40 



SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



and the professors form a very close corporation, handing 

 down their secrets from father to son. For three months 

 in the year their time is completely absorbed by constant 

 attention at the incnbatories. 



Although very successful in the work, they nev^r at- 

 teinpt the hatching except during the months of February, 

 March and April. The minimum temperature in Egypt is 

 reached on the 20th of January; after this it steadily rises, 

 and by ±iaster the hot weather may be expected. This 

 makes the process difficult and the ovens are therefore 

 closed for the year. 



The population of Egypt is very dense, about 100 per 

 square mile. This agglomeration fosters ^ the use of large 

 incubators, turning out each one from 300,000 to 600,000 

 chicks each season. In some villages there are from three 

 to five of these establishments. They are generally near to 

 some important market place, and each one apparently in 

 the" center of a district of about 50,000 population. That is, 

 each one is the center of a circle having a radius of five 

 miles. It is this density of the population that has allowed 

 this system of artificial hatching to become so very success- 



PliANS OF EGYPXIAJf INCUBATORY. 



(As furnished by the United States Consul at Cairo, Egypt. 

 KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 

 Fig, I. — Ground iplan. A, A. A. rooms masking enti'ance to Incubatory. 

 B. B. B. ovens where eggs are hatched. D. D. hallway. C. C. manholes ad- 

 mitting attendants to upper tier. 



Fig. 11. — Sectional view lengthwise. A. A. A. upper chambers to ovens. 

 B. B. B. lower chambers. C. C. C. man-holes. D D. fire spaces. 

 Fig. III. — Sectional view crosswise — same lettering as for Fig, 11. 



ful. At the same time it must be remembered that there 

 is no other, as the native hen never sits on her eggs. 



Another important point is that the hatchers do not 

 attempt to rear the young broods. Forty-eight hours after 

 the chicks emerge from the shell they are scattered over the 

 country; overcrowding is thus prevented. This distribution 

 is effected in a very simple manner. As the incubatory is 

 near a market place, word is sent there that on such a day 



there will be so many young chicks. This news is quickly 

 disseminated among the villages, and on the appointed day. 

 the women arrive with their cages and purchase the young 

 chicks, which are generally sold by the hundred for about 

 $1.50 per hundred. There are also a number of brokers ol 

 dealers who take the young chicks to the more distant vil- 

 lages. For this they have cages made from the palm 

 branch. They are divided into two stories, each of which 

 is divided by a partition, so that the smaller division only 

 contains about 250 chicks, thus preventing overcrowding. 

 Two such cages will transport each 1,000 young birds, so 

 that a man with a donkey easily manages ; 2,000 of them, 

 and by nightfall has probably sold the entire lot at a dis- 

 tance of five or six miles from the establishment. 



Once in the villages the chicks become the property of 

 the women, who take great care of them during the first 

 week. For two orthree days they are kept in cages in lots 

 of twenty or thirty and fed on broken grain, slightly moist- 

 ened. At night the cages are taken into the houses and 

 sometimes covered with a bit of cloth. After these first 

 few days the young birds are strong enough to forage for 

 a living; they are then allowed to roam freely and 

 at night are kept in a sort of oven placed in a cor- 

 ner of the courtyard. This oven is made of unburnt 

 clay and in shape is like the letter U laid on one 

 side. The top is slightly perforated. The entrance 

 is closed by a heavy stone to keep off foxes and 

 other vermin. 



When the young chicks are fairly feathered 

 they are plucked perfectly clean and greased. This 

 adds greatly to their ehalth, but detracts much 

 from their beauty. It strikes astranger as some- 

 thing extremely novel to see hundreds of perfectly 

 naked chickens basking in the sun or runniag about. 

 It is difficult to get any exact figures as to 

 the number of these incnbatories, but judging from 

 those personally known to me, and their distances 

 apart, I should estimate the number at 150 with an 

 average population of 300,000 per season. This 

 estimate must be well within the mark, as the pop- 

 ualtion of Egypt is nearly seven millions, and fowls 

 form a very large part of the Egyptian diet, so that 

 45,000,000 eatable fowls would be a short supply. 



The ordinary form of the incnbatories is an 

 oblong 100 feet in length by 60 feet in width, the 

 height vstrying from 12 to 15 feet. Fig. No.. 1, 

 though not drawn exactly to scale, shows the gen- 

 eral arrangements. The outer chamber A is divid- 

 ed into three rooms, the middle one masking the 

 entrance to the ovens and thus excluding the outer 

 air. The door leading from, A into the central hall 

 is very small. B represents the ovens of the upper 

 tier. C is the man -hole; the attendant stands in 

 this and manipulates the eggs. D D are spaces 

 in the central half for the reception of the young 

 chicks. ■ These spaces are marked off by ridges of 

 dried mud about nine inches in height. E is the 

 door giving excess to the interior of the oven. 

 Around the wall and parallel to it runs a raised ridge six 

 inches in height; between this and the wall the fires are 

 lighted. In the top of the dome is a small aperture about 

 two inches square for the exit of smoke and regulating the 

 heat. 



The outer wall, four feet thick, is generally built of 

 sun-dried bricks, the mortar -simply mud. The space coji- 



