EGG HATCHING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1320, 9 November 1885, Page 2

EGG HATCHING.

To the Editor.

Sir. —Now that the Russians are not coming, and our Parliament is over, and the Premier has told his constituents how well he has loosed after their interests, and the Treasurer has delighted tSe citizens of the Plain by assuring them of bis heartfelt interest ” in the West Coast Railway, and Mr Ivess has told his constituents what he thinks of your paper, and how long it is going tj last, 1 am afraid yon will have to be content with . more humble snbj acts, and to descend ji from the great delusions to the small realities of New Zealand life; so that perhaps, on some particularly dull day, you may descend so low as to give aoo • lama to a letter from me on the very homely subject of hatching eggs. I have more than once publicly expressed an opinion that we should arrive at a - more really useful knowledge as to the treatment of our domestic animats, by carefully observing and accurately recording facts, than by the perusal of any amount of theory or assertion, written even by oar most accomplished authors ; and it is under this impression that 1 think it worth while to ask you to give publicity to the teachings of a little accident that occurred to a nest of hens* eggs last month. Some of your readers will remember that in my book on “ Domestic Birds ” 1 had occasion to point out how entirely , inaccurate were the opinions of both Mr Tegetmeier and Mr Wright on the subject of how mush chilling setting eggs will bear, and at what period they will bear it the longest. 1 have there given a record of experiments made upon eighty egga proving that eggs would stand a great deal more neglect than either of those authors supposed, and that instead of being more tender at first, as asserted by Mr Wright, or at last, as stated by Mr Tegetmeier, the moat critical period la at the middle stages on the'3th 9th and 10th days. Although Mr Wright states on page 64 that “ half an hour’s absence is sufficient to chili or .addle eggs at the com- ; mencement of incubation," I have proved that when produced by they will bear twelve houra’ absence of the hen, even in the night, daring either the first or last 6 or 7 nights. The eggs on which I experimented for the results recorded in my bo< k, were entirely exposed daring twelve night hoars on • carpenter’s beach with no straw under them and with rather a cold east wind blowing over them. What I think that I hare now diecoverd by accident is, that in a deep straw nest well protected from all winds, hardy eggs will s and in moderate jweather 20 hoars’ absence of the hen even on the moat critical night and day, i.e the ninth, and that the necessary hardiness can be given by the hen almost irrespective of the uoimpared vitality of the cock. Now for the facta that led me to these conclusions, and, as there ia a decided flaw in my evidence, I trust that some of your practical readers will be able either to confirm or to refute my conclusions. It will be seen that I cannot prove that the hen was absent for twenty hoars, bat that the circumstantial evidence is strongly in favour of that supposition. Still no snob important practical fact should be left to rest on evidence that is at all defective, and. If cone of yonr readers can do so, I will take an early opportunity to clear up that doubt. On the 6th of October I pat 10 Langahan egga under a sitting ben borrowed from one of my neighbors.. She had been induced to adopt a neat in a small pent open only to the north-west. The nest was a warm sang one surrounded with straw more than a foot deep and a good thickness of straw under it. The hen sat very closely, coming off for a very short time each day at abont noon, and-. returning of her own accord to her adopted nest. On the 16th of October 1 was away from home and did not look at her neat until 9am on the 16th. I then found the nest forsaken, the eggs cold, and the hen sitting on a neighboring nest To all

appearance, and in all probability, ahe had come off at the usual time on the 15th, and returned to the wrong neat. This is made almost certain by the regular habits of the hen both before and after that day, by the fact that she came off at the usual time on the 16tb, after being restored to her right nest, which she ’• would hardly have done if she bad been off that morn-

ing ; but far more than all by the fact that, although the hen had sat very closely, she hatched two days after the right time, i e-the 29 th, instead of the 29th. This I have never known to occur except when eggs have been exposed for many hours or have had more than ope sirions chill. I have no record of the minimum temperature of the night on which the eggs were left, bat it was cold, without frost, with a south-east wind blowing. If the eggs had been ordinary ones 1 should have thrown them to the pigs and pat another batch tinder the hen,, bat they were from an imported pallet, which I highly valued, so that T let the ‘ ben continue to sic with a faint hope that she msght hatch a chick or two. On the twenty-third day of aittlng ahe hatched 9 chicken from 10 eggs and the tenth egg contained a chick that had lived at least 20 days, so that none of them could have died on the night that they wers forsaken, So much for what hardy eggs will stand.

Another question of qnite as great practical interest to those of os who have studied the subject ia how did these purebred eggs come to be so hardy. In my “ Domestic Birds,” pages 111, 112 and 1131 have shown, by a record of experiments and accidents, that breeding in and in, and other causes of weakness in the hen producing the egg affected the chicken in the eggs even mb r e than it affected them afterwards, and that eggs produced by bens that bad been bred in four, five or six generations would stand no chills at* any period of iaeabatioo, and that the chicken in such eggs could not’ get oat of the shell if there were the WffhUti redaction of twapawtqre «( qg

dm the ’feae of hatching- Now what is remarkable in this case is that although the eggs proved so very hardy the cock was a long and closely inbred animal, so that all the unusual vigor must have been imparted by the hen. To avoid the Malay cross and all the consequent want of fertility, bad temper and other bad qualities which I found my stock had derived from the so-called Langsbans imported in 1883, and 1884,1 had put this imported pallet, which proved to have the real Langshan laying qualities, to a cock that had been closely inbred by Mr Ha'l, from the o’d wonderful layers imported ia 1878. The eggs produced from that union are ail fertile, all hatch, and all are reared without requiring any special care, and this accident has shown how completely a vigorous young hen can give her own constitution to the embryo chick in the shell, even when mated with a cock that has been weakened by inbreeding for many generations.

To me this appears to point very strongly to the conclusion that when we want to restore the vigor and fertility of a worn out strain of poultry we should seek the qualities we want in a good hen and not as we far more frequently do in a good cock. At the same time, 1 have no doubt that the only thing that prevented the hardiest of eggs being destroyed by a night's exposure on the ninth night was the deep warm straw nest. And I may here add that I have always been more successful with such nests, kept safely free form insect pests, thsn with the damp earth nests so commonly recommended in modern poultry books. I have no right, and I have no wish to pose as an oracle upon such matters, but If what I write should draw forth other accurate records of actual experience in the same direction, 1 shall feel that I have not in vain asked you to devote a little space to this practical subject.—l am, etc. Autbbd Saukdbbs.