A NOVEL ARTIFICIAL MOTHER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4802, 12 August 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

A NOVEL ARTIFICIAL MOTHER.

Mr. J. J. Scott, -writing from Llanstephen, Carmarthenshire, to the Live Stock Journal, says “ Should you think that the following expedient, which proved successful in’rearing a brood of chickens, may be interesting to any of your readers, who might find occasion to resort to something of the same kind under similar circumstances, I place it at your disposal for publication if you see fit. A Cochin lien, that had hatched a brood of my Golden Polish chickens, suddenly died when the chicks were very young, and I fully expected to lose them all, they being with their mother in a coop about 2J feet square, in the open air night and day, when an idea struck me that I thought might just give a chance of saving them, viz.—ln the corner of the coop farthest from the wired front I placed a little box without a lid, about nine inches wide, inverted, resting on the floor of the coop, with an opening made in one side large enough to admit the little ‘orphans’ one at a time ; about three inches of perfectly dry warmed sea sand was placed on the floor, inside the box, for them to nestle in, and a few grains of canary seed to tempt them inside. First one, then another, ventured in, till all were huddled together, closely packed, embedded in the warm sand. After the first experience of the nest no inducement was required, they regularly toddled in to sleep, and at intervals during the day, burrowing in the sand, leaving nothing visible but eight or nine little heads peeping out of the sand ' and each other’s fluffy feathers. The sand was not warmed a second time, and the broody with one exception, throve capitally, this simple artificial mother proving all that could bo required. As they began to get too large to be able to get into the little box altogether, some took to roosting on the top of it, turning out nt intervals

othex-s from the inside, who were then forced to change places. For a week or so I had the front of the coop at night covered with a piece of matting ; in all other respects the birds were treated exactly as if the hen had been with them, except that till six or seven weeks old they were not allowed to roam beyond a small run wired off in front of their coop. After this I think Golden Polands must be admitted not only to be pretty hardy, hut to set an admirable example of making the best of things under adverse circumstances, though possibly from a moral point of view their total disregard to the loss ot their mother might he objectionable.”