INCUBATION. 



18! 



contained within the substance of the egg evap- 

 orates through the pores in its shell ; this is re- 

 placed by a small quantity of air, which is nec- 

 essary to support the respiration of the chick ; 

 but as the atmospheric air which surrounds the 

 eggs in the box at that degree of temperature 

 is either completely dry or but little humid, so 

 the chick would greatly suffer, or finally perish 

 from this kind of desiccation. The aqueous va- 

 por which exhales from the breathing of the old 

 fowls while hatching, in some degree prevents 

 this ill-effect ; but nevertheless, in dry seasons, 

 the vapor is hardly sufficient, and thus, in order 

 that the eggs may be better hatched in the dry 

 seasons, the hens cover them with the earth of 

 the floor of the granary. In artificial incuba- 

 tion, to keep the air in the stove constantly 

 humid, they place in it flat vessels, such as 

 shallow dishes, filled with water. When the 

 chickens are hatched, they are removed from 

 the stove and carried to the cage, where they 

 are fed with millet, and nestle under a sheep- 

 skin with wool on it, suspended over them. 

 They also separate, by means of partitions in 

 the cage, the chickens as they are hatched each 

 day, in order to modify their nourishment agree- 

 ably to their age. Artificial incubation is ex- 

 ceedingly useful in furnishing young fowls at 

 those seasons when the hens will not sit, and, 

 in some situations, to produce, or, as we may 

 say, indeed, to manufacture, a great number of 

 fowls in a small space. 



A method somewhat similar to M. Bonne- 

 main's, to which a long Greek name has been 

 given, has been put in operation at Pall Mall, 

 London, and exhibited at 25 cents each person. 

 In Chambers 's Edinburgh Journal is a description 

 of the Eccaleobion. It is a room on one side of 

 which is a large oblong case placed against the 

 wall, divided into eight parts, each one of which 

 is warmed by steam pipes, and which are used 

 for hatching the eggs. The bottom of these 

 boxes or parts, and indeed the whole, is lined 

 with cloth, and is covered with eggs lying at a 

 little distance from each other. There is a jug 

 of water in each part to preserve a proper de- 

 gree of moisture to the air in the divisions. 

 The meaning of having eight boxes is to insure 

 a batch of chickens every two or three days, 



Each part holds some two or three hundred 

 eggs, or about two thousand in the whole 

 From twenty-one to twenty-three days are re- 

 quired to hatch the eggs, and as those are pur- 

 chased in the market, from one-third to one- 

 half prove worthless. None but new eggs should 

 be used for the Eccaleobion. 



When the chickens appear they are not im- 

 mediately removed from the oven, but remain 

 a few hours until dry, when they are taken froir, 

 the oven and put into a glass case or box made 

 shallow and the sash-lid easily removable. The} 

 are not fed for twenty-four hours after hatching, 

 and the material then used is a coarse meal grit, 

 which they pick up with great eagerness in- 

 stinct, in this case, supplying the want of the 

 mother. They are kept in this case two or three 

 days, when they are put into divisions on an- 

 other part of the floor of the same large and 

 warm apartment. At dusk they are put into a 

 coop or box, with a flannel curtain and cover- 

 ing, where they rest with as much quietness a? 

 under the wing of the mother. In the morning 

 they are turned into the yard, which is cleaned 

 and strewed with sand. When three weeks or 

 a month old they fetch in market one shilling 

 each. It thus appears that all that is necessary* 

 to form a chicken establishment is suitable 

 rooms and a steady supply of the proper heat, 

 fresh eggs, and constant attention. 



At the meeting of the Koyal Agricultural So- 

 ciety at Bristol, in 1842, a small machine for 

 hatching chickens artificially was exhibited by 

 the inventor, Mr. C. Appleyard, of London. As 

 the notice was unaccompanied by a descrip- 

 tion, we can only say such a machine was ex- 

 hibited. 



It seems by no means so difficult to succeed 

 in hatching chickens artificially as to rear them 

 after they are hatched. 



Some few years since an egg-hatching ma- 

 chine was exhibited, in full operation, in New 

 York, bringing out the little chickens with all 

 the punctuality of an old hen. 



The machine, in outward appearance, forms 

 an oblong box about five feet in length, three 

 feet and a half in width, and four and a half 

 feet high, divided into eight compartments, with 

 narrow glazed doors, The bottoms or floors of 



