498 



Poultry Farm School at Gambais. 



dating from 200 to 500 eggs, the price of the apparatus 

 ranging from £6 to £12, the latter including drying box. 



Heating is effected by small "briquettes" of compressed 

 coal dust, which burn slowly for about 12 to 14 hours, the 

 cost for an incubator of 250 eggs being about 1 Jd. for 12 hours. 



The eggs are turned and re-arranged twice a day by 

 means of an ingenious contrivance. The eggs are tested on 

 the fifth day, in order to eliminate those which are sterile. 

 Before being placed in the incubator, eggs are also tested as 

 to freshness. 



On the twenty-first day the incubator is opened at 7 a.m., 

 and any eggs which are not hatched out are turned as usual. 

 Shells showing signs of perforation are then placed with the 

 perforated side uppermost. Chickens already hatched are 

 transferred to the drying box. The young birds are never 

 helped out of the eggs, except perhaps when it adheres Gnly 

 by a few strands of membrane. 



The drying box is prepared with a layer of soft straw or 

 hay, barley straw being preferred; forty to fifty chickens 

 are placed in it and covered with a soft woollen cloth in 

 summer, and with a small eider-down in winter. The next 

 day they are brought out into the open compartment, but 

 at this stage no food is given. After being out for five to 

 ten minutes they are restored to the box, to be taken out 

 again tivo hours later. This time they are given a few 

 crumbs of dry bread. They soon begin to peck, and at the 

 end of the day are as lively as a bird a fortnight old. 

 After a day in the drying box they are transferred to the 

 artificial mother or brooder ; two of these suffice for some 

 450 chicks. During the first week they receive constant 

 attention ; on the third or fourth day they are given some 

 liberty, being let out into an enclosed space a few yards 

 square, but the moment they show signs of chilliness they 

 are driven back under the protection of the brooder. Their 

 range is gradually increased, and after the first week they 

 are allowed to remain out for the greater part of the day^ 

 but in winter this is not done until they are three weeks old. 

 The food during this early period consists of a paste made of 

 barley meal and milk, sufficiently consistent to adhere to the 



