OUR POULTRY COLUMN.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1034, 17 May 1902, Page 4

OUR POULTRY COLUMN.

(By Fancier.)

EGOS FOB THE IKCCIIATOB. In selecting eggs lor the incubator it is important that the; should be as uniform in size and shape as possible. Bound and very pointed eggs should be rejeoted. See that you get the eggs ot all one olass if possible, by which is meant all Asiatics or Mediterraneans. It has been proved that the eggs hatch better it the classes are batched separately; of course, if the eggs are bought anywhere and anyhow, it is well nigh impossible to make this selection. Next see that the eggs are clean. lacubator operators little realise how many eggs fail to hatch on account of dirt. Surely hay or straw is cheap enough to put in the laying shed. If any dirt is found on the eggs take a damp sponge or cloth (blood-heat) and lightly wipe them clean, and dry as quickly ae possible. Place the eggs carefully on the tray and slide it into the machine. The temperature of tho egg chamber will fall very quickly to that of the atmosphere outside the incubator. Do not become alarmed at this. In about three or four hours the thermometer will register about 102. Let it stand at this for a couple of days, and then you will notice that it -vill gradually rise to 103 as the animal heat rises. Do not let it go over 103. Should it be found that it is 105 or even more take the egg tray out at once and open the door of the machine. Now take a cloth rung out in blood-heat water and spread evenly over the eggs. If warm weather you might leave th'j eggs out for some time; if in winter only a short time, sny 15 minutes. It will be found that the cloth becomes dry very quickly. When this is so remove it from the eggs. The temperature should be about 103 for the first half of the batch, and then reduced to 102 for the balance of the time. One hundred and four or even 105 may be allright for the " top-heat" machine, but remember you are at the limit of safety, and to go beyond that you are courting failure. Now, although it is possible to hatch your chickens at a temperature which may be constantly varying from DO to 110 degrees, do not overlook the fact that the chickens will not be strong and vigorous, and, indeed, will never pay for the rearing. There is certainly a cause for this, which is that the over-heating destroys the red corpuscles of tho blood. The vitality of the blood is so damaged that if the chicks do recover it is very slowly. The germs are easiest injured at the start. After the tenth d&y a degree of heat may be sustained for some hours which would kill all the germs on the first or second day. The deaths might not be immediate, but you would have many dead in the shell. See therefore that special attention be given to heat at the start. It has been found better to take 24 or even 48 hours to get the eggs to the proper heat than to get the egg chamber too hot at the start so as to huriy things up generally. Many failures have resulted from this cause. Remember, then, that the younger the germs the less heat (abovo what is proper) they will stand. TURNING THE EQQB

has been more discussed' than perhaps the moisture question, and perhaps none less understood. If the structure of the egg be studied, we find the reason why the turning is so neccssaiy. There are two reasons why the egg must not be left in the one position. First, the contents will " settle." Merely moving the eggs several times will in a measure prevent this, though not always so. Second, and more important still, if the contents settle to one side the blood vessels will grow fast to the shell, with the result that the chick is confined closo up to the wall of the egg. The blood vessels have been too short. The writer and others have carried on experiments in egg-turning thus—--100 have been taken and allowed to lie perfectly still. In seven days' time some were broken, and all those broken were found to be in the same condition, viz., that the area or circle to which the chick was confined was very limited; in 10 days a lot more wore broken and examined, and the area or circle was still more circumscribed, and could be covered with a three-penny piece ; in 12 days the blood vessels were found to be on the upper side only, and the eyes of the chick close up against the shell. After the tenth day it was proved that no amount of turning would remedy this. To turn the eggs at the proper time causes the blood vessels to grow and lengthen out, so that the chick is free to move about, turn round, and grow properly. Experiments have been conducted thus: A nest constructed with felt sid>s and a glass bottom was placed in such a position that it could be viewed from the underside, and drawings made. Twelve eggs were placed in it, and each egg marked on four different places, each mark placed equally distant upart, and abjut midway from the two endp. So that no confusion c»uld bo encountered the numbers were all different, as 11, 21, :Sl, 42; i\o. 2 egg was marked 12, 22, 33, 12 ; No. 3 egg, 13, 23, 33, 13, and so on through all the 12 eggs. During the period of incubation sketches and records were taken regularly every three hours. The eggs, it seems, when under the ben are moved much more often than one supposes; and in this experiment the eggs were turned completely over twice or more every 21 hours. Dareste, in 1885, placed 10 eggs, under the same conditions as if under a hen, in an incubator. Eight egg 3 were turned twice daily, and the others were left unmoved. In the lirst set, which were turned, six hatched, and gave strong chickens; one was alive on the 22nd day and showed normal conditions; the eighth was dead in the shell, caused by the adhesion of the allantois and yolk preventing absorption. Of the latter, eight, which were left unmoved, no absorption took place, and all died in the second and third week. Further experiments were undertaken to obtain information regarding the effects of turning on thejdeveloping embryo. One hundred eggs were placed in an incubator; the eggs were selected from the same lot of fowls; division was made into four groups; group one was left unmoved ; group two was turned twice daily; group three, three times daily; and tho fourth group was turned four times each day. Group one gave on the sixth day five infertile eggs and eight dead ombryos, six of which had grown fast to the membrane just under the shell; on tho twelfth day five more dead embryos were removed, four of which were found to hava the allantois grown fast to the shell. Out of the 25 eggs, five were dead in the shell and two hatched into weakly chickens not worth raising from a a commercial standpoint. The number hatched was 10 per cent, of the infertile eggs. In group two there were three infertile eggs, and one dead embryo on the sixth day; four more dead embryos on the twelfth day. The remainder gave ten chicks and seven dead in the shell. Group three gave six infertile e 6S s > eleven hatched, th.ee died after pipping, and live died in the shell. Group four gave five infertile eggs on the sixth day, and of the remainder all hatched save two, which were dead in the shell. The experience of the writer leads him to advise the turning of alt incubator eggs from the second day, and continue till the day of pipping.