, 1884-07-22
AHEAD OF THE HENS.
Bringing Chickens into the World
20 Via the Incubator.
Automatic and Artificial
ments for the Fuzzy Little
Observation-Disclosures Not
. Now Invention.


q Now Invention.
New York SUM-
In a broad, w~iTe-covered box, with a bot
tom OF fine earth, In n basement window In
Liberty street, Is a brood OF little chickens,
apparently . or 3 days old. Their bodies arc
covered with yellow and black feathers as
fine Us fur. They run about IN the most
lively manner, peeping and chirping CON
stantly. Some pick at the earth, and Others
drink water at a marrow little trough, hold
ing up their heads TO allow the water to filter
down their necks, blinking meantime conf
caIly. Three mall boys shouted with delight
when two of the chicks faced each other, with
beaks extended and wings out. They picked
siciotiAly twice at each other, and then both
ran away with prolonged popping.
They ars Orphans said a pleasant old
gentleman in the basement. ''They were
Matched In an incubator yesterday
On one sid OF tho room were a number OF
~incubatora They looked a little like ON ice
chest, with glass panels in doors that swung
down by hinges on the lower side. The frame
was about two and a half by six and a half
feet large and four feet high over all AT
one end was a black tin vertical cylinder four
inches In dinrneter and q foot high. Pipes
ran from the top OF the cylinder through the
top OF the frame and bach again under the
bottom of the cylinder. In the frame be-
tween the two series OF pipes were a nnmber
of shallow trays, with wire cloth bottoms,
filed with eggs placed on end. a kerosene
lamp sent its heated mir into the cylinder. a
bit Of clock-work could be seen in a small
giass case ON top OF the frame.
The lamp heats the water that fills tho
tubes you see there the old man explained,
and the water circulates around over the
eggs and back underneath TO the cylinder as
II cools. That keeps the eggs warm
''But II the lamp Is turned on too highf'
Just then q Large valve rcvolved in the top
Of the incubator.
"The machine 10 s~elf-regulatng. When the
temperature rises an electrical connection
Is formed that starts the clockwork and opens
that valve When the temperature falls"
Here the old man opened the sid doors and
In q minute the valve closed
"When IL falls you see it closes itself; but
that is not all, for you see the lamp Il turned
up When the valve closes. and down when it
opans.l'
'NNhnt is the temperature that matches the
Chickens
From ll2 degrees during the first ten
days % los or l04 degrees for the remaining
ten. That automatic arrangement keeps ths
variation within one degree
Then NIL you have TO do Is &c put in the
Eggs and light the lampr'
mo. After three days the eggs must be
tuTne over twice a day. The little shallow
pans underneath the trays must be kept full
OF water, 50 that the air will be moist. On
the fourth day tie eggs must be- examined in
a tester, and all that remain clear must be
removed, because they will not produce
chickens, and cnn yet be used for cooking.
Then they must all be examined later on TO
reuIove any TINT have died. Still, half an
hour daily will keep everything in order until
the nineteenth day, when tho chicks will be
gin to pick and peep in their efforts to get
OUT
'"rhen you have to help them break the
shellsf'
I'VE don't nave to do anything of the kind.
It's a widespread notion that the mother hen
has to help her chicks out of the shells,
but she doesn't. After several hours of inter-
mittent picking the chick makes q small hole
through the she'll. Then he rests like q man
on the water after.a long dive. Then he
breaks a line around to the right and then to
the left, resting at intervals. Finally, a
vigorous plunge liberties him Heia wet and
hoInsiy then"
The artificial mother Is a shallow box with
II perforated metal bottom partly covered
with enrth. and two warm water pipes that
keep the temperature at 9s degrees ut first
and lower later on. Pieces of flannel hang
over the pipes aud down near to the bottom
OF the box. The chicks gather under the tlan-
mel as they would under a mems wings. A
long row Of little woolly yellow and black
heads, with bright, round eyes, projecting
from under n strip OF red lannel Is an inter
csting spectacle.
"Are chickens Matched by machine as
vigorous as those Matched naturanyT7
More so, lncubators are unsentimentnl,
hut they are business. They will hatch %
per cent. more eggs thnn hens. The chicks
are never afflicted with vermin. They get
the right care after they are Matched. They
grow more rapidly, and become healthier
fowls In every way. At q coSS f6ht, back
the bird from the orphan asylum against the
home-raised fowl every time. Another ad-
vantage of the incubator Is that the spring
chickens can be produced at the season when
prices nre highest. To a man adapted to the
business, chicken raising is a profitable en-
p~loyment, requiring only a small capital. A
medium sized incubator, holding from 700 10
1000 eggs, costs from $50 to 1885, One
holding 1900 eggs costa $500"
''How long nave hatchers been in usein
From 5000 to 5000 years Herodotus tells
about cellars In Egypt where eggs were
placed beneath furnaces so as to apply the
beat from above. There were Railways
through which the attendants passed to turn
tbs eggs, They had noticed that a hen
would turn the eggs several times In a day
when sitting ON her nest The Egyptians
follow the old system now, They get lT,Ooo,-
% chicks q year out of 100000 eggs
placed in their incubators The best Amer
lean machines hatch out more thnn so per
cent, of the eggs, There are ~forty-one chicks
in the window there. got them from forty
four eggs. The new ostrich farm In CaIfor.
MIA uses incubators, because, as you know,
the ostrich does not setSn
'.Do. other foreigners than tho Egyptians
use incubatorsT'
"Yes. Chinese rave used them Thousands
or years The French and English were
among the first to make them, but ON south
African ostrich farms the American machine
Il preferred. One American manufacturer
has sent more than ninety machines there In
the last few years. Wherever Yankee In
ginuity Is placed untrammelled In compett-
ton with the ingenuity of other nations we
have reason 10 repiess the eagles scream.
So Unhappy.
Tpittsburp Chronicle TnIe0ranb