Hatching Eggs in London.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 35, 8 May 1917, Page 2

Hatching Eggs in London.

INTERESTING ITEMS ABOUT THE DAY-OLD CHICK BUSINESS. When you see on railway stations those little cardboard boxes with the words “Live Chicks” printed on the top, you probably conjure in yo'ur mind acres of grassy laud as the birthplace of their inmates. Yet, in hundreds of cases, the tiny creatures first saw daylight'in a top back room somewhere in the heart of a great town !

In appropriate papers you can see advertisements carrying addresses which cannot possibly possess rural aspects, and yet these firms offer live chicks of all varieties in dozens, hundreds, and sometimes in thousands ! And, mark you, there is no swindling in the transactions, for the birds are rattling good specimens, and have been known, on occasion, to win prizes for their owners.

There is really no secret about the business of the chick expert who works at home. All that he requires are incubators, some cardboard boxes a little food, and—the railway man ! Many of the concerns now doing big business in hatching and selling chicks started in quite a small way, with a capital of a few pounds or so, and treated the venture merely as a spare-time occupation. I remember one man who bought a 100-egg incubator of a Standard make and ran it in an odd room at his house. He bought the eggs from various farms, his orders at first being for one variety' only. Just before the hatch was due he inserted small announcements in a couple of papers offering chicks at from 6s. to 10s. per dozen, according to their quality and age. Out of a batch of 83 chicks he sold 72, the remaining 11 being disposed of at a slightly-reduced rate to a man who carried on a much larger trade and had a quicker sale. The incubator was re-started, and in three weeks the advertisements were renewed j ■ and so things, with various additions, have been progressing ever since. ■ The methods of the day-old chick specialist are more instructive, and there is a certain fascination about the whole job which attracts even those who dislike other home sidelines.

The main idea of the expert who conducts 'things from his house is to sell his birds at the earliest moment after they are hatched. Every day’s delay means extra food, and of course, any lengthy delay would make the business impossible. Boom-hatch-ing in any quantity can only exist with quick sale. I have seen tiny creatures, scarcely able to walk steadily, packed snugly in a stout cardboard box, and sent on a long journey. It seems marvellous how they survive the ordeal, although one wisehead has declared that the railway porters, being mostly poultry-lovers themselves, handle the boxes with more care than they would otherwise do. This may be so. at any rate, I have seen hundreds of chicks arrive at their destinations as lively as when they left their town residences !"

Sometimes, particularly during very cold weather, the chicks will arrive just as if they are dead, but an hour’s warming by the fire will make them as hungry as schoolboys ! Of course, deaths will occur through accidents, exposure, etc., but these specimens are always replaced by the vendor. When a large business is done, and many varieties hatched, a system of careful grading has to be employed. If you remember that some experts have machines hatching, collectively, many thousands of eggs, the confusion that would result with slipshod methods can be imagined. American people know a thing or two about the day-old chick business, and their advertisements are always instructive to peruse. One man claimed to despatch ten thousand chicks per day, and his workrooms consisted merely of one gigantic shed fitted with colossal machines. Many of the largest American incubators are worked by electricity, and some are made in sections, to be added to as required. Wonderful as are these hatching machines, they can’t produce the eggs. The dear old hen still plays trumps.