Treatment near Hatciiing-time. 49 
offend the palate when boiled, being indeed at that age quite unaffected. Hence in a large 
concern such an instrument becomes remunerative through the eggs it saves. Staler eggs may be 
either used for puddings, or boiled hard and chopped up for the chickens. 
The hen should not be absent from the nest more than half an hour, and in time of frost 
even twenty minutes will frequently addle the eggs, unless set in a very warm place. Eggs are 
much moie liable to this misfortune during the early stage than when they have been sat upon 
twelve or fouiteen days; of this fact we are certain, though it is contrary to the statements 
of some writers who have never devoted real observation to the subject. It may also save 
much heart-burning and groundless suspicion of egg-vendors, when a nest of purchased eggs 
fails, to say that if eggs at the end of the period, when broken explode, or are decomposed or 
changed in colour in any way, the eggs have been fertile and begun to hatch, but have been 
chilled or otherwise had their vitality destroyed during the process. Barren eggs remain a 
clear yellow to the last, and only emit a very strong musty smell. In ordinary weather, 
however, eggs will sometimes survive a very long absence, and really valuable eggs should 
never, therefore, be abandoned even after quite cold, till the hen has fairly sat her time out, 
and two or three days beyond. We have had a hen absent several hours in the middle of 
hatching, and still bring out a very fair number ; and on another occasion, on the very last 
day of incubation, the hen abandoned the eggs, which became really stone-cold, yet we saved the 
greater part. The treatment we adopted was to put the remaining eggs into a vessel of water 
heated to fully 105°, whilst another hen was being procured ; and, to our astonishment, in about 
ten minutes six of the eggs showed signs of life, and eventually hatched. We note this 
because in all cases of a decided chill at any period, this is the best plan that can be followed, 
the warm water getting the heat and life back into the eggs much more quickly and effectually 
than the hen can. 
The eggs of ordinary poultry require, as a rule, twenty-one days to hatch ; but this is by 
no means a universal rule. Cold weather, or a prevailing east wind, will lengthen the time a 
day or more, whilst warm weather and an attentive sitter will hasten it. Stale eggs also hatch 
later than fresh. Hamburghs generally hatch at the expiration of the twentieth day, and Game 
Bantams often even on the nineteenth. Turkey eggs require from twenty-six to twenty-nine 
days, guinea-fowl, twenty-five to twenty-six, and pea-fowl, twenty-eight to thirty days. Pheasants 
hatch on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day, and partridges the same. Ducks hatch on the 
twenty-eighth day, and geese on the thirtieth. A day or two before the eggs are “ due,” all 
which will hatch can readily be known by taking a large bucket filled with water heated to 
105°, and immersing them in it. In a few minutes — not always at first — the “live” eggs will 
commence bobbing about in a very curious manner from the efforts of the chick within. We 
formerly disliked this plan ; but if the hen be quiet, we now find it a good one, and the eggs 
may be left to soak in the warm water for ten minutes, with marked benefit to the hatching. 
They should be put under the hen whilst still wet. All eggs dead should be removed, as the hen 
can then take the better care of those left. 
If any valuable eggs are cracked, which evidently contain living chickens, the disaster 
may often be remedied by pasting a narrow slip of gummed paper over the crack, or, in the 
case of Bantam eggs, a small piece of goldbeater’s skin. Many eggs so treated have hatched 
in safety. Even thin-shelled eggs, however, may be kept from being cracked at all. In 1881 
Mr. Nash brought to us a device, shown in Fig. 28, and which, at our suggestion, has since been 
made for sale by Messrs. Christy and Co., under the name of “Nash’s Egg Protector.” It is a 
shell of thin perforated metal in which an egg can lie, with plenty of room, protected from all 
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