ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



opaque substance within, or the appearance of different shades, 

 the chickens are already formed. The bad eggs are removed 

 and .the others are continued in their places for four days; at 

 the expiration of this time they are again examined and put 

 back into their places, the same continual shifting from the 

 inner to the outer part of the circle being observed. The doors 

 of the ovens are kept hermetically closed by a small plank well 

 caulked. This is removed in the forenoon and afternoon and 

 once during the night to see that the heat is kept at the proper 

 point. 



After the eggs have been fifteen days in the ovens they are 

 daily examined, and so delicate is the touch of the attendant 

 that he can at once distinguish if the egg is alive by the fact 

 that it should be slightly warmer than his own skin. 



At the expiration of twenty-one days the chicks com- 

 mence to emerge from the shells, the attendants constantly 

 aiding them. They are placed in the spaces D D, III. 1, and 

 left to dry for nearly forty-eight hours, but they are not fed. 

 The sale then commences and in a few hours they are spirited 

 away. The temperature in the central hall is maintained at 

 98 F., and that of the ovens slightly more 



ADDITIONAL FACTS 



"The Egyptian incubatory of to-day is but a reproduction of 

 the one of thousands of years ago. In all these years the Egyp- 

 tian breed of chickens has not changed, and the manner of re- 

 production has remained immutable. Not long since I secured 

 the metal stamp of a chicken, deposited in a tomb over two 

 thousand years ago, and it is a perfect type of the Egyptian 

 fowl of to-day, and when this stamp was struck, artificial in- 

 cubation was a thing of actual existence in Egypt. 



"Not only are the eggs put through the process of incu- 

 bation more cheaply here than anywhere else in the world, but 

 chicks are reared at an expense past comprehension, while 

 disease and natural death among fowls, because of tireless care 

 are almost unknown. One man and a boy are the sole attend- 

 ants of the incubatory I explored * * Think of 234,000 

 chicks owing life alone to the tender care, in three months' 

 time, of an old man with most defective eyesight and a 16-yeai 

 old boy, and some conception may be had of the economies of 

 this Egyptian industry." — U. S. Consul General Cardwell, Sci- 

 entific Am. Supplement. No. 29, 1890. 



