient pans 

 made, in such forms that the chickens may drink without getting into the water, which often, by wetting 

 their feet and feathers, numbs and injures them. A bason whelmed in the middle of a pan of water will 

 answer the end, the water running round it generally ; and, independently of situation, and the disposition 

 of the hen, there is no necessity lor cooping the brood beyond two or three days ; but they may be con- 

 fined as occasion requires, or suffered to range, as they are much benefited by the scratching and foraging 

 of the hen. They must not be let out too early in the morning, or whilst the dew remains upon the 

 ground, far less be suffered to range over the wet grass, one common and fatal cause of disease. Another 

 caution is of the utmost consequence, to guard them watchfully against sudden unfavourable changes of 

 the weather, more particularly if attended with rain. Nearly all the disorders of gallinaceous fowls arise 

 from cold moisture. 



7462. For the period of the chickens quitting the hen, there is no general rule : the most certain is, when 

 the hen begins to roost, leaving them ; if sufficiently forward, they will follow her ; if otherwise, they 

 should be secured in a proper place, the time having arrived when they are to associate with the young 

 poultry, as nearly of their own age and size as possible, since the larger are apt to overrun and drive from 

 their food the younger brood 



7463. Hatching by artificial heat is an Egyptian practice, mentioned by Diodorus and Aristotle, and was 

 brought into notice about the middle of the eighteenth century, by Reaumur in his ' Art de faire iclore, 

 Sfc. des Oiseaux domestiques." The requisite degree of heat is 90 degrees, which is supplied by fire, steam, 

 hot water, or fermentible substances ; after hatching, the birds are placed in a cage, in which is placed a 

 lamb-skin suspended from the roof of a box, and enclosed by a curtain of green baize; or, according to 

 Parmentier, they may be placed under a capon, which, after being prepared for receiving pleasure from 

 feeling the chickens under its belly, by depriving it of the greater part of the feathers and excoriation, is 

 to be confinetl with them in the same coop, and after being fed together for a day or two, it is said the 

 capon will become an excellent nursing mother. Excepting as matter of curiositj', however, it is not at 

 present worth while either to hatch or rear chickens artificially in this country. Whether Reaumur's 

 mode of hatching be adopted, or Mrs. D'Oyley's of depriving hens of their chickens as soon ae hatched, 

 and thus causing one hen to hatch five or six broods in succession, the human attention required, and the 

 risk of failure are so great, that the surest modes, under all the present circumstances, are such as are 

 natural. Where it is tried for experiment or curiosity, the heat of tan or dung is more likely to prove 

 steady than that from smoke, air, or steam, probably even than that of hot water, successfully tried, 

 however, and, we believe, still practised in the neighbourhood of Paris. An enclosure in the middle of a 

 broad vLnery or hothouse might serve at once to hatch and rear early chickens; and such a mode of rearing, 

 at least in the winter season, certainly deserves the attention of those who are curious in having this 

 luxury in February and March. In 1822 or 1823 some interesting experiments were exhibited by Mr. Bar- 

 low at the Egyptian Hall, London, relative to an Improved method which he had invented, of hatching 

 eggs by artificial heat. The method, and the machine necessary to practise it, seem to have come very 

 little into use. 



7464. The incubation of chickens by hot water is the invention of M. Bonnemain, physician, of Paris, 

 in 1777 ; and still alive when we were in that capital in 1828. Chickens hatched in this way at St. Ger- 

 main's, under M. B.'s direction, it is said, supplied the table of Louis XIV. The boiler of the apparatus 

 is called a caloriflre, {calor, heat, and fero, to bear,) and consists of a small boiler [fig. 934. a), a box or 



building (A) for hatching the eggs, a cage or coop (c) for rearing the chickens, tubes (d) for circulating the 

 hot water, a supply tube and funnel (c), and a safety tube (/). Supposing the water heated m the boiler, 

 it witll rise by its specific levity through the tube (a, d), move progressively through all the tubes, and 

 return again to the boiler by the tube (g), which is inserted in the lid like the other, but passes down to 

 its lower part (A). This circulatory movement, once commenced, continues so long as the water is heated 

 in the boiler, because the temperature is never equal throughout all parts of the apparatus. We may 

 readily conceive that a perfect equality of temperature can never exist, on account of the continual loss 

 of heat, which escapes from the exteriors of all the tubes. Meanwhile, the temperature of the air en- 



