ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 



incubator to hatch at the same time as some of the nests. 

 When the eggs begin to chip, put them in a warm water- 

 box wrapped in flannel. Go about an hour before sunset, 

 and from behind lift off the hen with a stick, and give her 

 fourteen or fifteen, according to the eggs you have, and in 

 about an hour's time have a look to see if she is still on all 

 right. If this is done quiedy, the hen generally soon comes 

 back, and having all night to sit, goes off with a full brood. 

 I do not advise anyone to interfere with partridges, they 

 generally do better if left quietly alone. Finally I would 

 add, if you should have the misfortune, on going round 

 to feed your birds some cold or wet morning, to find that 

 they have squeezed out from under the coop (which some- 

 times happens if it is a rough bottom) and are nearly dead, 

 that the best place to bring them round is in the drawer 

 of an incubator." 



Mr. William Sewell advocates the following method : — 



" An incubator is one of the most useful things a game- 

 keeper can have during catching and hatching time, and 

 unfortunate is the man who does not possess one, especially 

 when there is a large percentage of weakly chicks hatching 

 out. If only one incubator is in use, I think it should be 

 used solely for drying the birds which are not strong enough 

 to be taken to the field, and for finishing off the chipped 

 eggs which are in danger of being crushed by the sitting 

 hen. Often when nesting the keeper will accidentally flush 

 a sitting hen from her nest, and perhaps has no spare hen 

 under which to put the eggs. Then the first thing he thinks 

 of is the incubator, in which he places them until such time 

 as there is a hen to take them. It often happens that several 

 sitting nests are found. Then care should be taken not to 



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