632 
FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
manure, and by being covered by manure which was daily 
thrown from the stalls. The discovery was made by the 
chirping of the young chicks, and by searching their where- 
abouts was discovered. A similar circumstance may have 
suggested the construction of this apparatus for the incuba- 
tion of eggs. 
The escape of ammonia from the manure through the 
joints of the boards surrounding the nests is claimed to be 
healthful to the young chicks, and to prevent them from 
becoming infested with vermin. 
Mr. Corbett claims that twelve hens with his apparatus 
can be made to pay an individual $500 per year. He is 
enabled to supply several of the largest hotels in New York 
city with chickens reared by this ingenious mechanism. 
After the eggs are hatched, each nest contains a movable 
platform, with its underside covered with a sheepskin, 
with long wool attached, for the chickens to congregate 
under, to imitate as near as possible the mother’s wings. 
The apparatus was inclosed with a low paling, and within 
it was a variety of chickens and ducklings of all ages, feed- 
ing and basking in sunshine. 
Mr. Corbett’s apparatus should commend itself to all who 
are interested in Gallinoculture. 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
EGGSPERIMENTS— EXPRESS-ION S. 
The best method of keeping eggs any length of time for 
hatching, in order to be satisfied that they will really hatch 
after being kept, can only be ascertained by practical experi- 
menting. Having the past season made several experiments 
in this direction, as well as trying also to discover the safest 
and best mode of packing eggs for transportation, I con- 
clude the results may be of interest to some of your readers, 
and induce others to also send in their experience. 
Experiment 1. — 
6 eggs, small end down, in kiln-dried wheat bran. 
6 eggs, large end down, in kiln-dried wheat bran. 
After being kept for six weeks, were placed in the incu- 
bator (one of Mr. Halsted’s). 
Experiment 2. — 9 eggs, laid on side twenty-eight days, in 
kiln-dried bran. 
Experiment 3. — 8 eggs, fifty-six days in bran, large end 
down. 
The eggs were all kept in the same bureau drawers, and, 
except position, treated exactly the same. Having accident- 
ally broken my thermometer on the fifteenth day, I sent to 
the city to a friend to have one sent immediately. Where 
he purchased it, he explained what it was wanted for, and 
they sent one containing (red) spirit instead of mercury, 
which, after being in use twenty-four to thirty hours, 
appeared to me not to tally or register correctly, as the eggs 
appeared to me to be most too warm for the degree of heat 
registered. Having some friends come from the city to go 
on a fishing excursion, I left as usual, in charge of my wife. 
Upon our return, she remarked, that she had been running 
it all day with the thermometer less than 90°, and felt con- 
fident even that was warmer than they should be. Having 
a thermometer that would register up to 95°, I removed 
the one with spirit , and hung it up by the other to test. 
Although the weather was 89° in the shade, it soon ran 
down to 4° above the freezing-point. I was then and there 
seriously convinced that those eggs wouldn’t hatch this sum- 
mer. My feelings were considerable above the freezing- 
point. Fresh eggs, putin thirty-six hours before, were nicely 
soft-boiled, and those with chicks were cooked, but too rare 
to suit my taste. The result of experiments during this 
heated term were as follows: 
No. 1. — 6 eggs, small end down : 5 rotten ; 1 clear. 
6 eggs, large end down : 4 chicks ; 2 clear. 
No. 2. — 9 eggs on side : 2 chicks partly formed ; 5 smutty 
black, decomposed ; 2 clear. 
No. 3. — 8 eggs, large end down : 4 chicks; 1 chick partly 
formed ; 2 clear ; 1 bad. 
Each egg was marked with ink to prevent the possibility 
of mistakes. From these facts I am led to think if eggs 
were packed large end down, in thoroughly dried bran, in 
jars , and when full, paper covers pasted over the tops, could 
be kept as long as any one would have occasion to save them. 
With the large or butt-end down, the air-bubble does not 
seem to spread or expand but very little. It spreads worst 
of all in those laid upon their sides. 
I sent to a friend ( who is not a dealer ), to send me some 
eggs from his Silver-spangled Hamburg's, packed according 
to my directions, which were, “in a new box (or if a box 
previously used to see that all names of previous contents 
were removed ), top screwed on, handle, packed in cut-hay 
or bran, and four strips of old rubber-shoe on corners to 
deaden the sudden jolting. Eggs packed large end down.” 
They came and were set under turkey hens with the follow- 
ing results : 
18 eggs : 15 chicks ; 1 clear ; 2 broken. 
19 eggs: 18 chicks; 1 rotten. 
19 eggs : 14 chicks ; 1 pipped egg tramped ; 3 clear, and 1 
missing third day after sitting. 
Having four more eggs than I could put under the turkey 
hens to advantage, I placed them in the incubator — but 
with no expectation of anything from them, but was pleas- 
antly surprised by warming out three chicks, the other egg 
being clear. These eggs came four hundred miles by express, 
and arrived Saturday morning, but wore not set until the fol- 
lowing Monday evening. They were all packed, large end 
down, except five or six, which, however, hatched. 
From a dealer less than a thousand miles from Doyles- 
town, Pa., I received 27 eggs from S. P. Hamburgs, packed 
in an old dilapidated box marked (nearly obliterated, how- 
ever, by exposure to weather) Oswego starch , and for a 
handle, an old rotten piece of harness. The topwas screwed 
on with screws of various lengths and rusty. They were 
packed, 14 large end down, and 13 small end down. From 
large end down eggs, 5 chicks were hatched, 3 dead in shell, 
3 rotten, and 3 clear. Small end down, no chicks, 5 clear, 
rest musty, bad. 
From a dealer in Massachusetts, I got 49 eggs, packed 
after his style, in a box labelled “ ginger they were evi- 
dently not handled as gingerly as they should have been, for 
from the entire' number only 3 chicks came out. However, 
upon informing him of the result, he expressed his willing- 
ness to duplicate the order gratis. I was willing to accept 
the apology, and ordered them packed as I wanted them. 
In due time they came, and out of 39 set, 17 chicks were 
hatched, 5 dead in shell, rest clear. From "William P. 
Atkinson, Esq., I received a box containing 12 G. Poland 
eggs, packed in pasteboard partitions and soft hay, each egg 
being neatly wrapped in cotton. Result was, 8 chicks; 2 
dead in shell, after broken by chick, on account of hens 
