Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-05-30
SLOWING OSTRICH EGGS
An Interesting Experiment in Pro-
gress at Washington. .
Attempting TO Hatch tho Great Birds
Eggs in an Ordinary Incuba-
tor ---- Prospects Seem
Good for Success.

Washington, May 22.--Dr, Joseph
Palmer of the National Museum per-
formed a rare and dangerous scientific
operation yesterday four times over
with remarkable and highly gratifying
success. Some time in March Mr.. Ed
ward Schmid sent To the Norwalk os-
trich farm at Norwalk, Cal, and bought
five ostrich eggs at a cost of 80 each.
In due time they came. and o were
put in an incubator and kept at a uni
form temperature for fourteen days.
The fifth was sent to Arthur Gardner
OF Springfield, Md, an expert poultry
a who set II under n big Brahma hen.
At the end of the second week the eggs
should a not only begun the process
Of incubation, but have been consider
ably advanced in it. 1t takes forty-two
days for an ostrich egg to hatch. by
the eighth or tenth day the germ should
be distinctly visible. Yet none of the
eggs were thus far advanced. The
method Of testing is precisely the same
as for hens eggs. In a darkened room
the egg Is held up before the egg tester,
which Is simply a tin lamp chimney
with a hole in one side to let out a bar
of light. When held before this egg tes-
ter light IL was as easily possible to see
through the huge three-pound ostrich
egg as it would have been TO loo
through a sparrow's egg. At the end
Of the fourteen days the eggs were per
fectly clear. There was practically no
air cell, and the contents had not begun
10 dry down as they should in a fertile
egg. Mr.. A. F. Cooper OF the Prairie
State Incubator company happened to
come to Washington just then. and he
also tested the ostrich eggs He is rec
ognized everywhere as an expert incu-
bator manager, n was not likely to
make a mistake. He pronounced the
egg infertile. Mr.. Schmid t~elegraphed
to California, and the Norwalk manag-
er promptly sent on another set of eggs
and asked hat the infertile ones be
blown" and sold.
Yesterday DR.. Palmer "blew'' the big
ggs. They were as big and bald as a
baby's head n weighed none Of them
less than three pounds. There is n good
deal of danger in such big eggs when
they have been i%ncubated for any length
of time, especially if they are fertile
enough to start the germ and get so
weak that ii dies I'm the shell. The egg
Us likely to explode very much as IN the
old laboratory experiment the soap bub-
bles filled with sulphuretted hydrogen
break loose. DR.. Palmer was loath to
tackle Mr.. Schmid's eggs. Only the
other day a man up in Connecticut was
knocked over by one and covered with
a quart Of arrested ostrich germ, to the
disgust of himself and all who came
near him for a fortnight. Yet DIR. Palm
~ 10 n hra ,.a m, anl Ia. ,.o. -. IL
task bravely.
A big tub Of water was set out in the
middle of the floor, where there was a
good chance for instantaneous flight.
Then, placing the egg under water. he
drilled a small hole on the under side,
Inserted a small pump within a long.
slender tube that passed up into the
81 above the contents. and with a gen
tie pressure forced air gradually into the
shell, which In turn drove the white and
yolk out. In this way three eggs were
safely emptled OF their conten;s. Ey
this time DR.. Palmer's faith In the in
of these eggs was somewhat re-
and he ventured to blow" the
last n out Of water. The contents
were caught In a ~two-quart cup. The
shells were then rinsed within and
on the outside and are now
ready to be placed in the collectors
"a binet. They are beautiful In their
Fees BATTERED over Them to permit air to
enter, a feature absent from most other
eggs.
Mr.. Gardner has no. yet reported on
the egg sent to him.
He made q nest OF nice. clean sand and
half buried he eggs. then put a veneer
able Die hen on II and awaited results.
In all probability It, like the others, is
infertile.
The second set Of eggs have been in
the incubator now for over a week, and
seem to be fertile. They rest on cotton,
and a thermometer is laid by them on a
small frame. SO tina the bulb constantly
touches an egg. II is necessary to turn
them every twelve hours. and Mr.. Cug-
ley, who has charge of the incuba tors,
has put a big r on one sid OF each egg.
and a big NJ on the other. In this way
he knows every morning or evening
which side of the eggs shoul be upper
most. The eggs now show an lncreas.
ing air cell, and the yelks are NOR
OPAQUE than in infertile eggs. Their
ALSO seems to be an Opaque dot, whicl
appears where the germ is usually seen.
None of the blood-red veins. seen In a
gNod live hens egg at the seventh or
eighth day. rave yet developed. They
are due 10 hatch June %. Mr.. Schmid
says he will he satisfied IL he is fortu-
ma te enough to hatch even one bird. He
thinks he can rear one II Matched. In
icubators are commonly used now in os-
trich Matching in this country. The
Hirda uyhap cttcOacCfnllu reared or.
very valuable.