GENERAL METHODS 9 



over, the young hatched by natural incubation are likely 

 to be stronger. Besides, it is easier and safer to raise young 

 with hens than with brooders. Brooders are a perpetual 

 care and anxiety. Without incessant care the variations of 

 temperature are liable to enfeeble and kill the young. One 

 little mistake or lapse of care will often destroy a whole 

 batch . The steady heat and close air does not tend to vigour 

 as does the open-air Ufe with occasional brooding by the 

 hen. Later the hen can range with the young and care for 

 them, enabling them also to pick up much insect and other 

 natural food. In short, though the eggs of gallinaceous 

 birds can be hatched in incubators, and the young have 

 been reared in brooders, on a small scale, with great care, 

 the method with hens is by far the better, and the other 

 should not be attempted. 



Failure to Incubate. Many of these birds in confinement 

 do not, as a rule, care to incubate their own eggs. This 

 may be in part because they are more or less disturbed and 

 nervous. So while mating and egg-production are well- 

 nigh obligatory in nature, the actual care of the family is 

 less so. There is this advantage, that the birds produce 

 more eggs than they would if they brooded, and consequent 

 increase is more rapid. 



Quails, I have noticed, are more hkely to incubate their 

 last eggs of the season than those of an earlier period, and 

 this may be true of other species. In case that a bird at- 

 tempts to incubate a late clutch, it is best to allow her to do 

 so. Late broods are always hard to raise, and the natural 

 mother is likely to succeed where even hens would fail. 

 Young thus raised are very much shyer than those produced 

 by the other methods, and are wild, wary skulkers, just as 

 in nature. It is often hard even to catch a glimpse of them. 



Securing Stock. When one has decided to raise birds. 



