48 
DIRECTIONS FOR HATCHING CHICKENS. 
taste for common inquirers to betake, themselves 
to such sources of information, illustrated as 
they are by good engravings, than to desire that 
a set of half-hatched eggs should be broken to 
gratify their curiosity. A shattered and imper- 
fectly-formed chick, struggling in vain in the 
fluid that ought to perfect its frame, till it sinks 
in a gradual and convulsive death, is a horrible 
spectacle, though on a small scale. To gratify 
the curious reader, I present below three cuts 
illustrating the first, middle, and last stages 
of incubation. 
First Stage of Incubation. — Fig. 20. 
mm ^om, 
Middle Stage of Incubation. — Fig. 21. 
Chick just before Hatching. — Fig. 22. 
Shortly before the time of hatching arrives, 
the chickens may be heard to chirp and tap 
against the walls of their shell. Soon a slight 
fracture is perceived towards the upper end, 
caused by force from within. The fracture is 
continued around the top of the egg, which ihen 
opens like a lid, and the little bird struggles into 
daylight. The tapping which is heard, and which 
opens the prison doors, is caused by the bill of 
the included chick ; the mother has nothing to 
do with its liberation, beyond casting the empty 
shells out of the nest. At the tip of the bill 
of every new-hatched chick, on the upper sur- 
face, a whitish scale will be observed, about the 
size of a pin's head, but much harder than the 
bill itself. Had the beak been tipped with iron 
to force the shell open, it would not have been 
a stronger proof of Creative Design than is this 
minute speck, which acts as so necessary an in- 
strument. In a few days after birth, when it is 
no longer wanted, it has disappeared ; not by 
falling off, which would be waste of valuable 
material, but by being absorbed and becoming 
serviceable in strengthening the bony structure, 
minute as the portion of earthy substance is. 
And yet some people direct, that as soon as the 
chick is hatched, this scale should be forced off 
with the finger nail, because it is injurious ! 
All chicks do not get out so easily, but may 
require a little assistance. The difficulty is, to 
know when to give it. They often succeed in 
making the first breach, but appear unable to bat- 
ter down their dungeon walls any further. A 
rash attempt to help them by breaking the shell 
particularly in a downward direction towards 
the smaller end, is often followed by a loss of 
blood, which can ill be spared. It is better to 
wait awhile and not interfere with any of them, 
till it is apparent that a part of the brood has been 
hatched some time, say twelve hours, and that the 
rest cannot succeed in making their appearance. 
After such wise delay, it will generally be found 
that the whole fluid contents of the egg, yolk and 
all, are taken up into the body of the chick, and 
that weakness alone has prevented its forcing 
itsself out. The causes of such weakness are 
various ; sometimes insufficient warmth from the 
hen having sat on too many eggs ; sometimes the 
original feebleness of the vital spark included in 
the egg, but most frequently staleness of the 
eggs employed for incubation. The chances of 
rearing such chicks are small, but if they get 
over the first twenty-four hours they may be 
considered as safe. But all the old wives' nos- 
trums to recover them are to be discarded ; the 
merest drop of ale may be a useful stimulant, 
but an intoxicated chick is as liable to sprawl 
about and have the breath trodden out of its 
body as a fainting one. Pepper corns, gin, rue, 
and fifty other ways of doctoring, are to be ban- 
ished afar. 
The only thing to be done, is to take the chicks 
from the hen l ill she is nestled at night, keeping 
them in the meanwhile as snug and warm as 
possible. If a clever, kind, gentle-handed little 
girl could get a crumb of bread down their throats, 
it would do no harm. Animal heat will be their 
greatest restorative. At night, let them be quiet- 
ly slipped under their mother; the next morn- 
ing they will be either as brisk as the rest, or 
as " flat as pancakes." 
Now I am on the subject of hatching, I may 
as well refer to the perplexity to which poultry 
keepers are sometimes subjected, when hens will 
sit, at seasons of the year at which there ia 
little chance of bringing up chickens. Some ad- 
vise the hens to be soaked in a pail of water, cold 
from the pump ; but if they have a mind to kill 
her, it is more cruel to do so by giving her fever 
and inflammation of the lungs, than by simply 
knocking her on the head. A less objectionable 
remedy, is the following : — " I have known one 
or two doses of jalap relieve them entirly from 
