34 A REVOLUTION IN EGG PRODUCTION 



temperature the chick will not develop sufficiently before it is 

 due to hatch ; and if a relative excessive temperature is main- 

 tained, the chick is developed before the time of exclusion is 

 due. Normally the chicken will begin to "pip" the shell on 

 the eighteenth day, and will, after "pipping" through in one 

 spot, work all around until the shell is broken in two, on the 

 twenty-first day. When a hatch is late, cloths wrung out of 

 warm water, and placed in the egg chamber, will help the 

 hatch. The author in 1892 had eggs in an incubator which 

 had been shipped from Boston, Mass., to Lead, So. Dakota, 

 and not an egg was "pipped" on the twenty-first day, and the 

 use of damp warm cloths brought off a fair hatch. 



To show the variation in moisture which an egg can sur- 

 vive, the author remembers an experience in Hand Count}-, 

 South Dakota, on his mother's farm in 1882. On account of 

 the low temperature of sometimes between 20° and 30° be- 

 low zero, or lower, a pit was dug out for the house, and an 

 "A" roof put o\-er this pit, with the doors and windows in the 

 south side of the "A". During a heavy thunderstorm the pit 

 was completely filled with water, entirely covering two nests 

 of eggs, and driving the hens off the same. It was over four 

 hours before the water lowered, and the hens went back on 

 the nests, and they brought off good hatches. This was a 

 surprise to us all, as we had given up all idea of seeing any 

 chickens appear.* 



If eggs are taken just before "pipping'' the shell, and 

 placed in a large pan of warm water, the action of the chicks 

 in pecking at the shell causes the eggs to move over the sur- 

 face of the water, and is a comical sight. Eggs never seem to 

 hatch any poorer for these experiences. 



*As an illustratipn of the abiliLy of birds to take care of themselves, and of their 

 knowledge of conditions best suited to their needs, about twenty turkeys roosted on 

 the top of this ".\" chicken house every night. Several attempts were made to drive 

 them into more slieltered positions, but without success. 



They stayed on top of this ".\" house in all weathers and temperatures above 

 zero or thereabouts. If it got below zero, and there was a high wind, they would 

 move; but when not windy they would roost there when it got down to 15° below 

 zero. A drop in the reading of the thermometer to 20° or lower below zero, however, 

 would find the turkeys going to roost on a straw stack about two hundred feet away. 



One would think that, knowing the straw stack was there, they would roost there 

 all winter, but lliey would never seek the shelter of this straw stack, except in stormy 

 weather or extreme temperatures. 



The only plausible explanation of this is that, as stated before in this little book, 

 fowls think, and they must have felt more secure on this *'A"' roof, and determined to 

 stay there, until forced by their sense of danger from cold to seek a better shelter. 



