The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-01-11

sits on her nest is 90, it has been found
in artificial incubation that 1O2 gives
the best results, especially in Matching
the duck. One may easily judge of
the accuracy required in incubation
from the fact that it is necessary to
keep the egg chamber of a machine for
months without a variation of more
than three degrees; this, however, one
must be able to do if he would become
a proficient operator. The heat is in
nearly all Of these incubators, whether
hot air or hot water machine, generated
by kerosene oil lamps, and in all of the
latter the heat thus made is impaired
to the water and conducted to every
part of the hatch to make the most uni
form heat possible in all parts Of the
egg chamber.
Usually there is little difficulty with
the expert operator in keeping the
temperature at 1O2 during the first
fourteen days Of the run, but then he
must be prepared to anticipate flush
ing up" in the egg chamber from the
natural heat be gotten Of the embryo
duckingss, for they now have become
large enough aud developed enough to
show all their outlines. Indeed, the
eye is dts;ernable in the embryo after
the fourth day ,es has often been learned
upon breaking the egg. In natural in
ar EFofTon tbe Vo "a mn DaoScFI1uo i'm nortoI
directly to the shell, since an oily ex.
erection from the parent bird stops up
the pores and thus preserves the natural
charge of liquid in the egg. e is all
very different in the artificial process.
Here NJ oily substance is given to the
egg for the parent bird is discarded and
to counterfeit the evaporation through
the pores in the shell, shallow pans
with water in them one fourth inch
deep are placed in the egg chamber
after the first week OF incubation. The
evaporation from these is supposed to
make up for the loss in the eggs by the
same process.
The hatch begins to pip" or the
ducklings to peep after the twenty-ftth
day, and by the twenty-sixth they will
force their bills through the shell and
begin to cut it into halves by turning
round and round. Once the shell is
cut in twain the little bird is free from
his prison cell and he celebrates this
by Justify kicking and thrashing about
till he has established his individuality
and duckhood.
After the ducklings are we'll dried
of, they are removed from the trays
where they have incubated for twenty.
eight days, and placed in the bottom
of the incubator on sawdUst or sand
placed there to receive them. Here
the temperature is about 80, when the
ducklings are nestled closely on it.
With no birds in the lower chamber
the temperature usually stands about
IS when the glass marks 1O2 on the
egg trays abtve.
The hatch IL it liz good M in a four
hundred egg machine, will number
about 275 ducklings, and is left in the
incubator for thirty six hours, when it
is removed to the brooder, theI g to re
ceiVe Its first feed. This consists of
infertile eggs boiled hard and mixed
with stale bread, and moistened when
it is ready for the feed troUghs.
He who has not witnessed the meta
morphosis from a machine full of ivory
like spheres to a wriggling, squirming,
peepipg mass of tawny colored bird
life, has not witnessed the magic that
one may behold every day or two On
one of our large poultry ranches.
Hardly less wonderful, however, to
the uninitiated is the sight of hundreds
aud thousands of little web footed or
phans in a long two hundred foot
brooding house where the tender care
of a natural mother is unknown. The
parent bird is cheated out of this duty
also, and is kept producing eggs for re
filing the incubators, while three or
four active, intelligent young men
take charge of the ducklings from the
time they are thirty-six hours till they
are ten or eleven weeks old, when they
are marketed.
However, in the care and feeding of
these young birds fresh from the hatch
ing room there is great skill, patience
and unremitting attention required.
Where some with the experience Of
years will pull a hatch through to ma
turity under adverse conditions, others
will make a deplorable failure. And
it is only by giving long, very long
hours to the little wards that the death
rate is kept down. A tact given Ofnature