RAISING POULTRY WITH INCUBATORS AND BROODERS. BY CHARLES LIPPINCOTT, CINNAMINSON, N. J. When it is remembered that the soil and climate of New Jersey are well adapted to poultry; that by location we have the two best markets of the country, Philadelphia and New York, on either side of us, with ample and cheap transportation thereto, and, also, that our poultry, owing to quality, always commands the very best prices in these markets, it should be our aim to pursue that method of raising it which is not only the most profitable, but, also, the least trouble and the most reliable. Having made poultry raising by artificial means a subject of study as well as of careful experiment, I find it entirely reliable, practical and lucrative, and believe it destined to supersede the method now generally pursued. Until within a few years, the idea of hatching eggs by any other than the natural method has been ridiculed as the visionary notion of some over-sanguine inventor, whose device or incubator would not give sufficiently successful results to become of any use to the community at large. Hatchers under the names of "eccaleobions," "potolokians" and "incubators" have been invented and used with varying success in this country for more than forty years, and in England and France they have been used for more than a century. The earliest record we have of hatching eggs artificially is that of Heroditus, in his reference to the Egyptian method of using ovens, written about 450 years before the Christian era. Subsequent ancient writers also refer to them, but it is not until A. D. 1494, nearly 2,000 years after, that we find any intelligent account of their construction. In that year, Alphonse II., King of Naples, con structed an Egyptian incubator, and during the same year the Duke of Florence secured the services of an Egyptian who was skilled in the art, and made an incubator after the Egyptian pattern, but neither of them was successful, owing to the difference of climate between the two countries. According to the early descriptions, these ovens were built of mud, or adobe, and consisted of two parallel rows of ovens and cells for fire, divided by a narrow vaulted passage. They were constructed under ground, and connected with the outer air by a long ceiled passage so as to avoid cold drafts. The material used for heating them was called gelleh-dung collected and dried-which was kept smouldering slowly in the fire chambers above the eggs, moisture being supplied in troughs made of mud which encircle the eggs. The climate of Egypt is particularly suited for this method, being almost uniform in temperature. Those who followed the business were bred to it from childhood, then, as well as at the present day, and the attendants literally live in them during their operation. At the present time, egg-hatching is carried on very extensively during the months of April, May and June, the eggs being supplied by the peasantry. Two systems of purchase are in vogue; under one, the hatcher buys the eggs; under the other, the owner leaves them with the hatcher at his own risk, the latter agreeing to return one chick for every two eggs. According to statistics, the business is still one of large national importance, as there are 204 establishments for the hatching of fowls' eggs, hatching annually about 17,500,000 eggs. In China, artificial hatching has been practiced for centuries, and probably as long as in Egypt. Some of the accounts concerning their method of incubation seem hardly credible, and, although probably describing what was seen by the narrators, there were some very important points kept from their knowledge. In Minturn's Travels will be found the following: "On our return from the gardens we stopped at an egg-hatching establishment. This was a large, wooden, barn-shaped building on the river bank. The eggs are purchased out of the produce boats that come down the river, and are here artificially hatched. The process employed is singular, using only the natural heat of the egg, and is as follows: Large baskets, each twice the size of an ordinary barrel, and thickly lined with hay to prevent the loss of heat, are filled with the eggs, and carefully closed with a closely-fitting cover of twisted straw. The eggs are now left for three days, after which they are removed from the basket and replaced in different order-those eggs which were before on the surface being now on the lowest tier. At the end of three days more, the position of the eggs is again altered, and so on for fifteen days, after which time the eggs are taken out of the basket and placed on shelves in another apartment, and covered with bran. In the course of a few days the chicken bursts its shell and makes its way out of the bran, being at once taken charge of by an attendant, who is always on the watch. The whole secret of the process is in the fact that the animal heat of the whole mass of eggs being retained by the basket, which is formed of materials that do not conduct caloric, is sufficient to support the animal life of any one particular egg, and to foster its development." Another traveler in China, in describing the hatching of duck eggs in a hatching-house, states that round baskets, made of straw, and well plastered with mud, are placed along the ends, and down the sides of a long shed, having mud walls, thickly thatched with straw. These baskets have tile bottoms, and are placed over small fireplaces. Each basket has a straw cover which is kept closed after the eggs are in, and the fire started, and a uniform heat being kept up, ranging, as nearly as could be determined, at from ninety-five to 102 degrees, without the aid of a thermometer, as the Chinamen regulate the heat by their own feelings. After four or five days, the eggs are carefully taken out to a door containing a number of holes, which have been bored nearly the size of the eggs, and the Chinese hold them against these holes and look through them towards the sun, and are thus able to tell whether the chick has begun to grow. If the germ has not started, the egg, being transparent, is laid aside as worthless for hatching, and only the eggs which are beginning to look dark are returned to the baskets, subjected to the same heat for ten or twelve days more, when they are spread on shelves, covered with cotton and a blanket, under which they remain until the young ducks burst their shells and the shed teems with life. It is exceedingly improbable that any process so directly antagonistic to the natural system could be successfully carried out, hence I am led to believe that a very important part of the hatching process was not shown, as there must have been some unseen means of keeping the eggs sufficiently warm, heat being absolutely necessary to develop life as well as to sustain it. |