36 
perceived. The absorption of the yolk has also commenced, and this 
will continue until the twenty-fourth day, when it will be nearly com¬ 
pleted. The egg from this time on will rapidly grow opaque, and at the 
eighteenth or twentieth day is entirely so. On the twenty-fourth day 
the duckling is ready to make its way out of the shell, and in forty- 
eight hours after pipping the shell it will be entirely out. 
NATURAL INCUBATION. 
Hatching under the sitting hen (generally used for hatching ducks) 
is what is termed the natural process of incubation. The hatching of 
eggs by this means has always been followed, and no special skill is 
needed for success, provided the eggs are well fertilized with healthy 
germs. Many who raise ducks in large numbers, however, use almost 
exclusively artificial means ; some use both the natural and the artifi¬ 
cial, while others use the natural entirely. 
Of the natural method we shall treat first: Hens of medium size of 
the American class, barred Plymouth Pocks and Wyandottes, are con¬ 
sidered the best for sitting. Nine duck eggs are about the right 
number to place under a hen in early spring weather, but when the 
season is far advanced as many as thirteen are used. The hens should 
be provided with lange, roomy nests, and slatted fronts that can be 
removed and replaced easily when the hens are fed and watered. The 
nesting material should be of hay or straw, and the nest should be 
slightly concaved; in the bottom place a little finely cut hay. 
Before the hen is put on the eggs she should be thoroughly dusted 
with insecticides; the nest also should have a good dusting of the same. 
Both hen and nest should undergo a thorough dusting several times 
during the process of hatching as a safeguard against lice. When the- 
ducklings are hatched they should also have their share of the insecti 
cides before they are given to the hen. When a large number of sitting 
hens are used for hatching, as many as possible should be set at one 
time, and the ducklings raised in brooders. Hatching with hens may 
de done on a large scale and the young brooded artificially. As many 
as five hundred sitting hens are used on some farms for hatching ducks. 
They are set in small houses or rooms with the nests around the sides 
in tiers, each nest having its own lattice door. Each day, in the morn¬ 
ing, the hens are taken from th eir nests and fed and watered on the 
floor of the room. They are taken down in limited numbers, sections, 
as it were, at a time, and after they have had the food, drink, and a 
little exercise they are placed back on the nests and another section is 
fed and watered. 
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 
The subject of artificial incubation has engaged the attention of the 
civilized world for generations past; the method has done wonders for 
the poultry industry and has opened up the pathways to fortunes that 
might otherwise never have been made. The science of incubation and 
brooding has been developed wonderfully in this country during the 
last quarter of a century, and what seemed almost an impossibility then 
has indeed become a certainty now. There are many thousands of 
