INCUBATION.

The hen manifests the desire of incubation in a manner different from

that of any other known bird. Nature having been sufficiently tasked in

one direction, she becomes feverish, and loses flesh; her comb is livid;

her eyes are dull; she bristles her feathers to intimidate an imaginary

enemy; and, as if her chickens were already around her, utters the

maternal "cluck."

When the determination to sit becomes fixed--it is not necessary to

immediately gratify the first faint inclinations--the nest which she has

selected should be well cleaned, and filled with fresh straw. The number

of eggs to be allowed will depend upon the season, and upon the size of

egg and hen. The wisest plan is not to be too greedy; the number of

chickens hatched is often in inverse proportion to the number of eggs

set--five have only been obtained from sixteen. An odd number is,

however, to be preferred, as being better adapted to covering in the

nest. Hens will, in general, well cover from eleven to thirteen eggs

laid by themselves. A bantam may be trusted with about half a dozen eggs

of a large breed, such as the Spanish. A hen of the largest size as a

Dorking, will successfully hatch, at the most, five goose-eggs.

When hens are determined to sit at seasons of the year at which there is

little chance of bringing up chickens, the eggs of ducks or geese may be

furnished her; the young may be reared, with a little painstaking, at

any time of the year. The autumnal laying of the China and of the common

goose is very valuable for this purpose. Turkey-hens frequently have

this fit of unseasonable incubation.

Where, however, it is inconvenient to gratify the desire, one or two

doses of jalap will often entirely remove it; and fowls often lay in

three weeks afterward. Some place the would-be sitter in an aviary, for

four or five days at most, and feed her but sparingly; from the

commencement of her confinement, she will gradually leave off clucking,

and when this has ceased, she may be again set free, without manifesting

the least desire to take to the nest again, and in a short time the hen

will commence laying with renewed vigor. The barbarous measures

sometimes resorted to should be frowned upon by every person with humane

feelings.

Three weeks is the period of incubation; though chickens are sometimes

excluded on the eighteenth day. When the hen does not sit close for the

first day or two, or in early spring, it will occasionally be some hours

longer; when the hen is assiduous, and the weather hot, the time will be

a trifle shorter. Chickens have been known to come out as late as the

twenty-seventh day.

It may not be uninteresting to note the changes which the egg passes

through in hatching. In _twelve hours_, traces of the head and body of

the chicken may be discerned; at the end of the _second day_, it

assumes the form of a horse-shoe, but no red blood as yet is seen; at

the _fiftieth hour_, two vesicles of blood, the rudiments of the heart,

may be distinguished, one resembling a noose folded down on itself, and

pulsating distinctly; at the end of _seventy hours_, the wings may be

seen, and, in the head, the brain and the bill, in the form of bubbles;

toward the end of the _fourth day_, the heart is more completely formed;

and on the _fifth day_, the liver is discernible; at the end of _one

hundred and thirty hours_, the first voluntary motions may be observed;

in _seven hours_ more, the lungs and stomach appear; and, _in four

hours_ after this, the intestines, the loins, and the upper jaw. At the

end of the one _hundred and forty-fourth hour_, two drops of blood are

observable in the heart, which is also further developed; and, on the

_seventh day_, the brain exhibits some consistence. At the _one hundred

and ninetieth hour_, the bill opens, and the muscular flesh appears on

the breast; in _four hours_ more, the breast bone is seen; and, in _six

hours_ afterward, the ribs may be observed forming from the back. At the

expiration of _two hundred and thirty-six hours_, the bill assumes a

green color, and, if the chicken be taken out of the egg, it will

visibly move. At _two hundred and sixty-four hours_, the eyes appear; at

_two hundred and eighty-eight hours_, the ribs are perfect; and _at

three hundred and thirty-one hours_, the spleen approaches near to the

stomach, and the lungs to the chest; at the end of _three hundred and

fifty-five hours_, the bill frequently opens and shuts. At the end of

the _eighteenth day_, the first cry of the chicken is heard; and it

gradually acquires more strength, till it is enabled to release itself

from confinement.

After the hen has set a week, the fertility of the eggs may be

satisfactorily ascertained by taking a thin board with a small orifice

in it, placing a candle at the back, and holding up each egg to the

points of light. The barren eggs may then be removed, and used,

hard-boiled, for young chickens. Some reserve this for the eleventh or

twelfth day.

About the _twenty-first day_, the chicken is excluded from the _egg_;

for the purpose of breaking the shell of which it is furnished with a

horny-pointed scale, greatly harder than the bill itself, at the upper

tip of the bill--a scale which falls off, or becomes absorbed, after the

chicken is two or three days old. The chicken is rolled up in the egg in

the form of a ball, with its forepart toward the highest end, and its

beak uppermost, the hard scale nearly touching the shell.

The first few strokes of the chicken's beak produce a small crack,

rather nearer the larger than the smaller end of the egg, and the egg is

said to be _chipped_. From the first crack, the chicken turns gradually

round, from left to right, chipping the shell as it turns, in a circular

manner, never obliquely. All do not succeed in producing the result in

the same time; some being able to complete the work within an hour, and

others taking two or three hours, while half a day is most usually

employed, and some require twenty-four hours or more, but rarely two

days. Some have greater obstacles to overcome than others, all shells

not being alike in thickness and hardness.

When chickens do not effect their escape easily, some little assistance

is needed; but the difficulty is to know when to give it, as a rash

attempt to help them, by breaking the shell, particularly in a downward

direction toward the smaller end, is often followed by a loss of blood,

which can ill be spared. It is better not to interfere, until it is

apparent that a part of the brood have been hatched for some time, say

twelve hours, and that the rest cannot succeed in making their

appearance. It will then generally be found that the whole fluid

contents of the egg, yolk and all, are taken up into the body of the

chicken, and that weakness alone has prevented its forcing itself out.

The causes of such weakness are various; sometimes, insufficient warmth,

from the hen having set on too many eggs; sometimes the original

feebleness of the vital spark; but, most frequently, the staleness of

the eggs employed for incubation.

The chances of rearing such chickens are small; but, if they survive the

first twenty-four hours, they may be considered as safe. The only thing

to be done is to take them from the hen till she is settled at night,

keeping them in the meanwhile as snug and warm as possible. If a gentle

hand can persuade a crust of bread down their throats, it will do no

harm; but all rough and clumsy manipulation will utterly defeat the end

in view. Animal heat will be their greatest restorative. At night, they

should be quietly slipped under their mother; the next morning will

disclose the sequel.

The period of incubation in the _Guinea fowl_ is twenty-eight days, or

one month; in the _pea fowl_, from twenty-seven to twenty-nine days; in

_turkeys_, a month; in _ducks_, thirty or thirty-one days; and in

_geese_, from twenty-seven to thirty days.

INCUBATION OF TURKEYS. When the turkey hen has once selected a spot for

her nest, she will continue to lay there till the time for incubation;

so that the egg may be brought home from day to day, there being no

need of a nest-egg, as with the domestic fowl. She will lay from fifteen

to twenty eggs, more or less. If there are any dead leaves or dry grass

at hand, she will cover her eggs with these; but if not, she will take

no trouble to collect them from a distance.

Her determination to sit will be known by her constantly remaining on

the nest, though it is empty; and, as it is seldom in a position

sufficiently secure against the weather or pilferers, a nest should be

prepared for her, by placing some straw, with her eggs, on the floor of

a convenient out-building. She should then be brought home, and gently

and kindly placed upon it. With the smallest varieties, thirteen eggs

will suffice; a large hen might cover more. At the end of a week, it is

usual to add some fowls' eggs; the activity of the chickens excites some

emulation in the larger brethren, and the eggs take up but little room

in the nest.

Some believe it necessary to turn the eggs once a day; but the hen

herself does that many times daily. If the eggs are marked, and their

position noticed when she leaves the nest, they will never be found in

the same order. In about four weeks, the young will be hatched.

INCUBATION OF GEESE. Geese breed in general only once a year; but, if

well kept, they sometimes hatch twice a season. During the sitting, in

sections where the most attention is paid to breeding them, each bird

has a space allotted to it, in rows of wicker-pens, placed one above

another, and the person in charge of them drives the whole flock to

water three times a day, and, bringing them back to their habitations,

places each bird in its own nest.

The most successful breeders of _Bremen geese_ adopt the following

method: The birds are, in the first place, carefully and properly fed;

the eggs are removed every day in the gentlest manner from the nest, and

placed in a basket of cotton kept in a moderate temperature, and free

from damp. When all the geese begin to sit steadily, each is furnished

with a nest composed of chopped straw; and care is taken that it is

sufficiently capacious.

Not more than one of the geese is allowed to leave the eggs at a time.

As soon as one leaves, she makes a cackling noise, which is the signal

for the attendant to shut up the boxes in which the others are sitting.

These are made somewhat like a dog-kennel, with a roof pitched both

ways; and are thirty inches long, by twenty-four wide, and twenty-four

high; the door is in the end, and is covered by a sliding panel, which

moves upward, when egress or ingress is sought, and may be shut down at

pleasure. The goose, upon returning, finds only her own box open. When

she re-enters her box, the whole of the doors are again opened, and the

same rule observed throughout the period of hatching. In this way, each

goose is kept to its own nest.