POULTRY LORE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 14

POULTRY LORE.

* ARTIFICIAL ’ V. ‘ NATURAL ' ' CHICKENS. A writer who is an authority on poultry matters asks poultry-raisers how _ chickens, hatched in an incubator, and raised in a brooder, can- possibly differ from hen-reared ones. There is no difference in the plumage and ‘ fancy points ’ of natural and artificial chickens, but as a general thing brooder-raised fowls are smaller and less stalwart than their kinsfolk from the ol -fashioned coops. When the conditions are perfect, when the chickens are hatched in an incubator with an interior uniform of temperature and plentiful of humidity, and kept quietly, in the dark, until they are strong on their legs ; when they learn at once the way to their brooder, arid never get chilled; when they have exercised, enough while feathering; they may grow into fine breeding stock, —ideal cockerels and .pullets. Such up-bringing is a successful imitaiion of a good hen, who comforts the wretched wet chickling in her downy breast until it is dry and strong, and who calls it to her when is first complains of cold, and sternly orders it home if it wanders too far in it 3 first feeble days. But, unfortunately, the other side of the story is more frequently true. As a matter of fact, there are twenty different temperatures inside of most incubators. Especially is this so of those warped and shrunken from several years; use. The germs in the eggs, exposed to those varying temperatures, are weakened and deformed. While the chicks are ‘ drying off,’ after being hatched, they ofte ri complain from the cold more than they would if under a hen, and no wonder, for they go crawling restlessly about over each other’s sticky bodie-', instead of nestling in soft feathers. Some machines, too, have absurdly light nurseries, where the baby chicks run up and down b?gging for food before they are thoroughly dry. The brooders they are afterwards moved into may be good in their way, but have not the power to call their wandering children home, and the amazing stupidity of some little chickens will cause them to stand screaming with bewilderment and cold when there is a shelter a foot' away from them, heated to ninety-five degrees. The brooders are, however, ofteri not at ail good in their way. Not to mention the great errors of overcrowding and dirt, they, are often so hot as to cause faintness in the chicks, and to stunt the growth of those they do not kill. Incubators are indispensable now. The vast majority of hens refuse to sit in time to supply a most remunerative demand, and our brooderhouses make us independent of Dame Partlet as far as the market is concerned ; but unless we rely on her for breeding stock our poultry may sadly deteriorate.—American Agriculturist.