experiments made during the last twenty years, but shall aim to give
the reader simple instructions for hatching and growing ducks for market
and selection of breeding stock. I would say here that the first thing
for the operator to learn in turning the eggs is to do it carefully and
well, without breaking or unnecessarily jarring them; and then, to do it
as quickly as possible, especially if done in a cold atmosphere, so as
not to derange the heat in the egg-chamber. The next thing is to
maintain as even a temperature as possible during the hatch. I do not
think that a variation of one degree is at all detrimental. But
different people have different ideas of regularity. A man who did not
have a first-class hatch, wrote me that he had kept the machine right to
business, as it had run between 90 and 110 degrees during the entire
hatch. Another man wrote that his machine had been as low as 100
degrees, and once up to 103 degrees, and wishing to know if I thought it
would be fatal to his hatch.
There is no such thing as accuracy in the composition of some men,
things are run "hap-hazard," failure and misfortune are always
attributed to conditions, circumstances, or hard luck,--never to
themselves,--and in case of a poor hatch, always the incubator.
Instructions go for nothing with them. An enterprising incubator maker
told me one day that he believed that the world was composed of cranks
and fools (at least the poultry part of it). The one-half did not know
anything, while the other half had all that was worth knowing and
despised all instructions and common-sense.
In running your machine, the first step is to set it level and see that
the glasses register alike in both ends of the machine. Next, procure
good oil, 150 test (as poor oil will necessitate frequent trimming,
besides crusting the wick). Do not use more flame than is necessary, as
it will only be a waste of oil, and with some machines will increase
the ventilation, and at the same time decrease the moisture. Be regular
in both filling lamps and trimming them, as irregularity frequently
involves forgetfulness, and that sometimes means disaster to the hatch.
In trimming, it is well to turn on the same amount of flame in
relighting your lamp as it had previously.
In the Monarch Incubator this required amount can readily be seen at
once by the action of the regulating bar. It informs the operator just
when he has enough,--when too much and when too little. Keep both lamps
and chimneys clean, and have stated periods for turning your eggs, which
should be done twice each day. As I said before, an egg-tester is not
required with duck eggs, as they are so transparent that the whole
process can be plainly seen without in the flame of a common kerosene
lamp. If a duck egg is carefully examined, after being subjected to a
heat of 102 degrees for twenty-four hours, a small dark spot will be
seen about the size of a large pin-head. This little spot, if the egg is
gradually turned, will always float over the upper surface of the egg.
This is the life germ, and the first indication of fertility in the egg,
and is represented in Figure 1.
[Illustration: FIGURE 1.--SHOWING FIRST INDICATION OF FERTILITY.]
At the end of forty-eight hours this dark spot will have nearly doubled
its size, and a faint haze will appear around its edges a shade darker
than the surrounding contents of the egg. This haze is the first
appearance of the blood veins radiating out from the germ.
Figure 2 shows how the egg appears at this stage with the air-cell
slightly enlarged.
[Illustration: FIGURE 2.--EGG AT END OF 48 HOURS.]
At the end of the third day the dark spot, which is the heart of the
embryo duck, can still be seen; but not so distinctly, because a dark
circle some three-quarters of an inch in diameter will now appear in the
upper surface of the egg, in the centre of which the dark spot is
visible. This circle is several shades darker than the rest of the egg,
and no matter how the egg is turned will always float in its upper
surface.
Figure 3 represents the egg at this stage, with its enlarged air-cell.
Figure 4 represents the egg as it appears at the end of the fourth day.
The circle surrounding and inclosing the germ will have nearly doubled
in size, and is of a still darker hue; indeed, the whole contents of the
egg is perceptibly darkened. If the egg is broken carefully at this date
a delicate tracery of veins will be found to have enveloped the entire
yolk of the egg, all originating from the centre or heart of the embryo;
the pulsations of which (if the shell is removed) can now be plainly
seen with the naked eye. This net work of veins cannot be plainly seen
with a common lamp, but with a powerful glass are very distinct. This
latter is not at all necessary in testing the egg.
[Illustration: FIGURE 3.--EGG AT END OF 72 HOURS.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 4.--EGG AT END OF 96 HOURS.]
The discovery and locations of the minute organisms may be interesting
to the scientist, but not at all necessary to the operator, who simply
wants to be assured of the life and health of the germ. This he can
readily determine from the increased size and gradual development of the
circle; it, and the contents of the egg, now assume a darker shade. Up
to this time I use no moisture, and the contents of the eggs have
gradually evaporated and the air-cell proportionately enlarged. This
air-cell is slightly enlarged till the tenth day, when no further
evaporation should take place. About three days before hatching the
rapidly developing duck will gradually diminish the size of the
air-cell, leaving himself just room enough to work out.
Nature, in the case of the old hen, provides for her own contingencies,
while we must resort to art to obtain the same conditions.
While incubating under the hen during the first few days, the egg
evaporates rapidly. Then the pores gradually become coated with an oily
secretion from the feathers of the hen until evaporation ceases. Now, we
cannot successfully fill the pores of the eggs, it is too delicate an
operation to attempt; but we can easily obtain the same conditions in
another way, and that is to prevent the further evaporation of the egg
by vaporizing water in the egg-chamber, so that evaporation will not
take place. Exactly when this should be done is already known, but
exactly how much is quite another thing, and depends largely upon the
conditions of the atmosphere outside. The point is this: the humidity
inside the egg-chamber must be the same, whatever the conditions are
outside.
If your machine is in a warm, dry room, heated by a fire, far more
evaporating surface will be required than in a cool, dry cellar, for the
reason that water vaporizes just in proportion to its heat; and as the
circulating pipes upon which the water-pans rest must necessarily be
much warmer in a cold room than in a warm one, of course more surface
must be exposed in a warm than in a cold one. The operator will always
have to use his judgment more or less in that. It may perplex the novice
somewhat, but it is easily understood when one becomes accustomed to it.
As a rule, in our machines, we introduce one moisture pan about the 18th
day for both duck's and hen's eggs. It makes some difference whether a
machine is run in a humid atmosphere near the seashore or in a dry,
rarified atmosphere at an altitude in the country.
Figure 5 represents the egg at the end of the fifth day, the circle
enlarged, shaded darker in color; the whole egg being slightly darker in
hue.
[Illustration: FIGURE 5.--EGG AT END OF 120 HOURS.]
Figure 6, at the end of the sixth day, shows still more plainly the germ
undergoing a gradual change in the egg, enlarging and assuming a darker
hue. The outline of the circle is now gradually acquiring the form of an
ellipse, and in a live embryo the line of demarkation should be
distinct. If it is at all wavy and irregular in its outline, and
instead, remaining intact, the contents of this ellipse show a
disposition to assimilate with the surrounding liquids when the egg is
revolved, it can be safely removed as a dead duck.
[Illustration: FIGURE 6.--EGG AT END OF 144 HOURS.]
Figure 7 represents a dead embryo, as it will appear from the seventh to
the twelfth day. The germ being separated and appearing in dark
irregular blotches over the entire surface of the egg; the egg having
become nearly opaque over its entire surface. At this stage the egg, if
it has not already become so, will soon be very offensive. These should
be removed at once and handled carefully the while, as they are apt to
explode and unpleasant consequences ensue. The operator should run no
risks, as discoloration on the outside shell of a duck egg is a sure
sign of decay, and they can safely be taken from the machine. There are
always a certain number of duck eggs (especially during the month of
August and the latter part of July) that have the appearance of
fertility during the first three or four days of the hatch, but do not
possess vitality enough to carry them through. These die at all stages
of the hatch; neither operator nor machine is responsible for them. This
is caused by the condition of the mother bird.
[Illustration: FIGURE 7.--A DEAD EMBRYO.]
In order to economize the room thus made by the removal of the fertile
eggs, I run a small 150-egg machine, in connection with twenty-one of
the largest size, using it, as it were, as a tender. When filling one of
the larger machines, I always fill one tray in the smaller one so that
when the eggs in the large one are tested, after the third day, there
will usually be eggs enough in the small tray to replace those removed
as infertile, so that the large machines are kept full during the entire
hatch by the little one. Thus the small machine is made to accomplish
far more than it would were it run through the hatch. I am thus enabled
to have a hatch come off nearly every day, consequently our eggs are
never older than that when introduced into the machine. Always date
each day's quota of eggs--keep them by themselves, then there will be no
mistakes made. I have known parties to keep one general receptacle for
their eggs, and when filling their machine take them from the top, while
the bottom ones were never disturbed, not even turned, and of course
soon became worthless for any purpose.
Figure 8 denotes the appearance of the egg during the eighth day of
incubation. If portions of the shell are carefully removed at this
stage, the rudimentary intestines may be plainly seen, together with the
gradual development of the beak and eyes, as well as the trembling of
the pulsating arteries through the whole embryo.
[Illustration: FIGURE 8.--EGG AFTER 192 HOURS.]
At this stage the operator should mark all doubtful eggs and return them
to the machine, as he will find plenty of room there. He will soon
become expert, and can detect life and death in the germ at a glance.
Experience alone will give the operator an insight into this business.
The incipient stages of decay, though easily detected by the expert,
cannot be intelligently described by him. The application of a little
heat for the short space of twenty days to an inert mass, developing it
into active, intelligent life, is simply wonderful. The process and
effect he can easily describe, but the procreative power behind it all
is beyond his ken. Should a little duckling be taken from the shell on
the thirteenth or fourteenth day it will resemble Figure 9. It will kick
and struggle several moments after its removal. The yolk is not yet
absorbed, but the process is just beginning and will continue until the
twenty-fourth day, when it will be nearly absorbed. The egg, from the
fourteenth day rapidly assumes a darker hue.
[Illustration: FIGURE 9.]
The extremities of the little bird gradually develop, the feathers grow,
and at the twentieth day the egg is opaque. At this stage the embryo
will endure greater extremes of heat or cold than at the earlier stage
of the hatch. I should not advise the operator to presume upon this,
however, but just make the conditions as favorable as he can, so that
the little bird will have the strength to free himself from the shell. I
need not say that this is the most critical time during the whole
process, and matters should be made as favorable for the little duckling
as possible. About the twenty-fourth day he will be already to break the
shell, but, unlike the chick, who will make his way out of the shell a
few hours after he has pipped, the duckling will lay for forty-eight
hours before he is ready to come out. At this time there should be
plenty of moisture in the egg-chamber, for should the orifice or broken
parts become dry, and the little duckling, in consequence, be attached
to the inside lining so that he cannot turn, he can never get out
without help.
[Illustration: FIGURE 10.]
When the hatch is well underway a little more air should be allowed to
circulate in the egg-chamber, and a part of the evaporating surface can
be removed, for as each duckling makes its appearance he becomes a
little sponge, until dried off, and furnishes plenty of moisture for the
machine. When nearly dried off the duckling should be dropped into the
nursery below the egg-trays. While hatching, the eggs should be kept
pipped side up in the trays, as the birds sometimes get smothered when
the orifice is underneath. The dry birds should be dropped below about
once in four hours, for, if allowed to accumulate, they will roll the
egg upside down, crowd the egg-shells over the pipped eggs, or pile
themselves over the egg, smothering the young birds.
This work should be done very quickly, so as not to derange the
temperature of the machine. Be sure to keep the heat up in your machine,
for its tendency is always to go down during hatching, for the reason
that the egg radiates a great deal of heat, while the little duckling,
with its woolly covering (which is a non-conductor), retains it. Many
people advocate allowing the little fledglings to remain with the eggs
until all are hatched, but this is all wrong, not only for the above
reasons, but for one which is far more important than either.
The amount of heat requisite to hatch the eggs is too much for the young
birds already hatched and dried off. With chamber at 102 degrees, they
will be seen crowding around the sides of machine with their little
bills wide open, gasping for breath, when, had they been placed below,
the proper temperature can be maintained in both, as the bottom of
machine runs at least five degrees lower than the egg-trays.
Be sure and Follow Instructions.
Another fertile source of trouble is removing ducklings from machine,
putting them behind the stove, or somewhere else to dry off. For every
fifteen birds removed, the heat in egg-chamber is reduced at least one
degree, as you are removing so many little stoves, and if the machine is
not gauged higher, to correspond with the number of ducklings taken out,
the result will be fatal to the unhatched eggs.
I corresponded a whole summer with one man on this very point before I
found out what he was doing. He said he had never been able to get out
more than fifty per cent. of fertile eggs. His machine ran splendidly
until his chicks were about half hatched, when it would drop down to 90
degrees, and the rest would die in the shell, after they were nearly all
pipped. At last a letter came from him stating that he had just had a
worse experience than ever. He had a most promising hatch of three
hundred fertile eggs, nearly all of which were pipped, and that, after a
little more than half were hatched, he took them out as usual, about one
hundred and fifty in number, and put them behind the stove to dry off,
and his machine dropped to 90 degrees at once, and not another chick
came out. The cat was out of the bag.
I wrote him at once that for every fifteen chicks he had taken out he
had taken one degree of heat from his machine, and had he followed
instructions he would not have suffered loss. He wrote back that he had
shut up his machine for the season, but that he should run it one more
hatch just to prove that I was wrong. At the end of three weeks a letter
was received saying, "I tender you my hat. I got a splendid hatch of
88-1/2 per cent." Proving that occasionally there is danger of the
operator knowing too much. After the ducklings are all out, the
egg-trays should be removed, the valves opened, and the machine cooled
down to 90 degrees, and the birds allowed to remain in the machine for
at least twenty-four hours. I always cover the bottom of machine with an
inch of fine wheat-bran, otherwise the ducklings would soon make it
filthy and offensive. This acts both as absorbent and disinfectant.
After each hatch there will be more or less fertile eggs left in the
trays with dead ducklings in them. There will be, comparatively, but few
of these in the spring of the year, but during the latter part of the
summer there will be more of them, and many of the eggs will have but
little vitality in them.
Forcing the Bird Reduces the Vitality of the Egg.
The reason is this: the bird in its natural condition does not produce
her eggs in our climate until April. She will lay twenty-five to thirty
eggs, then show a desire to incubate, then will recuperate, and set a
second time, perhaps giving a total of thirty-five or forty eggs. Now,
we have completely reversed nature in this respect. By judicious
feeding, good care, warm quarters, and careful breeding, we have induced
the bird to produce her eggs in winter instead of summer, and, not only
that, we compel her to lay three or four times as many of them; and when
the poor bird shows a desire to incubate and recuperate her exhausted
frame, we induce a change of mind, as soon as possible, and set her at
it again.
As a natural consequence, as the warm season advances many of the birds
are off duty, as it were, and the eggs not only decrease in numbers but
in size as well, and during the extreme heat of summer, the later part
of July and August especially, the eggs show a decided want of vitality.
I never expect, at this season, to realize more than one duckling from
two eggs. The same machine full of eggs that would give a hatch of 350
ducklings in the early spring, at this season will not give more than
175 to 200. The eggs appear to be as well fertilized during the first
two or three days as in the early spring but evidently there is not
vitality enough to carry them through, as the germs soon begin to die,
and before the hatch is out you have taken nearly one-half of the eggs
away as worthless. Nor is this all.
There is always a far greater mortality among the later hatched
birds than in those got out earlier. They are more uneven in
appearance, and never attain the size of those hatched earlier in the
season,--convincing evidence that the old birds have transmitted their
enfeebled, debilitated constitutions through the egg to the young ones.
The natural laws of cause and effect are plainly represented here. I
have tried repeatedly to overcome this difficulty by changing the feed
and quarters of the old birds, dividing their numbers, but without
effect. This shows the absolute necessity of selecting large, vigorous
breeding stock. This principle applies equally to both land and water
fowl.
The Absolute Necessity of Good Breeding Stock.
Debilitated, degenerate stock will not produce healthy and vigorous
young. This is a prime cause of failure with many of our poultry
breeders. They say that they cannot afford to breed from their
early-hatched stock. They are worth too much in the market, so they are
sent to the shambles, and their owners breed from the later-hatched,
inferior birds. A few years practice of this kind soon degenerates the
stock so that you will hardly recognize the original in it, and both
birds and eggs are not only thus, but a very small per cent. of those
eggs can be induced to hatch, and no amount of petting and coaxing can
induce those that are hatched to live.
Every young breeder of poultry should inform himself of these facts
before he starts in, for no living man can afford to breed from inferior
stock. I passed through experiences of this kind many years ago, and
always found that the laws of primogeniture cannot be lightly set aside.
I invariably select the choicest of my early hatched birds for breeding
stock, and no matter how high the price in market, I cannot afford to
sell them. A gentleman, who is a large breeder, said to me the past
spring: "How is it that your ducks are so much larger than mine? I
bought stock from you four years ago, and have been breeding from it
ever since, and now your birds are six or eight pounds per pair heavier
than mine." "True, but you bought my latest-hatched birds, because they
were cheap, and have been breeding from your latest-hatched birds ever
since, while I have been breeding only from the choicest of my early
birds. You have been steadily breeding your stock down, while I have
been breeding mine up. There is now a wide gap between them."
Caring for the Ducklings when Hatched.
The little ducklings should be left in the machine for at least
twenty-four hours longer. Be sure and open the air-valves and give them
plenty of air, so that they may be well dried off. A uniform heat of 90
degrees should be held in the egg-chamber. The outer doors of the
machine should be closed and the little fellows kept in darkness the
first twelve hours. After that the outer doors should be let down. Then
you will see some fun, for the little ducklings are far more active than
chicks, and will begin to play at once. In the meantime the
brooding-house should be prepared for the reception of the young brood.
The heat should be started some twenty-four hours previous to use.
The brooding-house should be the same whether you are growing on a small
scale or a large one, with simply the length proportioned to your needs.
But always recollect that heat should radiate from above on your
ducklings, as bottom heat will soon cripple them in the legs and render
them helpless. In fact, I do not consider bottom heat as essential even
for chicks. The most successful grower I know of, who grows 3,000 chicks
each spring, getting them all out between January 1st and March 1st, and
closes up the whole business by July 1st, uses top heat exclusively. He
has experimented fairly with both, and says he wants no more bottom
heat. If the breeder is growing on a small scale it will be economy for
him to use brooders instead of a heater.
Figure 11 represents the best duck brooder I know of. As there is no
patent on it anyone can make it who has the conveniences. This brooder
is six and a half feet long by three feet wide, and will accommodate 150
ducklings. These brooders are of the most improved construction, are
intended for both indoor and outdoor work, keeping the young ducks dry
and warm in cold, stormy weather, even when located out of doors. The
heat is generated in copper boilers, the water flowing through a
galvanized iron tank, under which the young ducklings hover. This tank
is five feet long, twelve inches wide, and about an inch thick, and is
hung about eight inches from ends and back of brooder, leaving nearly
eighteen inches in front the entire length of brooder, in which to feed
the first day or two. The case of this brooder is made of matched boards
and thoroughly ventilated and furnished with glass doors to admit light.
This brooder should be used in the brooding-house during winter and
early spring, after which it can be used to better advantage out of
doors.
[Illustration: FIGURE 11.--BROODER.]
Let it be understood that a good brooder is, next to the incubator, the
most important thing in the business. It is worse than useless to get
out large hatches of strong, healthy birds, only to have them smothered
or chilled in worthless brooders. Numbers of the patent brooders now on
the market are made by men who never raised a chick or duck in their
lives, and are regular fire and death traps. Many instances have come
under my personal notice where not only ducks, chicks, and brooders,
but the buildings themselves have been entirely consumed by these fire
traps.