Eggs for hatching should be as fresh as possible; if laid the very same
day, so much the better. This is not always possible when a particular
stock is required; but, if a numerous and healthy brood is all that is
wanted, the most recent eggs should be selected. Eggs may be kept for
this purpose in either of the ways first mentioned; or they may be
placed on their points in a box, in a cool, dry place; the temperature
about sixty or sixty-five, Fahrenheit; the bottom of the box should be
covered with a layer of wheat bran, then a layer of eggs put in, and
covered with bran; and so on, alternating. In this mode, evaporation is
prevented, and the eggs are almost as certain to hatch out, at the end
of six weeks, or even two months, as when they were laid.
It is difficult to fix the exact term during which the vitality of an
egg remains unextinguished; as it, unquestionably, varies from the very
first, according to the vigor of the parents of the inclosed germ, and
fades away gradually till the final moment of non-existence. The
chickens in stale eggs have not sufficient strength to extricate
themselves from the shell; if assisted, the yolk is found to be
partially absorbed into the abdomen, or not at all; they are too faint
to stand; the muscles of the neck are unable to lift their heads, much
less to peck; and although they may sometimes be saved by extreme care,
their usual fate is to be trampled to death by the mother, if they do
not expire almost as soon as they begin to draw their breath.
Thick-shelled eggs, like those of geese, Guinea fowls, etc., will retain
life longer than thin-shelled ones, as those of hens and ducks. When
choice eggs are expected to be laid, it is more prudent to have the hen
which is to sit upon them wait for them, than to keep other eggs waiting
for her. A good sitter may be amused for two or three weeks with a few
addle-eggs, and so be ready to take charge of those of value immediately
upon their arrival.
As to the choice of eggs for hatching, such should be taken, of course,
as are believed to have been rendered productive. Those of medium
size--the average size that the hen lays--are most apt to fulfil this
requirement. A very fair judgment may be formed of eggs from their
specific gravity; such as do not sink to the bottom in a bowl of tepid
water should be rejected.
The old-time notion, that small, round eggs produce females, and long,
pointed ones males--originally applied, by the ancients, to eating
rather than hatching purposes--may be considered exploded. The hen that
lays one round egg, continues to lay all her eggs round; and the hen
that lays one oblong, lays all oblong. According to this theory, then,
one hen would be the perpetual mother of cocks, and another the
perpetual producer of pullets; which is absurd, as daily experience
proves.
The same fate has been meted out to that other venerable test of sex,
the position of the air-bag at the blunt end of the shell. "If the
vacancy is a little on one side, it will produce a hen; if it is exactly
in the centre, a cock." Upon this assumption, the cock should be a very
rare bird; since there are very few eggs indeed in which the air bottle
is exactly concentric with the axis of the egg. In many breeds, on the
contrary, the cockerels bear a proportion of at least one-third, and
sometimes two-thirds, especially in those hatched during winter, or in
unfavorable seasons; the immediate cause, doubtless, being that the eggs
producing a more robust sex possess a stronger vitality.
Nor are these two alleged tests--the shape of the egg, and the position
of the air-tube--consistent with each other; for, if the round egg
produces a pullet, and an egg with the air-bag a little on one side does
the same, then all round eggs should have the air bag in that position,
or one test contradicts the other; and the same argument applies to the
long or oval egg. The examination of a few eggs by the light of a candle
will satisfy any one that the position of the air-bag differs as much
in a long egg as it does in a round.
There are, indeed, no known means of determining beforehand the sex of
fowl; except, perhaps, that cocks may be more likely to issue from large
eggs, and hens from small ones. As, however, the egg of each hen may be
recognized, the means are accessible of propagating from those parents
whose race it is judged most desirable to continue.