OUR POULTRY COLUMN.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1037, 24 May 1902, Page 4

OUR POULTRY COLUMN.

(By Fancier.) coouko the k0(1s.

It is necessary to cool the eggs after tbo sixth day to allow thorn to get free from carbon-dioxide. This cooling condenses the air in the eggs and draws a fresh supply of oxygen through the pores of the shell for the needs of the chicks. The time to be taken in cooling must depend upon tho degree of heat of the atmosphere, as, less in winter and more in summer. The writer has left his eggs cooling so long that it has takeu six to eight hours for them to regain their coriect temperature, but the eggs should never bo allowed to get below eighty degrees. Cooling the eggs will produce better and stronger chicks, and more of them. MOISTURE. It is an impossibility to get, so far, in any incubator an exactly even temperature in all parts of the egg troy, and the only way to get the chicks to hatch out evenly is to move the outside eggs occasionally neat to the midle and rice rerta. It the eggs are of equal vitality and of the same age and the heat quite uniform, they would hatch out on the same day. As an illustration it will be found that the correct average size of the air cell on the sth, 10th, 15th, and 10th days, is the best guide for moisure and ventilation. Now, the air cell must be watched attentively, and if the eggs have not .dried down at the proper rate, cither greater ventilation should be given or tho eggs must be cooled for a longer time. If the air cell be allowed to dry down too much it will be found that the addition of moisture in any form will not restore the egg to its proper and natural condition. That which is evaporated from the egg is not all water, just as in the case of fruit or any grasses, as clover or alfalfa, which have been dried down. Now no addition of moisture will restore the natural taste and make it the same as when freshly taken from the tree or field. That which went with tho water in the case of the fruit is analagous to that which has evaporated with the water in the egg. In the case of tho egg you can by using moisture bring it to that condition again which will make it hatch out nil right, but they will not be the same chicks in strength or size as they would have been had the cells be kept the proper sizo. The loss of vitality to the chick is in that exact proportion to tho drying out over the natural amount required, which has been allowed. It is to the white of the egg that the growth of the chick is confined, and as proof we find that on the l'Jth day, when they start to pip, no yoke has been used up in tho process of development, but it is absorbed after the chicks have pipped the shell. The volatile parts of the albumen or white of tho egg are absolutely necessary to tho proper growth of the chick, and by taking away those parts it robs the chick of its vitality. On the other hand, if the egg has not been dried down sufficiently the moisture will be too great, and either the chick will be drowned in the shell or, if it does hatch, it will be of abnormal sine, Being composed l.irgely of water. In a couple of days the Eu;tr.ibundame of water in the chick will evaporate and the chick itidf will become very much smaller than when it left the shell. The incubator giving the best results is the one in which the moisture is supplied automatically or naturally, and not through the medium of water pans or trays. If the incubator be located in a cellar, cave, or underground place my experience teaches that no moisture is necessary, exept perhaps a very little at hatching time when the nir has been very dry. A good way for the beginner to become thoroughly acquainted with the drying down question—moisture, ventilation, etc.—is to set a couple of quiet hens at the same time as the machine is started, and test the eggs from the hens at the same time as those in the incubator are tested. A comparison can thus be made, and the exact thing arrived at, for no set rules can be given for the application of moisture. Every incubator operator must study it out for himself, according to the location of his machine and climatic conditions, Study it carefully, and your success each year, nil things being equal, such as properly fertilised eggs, etc., will increase. The Peerless incubator and also the Cypher do not requite the addition ot moisture fur hen eggs. The l'eorless duck machines require some at special times, viz., in very hot weather, etc. Much discussion has lean aroused in America over the question of supplying moisure during i;i-i/ hot weather. Many contending that while the hot weather continues the perspiration from the hen supplies the amount needed, and so some moisture should be used in the incubator. The writer has found that in the two machines named it is better to take a watering can and nearly saturate the earth lloor undor the machine, or if the incubator stands on a wooden lloor place a sack or two evenly under the machine and saturate with water, but this is required only in very hot weather.