Egyptian Incubation.

Manawatu Herald, 18 April 1893, Page 3

Egyptian Incubation.

M. Devaux describes in the Revue Scientifiqve the Egyptian system of artificial incubation. First of all the incubators are built underground, with solid brick walls and on a large scale, and thus ofter great facilities for keeping a constant temperature. The visitor enters first an underground round hall about 25ft in diameter, from which a curved passage leads to solid vaulted brick cells, 6ft high and 7ft to 10ft wide and deep. Another curved passage leads from them to a second round hall, which has in its vault a ventilation chimney. A renewal of air is thus obtained without any sudden draught and change of temperature. Each cell, which receives from 3000 to 8000 eggs, is heated from above, some cheap fuel, like straw, being burned in its upper part, and hot air coming down upon the eggs, so as to be equally distributed over all of them. The incubating cells are heated, moreover, for three weeks before the eggs are put in, and then for ten day the eggs are turned over thrice . a day by boys who creep through small apertures into the cells, after which time the fires are extinguished, all chimneys are locked, and the warmth remaining in the brick cells alone is sufficient to hatch the eggs. By this system no less than 270,000 eggs are incu. bated every spring in the neighbourhood of Cairo, and the loss is so small that more than 230,000 chicks are hatched and brought up every year, which would be a good result even for hens. The whole arrangement, even in small details, shows a perfect knowledge of the laws of incubation.