The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-21

The action of several prominent American poultrymen In abolishing the ordinary small incubator, and return ing to the ancient Egyptian style of mammoth hatchery, Is still another proof that ingenuity gradually swings around the eternal circle until, for the introduction Of a new idea, 1t merely adopts an old one In comparing an- cient and modern methods. as regards mammoth incubators and their success full operation, it is interesting to note the way the old Egyptians obtained eggs with which to fll their big hatch cries. Men with donkeys were sent out through the surrounding country for the purpose of gathering eggs and bringing them to the hatchery In lots of 2.0o0 at time.
 In our day of grace, 1909, we use the express company las our donkey. This branch of the poultry business thaS is being introduced into this country is known as the y-oid-chlck business. During the first thirty-slx hours of a chicks life 1t does not require food, ex- cept such as 1t obtains from the ab- sorption of the yoik of the egg from which 1t was matched. During this time newly matched chicks can be shipped with practically no mortality. which permits of their being sent hum dreds of miles, or to any distance that can be reached by fast train within thirty-six houra
 It is well known to the general pub lie that eggs for matching can be shipped long distances and still yield good per centages in chicks. The day. old-chick business, however, is some thing new under the sun. English poultrymen first tried the plan and soon found they could ship to all parts of the British Isles. Americans and Canadians then took up the idea, with the result that we now have a score or more of day-old-chick plants, somc of them with matching capacities of 10000 to 10000 eggs at one sitting. These plants may well be called Public Hatcheries. They advertise for the people to ship eggs to them to be hatched at so much per egg. and then returned to the owners in the form of day-oid chicksL Eggs for matching in these public incubators can be deliv- cred by express for distances ranging from 400 to 500 miles with good re- suits.
 Compare the way this same scheme Is worked in Egypt. According to an ofiicial report the artificial matching of eggs in that country has been prac- ticed so long that the hens have com pletely abandoned that part of their work to man. It Is a regular industry and the professors form very close corporation. handing down their se- crets from father to son. The popula- ton of Egypt is very. dense, about TOO per square mile. This aggiomeration fosters the use of large incubatories turning out each from 300 600 to 6O0.- GOO chicks in a season. In some vil- lages there are from three to i've of thaan orally near to some important market place, and each one Is apparently in the center of a district of about 50,00O pop ulation. That is. each one is the cen- ter of circle having a radius of i've miles It is the density of population that has allowed this system of artI- hctal matching to become so very suc- cessful. At the same time 1t must be remembered that there Is no other. as the native hen never sits on her RRs
 Another important point is that the hatcheries do not attempt to rear the young broods. Forty -eight hours af- ter the chicks emerge from the shell they are scattered over the country. This distribution is effected in a very simple manner. As the incubator is near q market place, word is sent there that on such a day there will be so many young chicks. This news is
 
 lages. and on the appointed day the women arrive with cages to purchase the young chicks, which are generally sold for about sl.b0 per hundred. Thefe are also Q number of brokers or deal- CTS who take the young chicks to the more distant villages. For this they have cages made from palm branches Two such cages will transport each 1000 young birds, so that a man with donkey easily manages 1000 of them, and by nightfall has probably sold the entire lot at a distance of five or six miles from the establishment
 Once in the village the chicks be- come the property of the women, who take great care of them during the first week. For two or three days they are kept in cages in lots of twenty or thirty and fed on broken grain, slightly moistened At night the cages are taken into the houses and some times covered with a bit of cloth. Af- ter these first few days the young birds are strong enough to forage for a llv- ing and are then allowed to roam about freely. When the young chicks are fairly feathered they are plucked perfectly clean and slightly greased. This adds greatly to their health but detracts much from their beauty. It strikes a stranger as something ex- tremely novel to see hundreds of per- fectly naked chickens basking in the sun or running about.
 The largest incubator built on the Egyptian plan in this country, or in the world for that matter. is on a duck ranch on Long Island, which section