62 T}IE I LLUSTRATED BoOK OF FoULTRY. 



heat would fall to ()•,'', and in one instance it went to 89°. It was impossible to keep the heat up, 

 although tiie incubator was covered and completely enclosed with heavy woollen blankets. Only 

 four times did the heat get to 104°, usually reaching I02° by six or seven p.m., and then falling to 

 96" or lower during the night. The incubator was left at ten p.m., and not visited again until seven 

 a.m. (This wouki be al\va)-s my custom with any good self-regulating machine.) The eggs in this 

 case were kept in my incubator at home until the twelfth day, and then taken to New York to the 

 fair, a distance of twenty-five miles, by rail. I averaged about fifty per cent, in hatching on that 

 occasion, and taking into consideration the constant fluctuation of temperature, this was unusually 

 good success. For mo\-ing the eggs from one incubator to the other, I constructed a box, lining it 

 with felt, and placing in the bottom a tank of hot water; then placing the eggs between several 

 thicknesses of woollen blankets and closing the box tight. In one case, where a few eggs had been 

 overlooked and left in the home machine until the twentieth day, I started from home with two of 

 the eggs pi^jped ; on my arrival at the rink, I found one of the chicks out and entirely free from 

 the shell. 



" I have been led by slow degrees to adopt the opinion that the great drawback to artificial 

 incubation was the difficulty in getting through the first ten days. I noticed some years since 

 that when a hen left her nest, and the eggs were fairly chilled, during the early stages of incuba- 

 tion, she rarely brought out an>' chicks, and usually those that did conic forth were weakly, and 

 pined away a few days or weeks of existence, and then dropped off ; also, that even when 

 eggs had been left for fully twenty-four hours during the latter days, they often hatched out well 

 and strong. 



" In support of this view, one of my neighbours, a perfectly reliable gentleman, gave me a 

 remarkable instance. He had a large number of turkey eggs set under common hens ; under one 

 of the hens were some eggs of her own kind, probably laid to her by one of the fowls roaming over 

 the place (they not being confined in a setting-room). These hen's eggs hatched, and the mother 

 left the nest with two 'chicks, leaving ten turkey eggs about twenty-three or twenty-four days 

 incubated. When found the eggs were cold and supposed spoiled ; no further notice was therefore 

 taken of them until two or three days after, when a hen was found to have taken possession of the 

 nest and assumed the duties of incubation. Some days after, to the surprise of all, she came off with 

 seveti turkey chicks, all strong and well. This was in June, warm weather. Since then I have 

 experimented with eggs, and have demonstrated to my own satisfaction that eggs can be, at certain 

 stages of incubation, deprived of heat for twenty-four to seventy-two /tours, and yet be hatched ! 

 In fowls this period would seem to be between the sixteeth and seventeenth days ; in turkeys, the 

 twenty-first to twenty- tliird days, perhaps even later. The exact time I have been as yet unable 

 to determine. 



" My experience with this led me to try placing the eggs under hens during the first few days 

 of incubation. I have found even three days under hens before placing in the incubator a great 

 benefit, but seven to ten days is much better, and one reason I believe to be the following : — 

 If my reader will notice an egg after having been under the hen for a few days, he will 

 observe it to have a polished appearance, as if oiled and rubbed. There seems to be some oily 

 secretion on the feathers or on the body of the hen, which, with her action in moving the eggs, 

 produces this appearance. Eggs thus treated seem to retain the moisture or wateiy portion of the 

 contents much longer than perfectly fresh ones ; hence it would seem that the ' greased appearance' 

 prevented or rather retarded evaporation. An egg placed at first in the incubator and left there 

 the same length has not this appearance, being as fresh to all outward seeming as if just laid. To 

 establish this fact of evaporation, I took eggs of equal weight and placed some under hens and 



