CHAPTER V.
EGGS.
During the natural process of moulting, hens cease laying because all the superabundant nutriment is required for the production of the new feathers. Fowls moult later each time; the moulting occupies a longer period, and is more severe as it becomes later, and if the weather should be cold at its termination they seldom recommence laying for some time. But young fowls moult in spring. Therefore, by having pullets and hens of different ages, and moulting at different times, a healthy laying stock may be kept up. Pullets hatched in March, and constantly fed highly, not only lay eggs abundantly in the autumn, but when killed in the following February or March, are as fat as any one could or need desire them to be, and open more like Michaelmas geese than chickens. When eggs alone are wanted, you can commence by buying in the spring as many hens as you require, and your run will accommodate, not more than a year or eighteen months old. If in good health and condition, they will be already laying, or will begin almost immediately; and, if well housed and fed, will give a constant supply of eggs until they moult in the autumn. When these hens have ceased laying, and before they lose their good condition by moulting, they should be either killed or sold, unless they are Hamburgs, Brahmas, or Cochins, and replaced by pullets hatched in March or April, which will have moulted early, and, if properly housed and fed, will begin to lay by November at the latest, and continue laying until February or March, when they may be sold or killed, being then in prime condition, and replaced as before; or, as they will not stop laying for any length of time, the best may be kept until the autumn, when, if profit is the chief consideration, they must be disposed of.[3] But Brahmas, Cochins, and Hamburgs will lay through the winter up to their second, or even third year. If you commence poultry-keeping in the autumn you should buy pullets hatched in the preceding spring. The best and cheapest plan of keeping up a good stock is to keep a full-feathered Cochin or two for March or April sitting; and, if necessary, procure eggs of the breed you desire. The Cochin will sit again, being only too often ready for the task; and the later-hatched chickens can be fattened profitably for the table. But if you wish to obtain eggs all the year round, and to avoid replacing of stock, or object to the trouble of rearing chickens, keep only those breeds that are non-sitters, as the Hamburgs, Polands, and Spanish; but you must purchase younger birds from time to time to keep a supply of laying hens while others are moulting.
Warmth is most essential for promoting laying. A severe frost will suddenly stop the laying of even the most prolific hens. "When," says M. Bosc, "it is wished to have eggs during the cold season, even in the dead of winter, it is necessary to make the fowls roost over an oven, in a stable, in a shed where many cattle are kept, or to erect a stove in the fowl-house on purpose. By such methods, the farmers of Ange have chickens fit for the table in the month of April, a period when they are only beginning to be hatched in the farms around Paris, although farther to the south." It is the winter management of fowls that decides the question of profit or loss, for hens will be sure to pay in the summer, even if only tolerably attended to. It is thought by many that each hen can produce only a certain number of eggs; and if such be the case, it is very advantageous to obtain a portion of them in winter when they are generally scarce and can be eaten while fresh, instead of having the whole number produced in the summer, when so many are spoiled from too long keeping in consequence of more being produced than are required for use at the time.
When the time for her laying approaches, her comb and wattles change from their previous dull hue to a bright red, the eye brightens, the gait becomes more spirited, and sometimes she cackles for three or four days. After laying her egg on leaving the nest the hen utters a loud cackling cry, to which the cock often responds in a high-pitched kind of scream; but some hens after laying leave the nest in silence. Some hens will lay an egg in three days, some every other day, and others every day. Hens should not be forced. By unnaturally forcing a fowl with stimulating food, and more particularly with hempseed and tallow greaves, to lay in two years or so the eggs that should have been the produce of several, the hen becomes prematurely old and diseased; and it is reasonable to suppose that the eggs are not so good as they would have been if nature had been left to run its own course. The eggs ought to be taken from the nest every afternoon when no more may be expected to be laid; for if left in the nest, the heat of the hens when laying next day will tend to corrupt them.
When the shells of the eggs are somewhat soft, it is because the hens are rather inclined to grow too fat. It is then proper to mix up a little chalk in their water, and to put a little mortar rubbish in their food, the quantity of which should be diminished. We give the following remarks by an experienced poultry-keeper of the old school, as valuable from being the result of practice: "The hen sometimes experiences a difficulty in laying. In this case a few grains of salt or garlic put into the vent have been successfully tried. The keeper should indeed make use of the latter mode to find out the place where a hen has laid without his knowledge; for, as the hen will be in haste to deposit her egg, her pace towards the nest will be quickened; she may then be followed and her secret found out."
"Though one particular form," says Mr. Dickson, "is so common to eggs, that it is known by the familiar name of egg-shaped, yet all keepers of poultry must be aware that eggs are sometimes nearly round, and sometimes almost cylindrical, besides innumerable minor shades of difference. In fact, eggs differ so much in shape, that it is said experienced poultry-keepers can tell by the shape of the eggs alone the hen that laid them; for, strange to say, however different in size the eggs of any particular hen may be occasionally, they are very rarely different in form. Among the most remarkable eggs may be mentioned those of the Shanghae, or Cochin-China fowl, which are of a pale chocolate colour; and those of the Dorking fowl, which are of a pure white, and nearly as round as balls. The eggs of the Malay fowls are brown; those of the Polish fowl, which are very much pointed at one end, are of a delicate pinkish white; and those of the Bantam are of a long oval."
A very important part of the egg is the air-bag, or _folliculus æris_, which is placed at the larger end, between the shell and its lining membranes. It is, according to Dr. Paris, about the size of the eye of a small bird in new laid eggs, but enlarges to ten times that size during the process of incubation. "This air-bag," says Mr. Dickson, "is of such great importance to the development of the chick, probably by supplying it with a limited atmosphere of oxygen, that if the blunt end of the egg be pierced with the point of the smallest needle (a stratagem which malice not unfrequently suggests), the egg cannot be hatched, but perishes."
An egg exposed to the air is continually losing a portion of its moisture, the place of which is filled by the entrance of air, and the egg consequently becomes stale, and after a time putrid. M. Réaumur made many experiments in preserving eggs, and found that, by coating them with varnish, it was impossible to distinguish those which had been kept for a year from those newly laid; but varnish, though not expensive, is not always to be had in country places, and it also remained on the eggs placed under a hen and impeded the hatching, while in boiling them, the varnish, not being soluble in hot water, prevented them from being properly cooked. He tried other substances, and found that fat or grease, such as suet, lard, dripping, butter, and oil, were well adapted for the purpose, the best of these being a mixture of mutton and beef suet thoroughly melted together over a slow fire, and strained through a linen cloth into an earthen pan. It is only requisite, he says, to take a piece of the fat or butter about the size of a pea on the end of the finger, and rub it all over the shell, by passing and repassing the finger so that no part be left untouched; the transpiration of matter from the egg being as effectually stopped by the thinnest layer of fat or grease as by a thick coating, so that no part of the shell be left ungreased, or the tip of the finger may be dipped into oil and passed over the shell in the same manner. If it is desired that the eggs should look clean, they may be afterwards wiped with a towel, for sufficient grease or oil enters the pores of the shell to prevent all transpiration without its being necessary that any should be left to fill up the spaces between the pores. They can be boiled as usual without rubbing off the fat, as it will melt in the hot water, and when taken out of the water the little grease that is left upon the egg is easily wiped off with a napkin.
Eggs preserved in this manner can also be used for hatching, as the fat easily melts away by the heat of the hen; and by this means the eggs of foreign fowls might be carried to a distance, hatched, and naturalised in this and other countries. The French also find that a mixture of melted beeswax and olive oil is an excellent preservative.
Eggs may also be preserved for cooking by packing them in sawdust, in an earthen vessel, and covering the top with melted mutton suet or fat; as fruit is sometimes preserved. They are also said to keep well in salt, in a barrel arranged in layers of salt and eggs alternately. If the salt should become damp, it would penetrate through the pores of the shell and pickle them to a certain extent. M. Gagne says that eggs may be preserved in a mixture made of one bushel of quick-lime, two pounds of salt, and eight ounces of cream of tartar, with sufficient water to make it into a paste of a consistency to receive the eggs, which, it is said, may be kept in it fresh for two years; but eggs become tasteless when preserved with lime. It may be as well to mention here that eggs are comparatively wasted when used in making a rice pudding, as they render it too hard and dry, and the pudding without them, if properly made, will be just of the right consistency.
"Another way to preserve eggs," says Mr. Dickson, "is to have them cooked in boiling water the same day they are laid. On taking them out of the water they are marked with red ink, to record their date, and put away in a cool place, where they will keep, it is said, for several months. When they are wanted for use, they are again put into hot water to warm them. The curdy part which is usually seen in new-laid eggs is so abundant, and the taste is said to be so well preserved, that the nicest people may be made to believe that they are new laid. At the end of three or four months, however, the membrane lining the shell becomes much thickened, and the eggs lose their flavour. Eggs so preserved have the advantage of not suffering from being carried about."
"It ought not to be overlooked," says Mr. Dickson, "with respect to the preservation of eggs, that they not only spoil by the transpiration of their moisture and the putrid fermentation of their contents, in consequence of air penetrating through the pores of the shell; but also by being moved about, and jostled when carried to a distance by sea or land. Any sort of rough motion indeed ruptures the membranes which keep the white, the yolk, and the germ of the chick in their proper places, and upon these becoming mixed, putrefaction soon follows."
If the eggs are to be kept for setting, place a box, divided by partitions into divisions for the eggs of the different breeds, in a dry corner of your kitchen, but not too near to the fire; fill the divisions with bran previously well dried in an oven; place the eggs in it upright, with the larger ends uppermost, as soon as they are laid, and cover them with the bran. Mark each egg in pencil with the date when laid, and description of breed or cross. They should be kept in a cool place or a warm place according to the season. Airtight jars, closed with airtight stoppers, may be used if the eggs are intended to be kept for a very long time.
In selecting eggs for setting, choose the freshest, those of moderate size, well-shaped, and having the air-vessel distinctly visible, either in the centre of the top of the egg, or slightly to the side, when the egg is held between the eye and a lighted candle, in a darkened room. Reject very small eggs, which generally have no yolk, those that are ill-shaped, and those of equal thickness at both ends, which latter is the usual shape of eggs with double yolks. These should be avoided, as they are apt generally to prove unfertile, or produce monstrosities.
It has been stated that the sex of the embryo chicken can be ascertained by the position of the air-vessel; that if it be on the top the egg will produce a cockerel, and if on the side a pullet; but there is no proof of the truth of this, and, notwithstanding such assertions, it appears to be impossible to foretell the sex of the chick, from the shape of the egg or in any other way.
In selecting eggs for the purpose of producing fowls that are to be kept for laying only, being non-sitters, choose eggs only from those hens that are prolific layers, for prolific laying is often as characteristic of some fowls of a breed as it is of the particular breeds, and by careful selection this faculty, like others, may be further developed, or continued if already fully developed.
If carefully packed, eggs for setting may be carried great distances--hundreds and even thousands of miles--without injury; vibration and even moderate shaking, and very considerable changes of temperature, producing no ill effect upon the germ. The chief point is to prevent the escape of moisture by evaporation, and consequent admission of air. A hamper travels with less vibration than a box, and is therefore preferable, especially for a long journey. They should be packed in hay, by which they will be preserved from breakage much better than by being packed in short, close material like bran, chaff, oats, or sawdust; these being shaken into smaller space by the vibration of travelling, the eggs often strike and crack each other. The hamper or box should be large enough to admit of some soft, yielding packing material being placed all round the eggs. The bottom should be first covered with a good layer of hay, straw, or moss. It is a good plan to roll each egg separately in hay or moss, fastened with a little wool or worsted. They should be covered with well-rubbed straw, pressed down carefully and gently. The lid of the hamper should be sewed on tightly all round, or in three or four places at least. If a box is used, the lid should be fastened by cords or screws, but not with nails, as the hammering would probably destroy the germ of the egg.
In procuring eggs for hatching, be sure that the parent birds are of mature age, but not too old, well-shaped, vigorous, and in perfect health; that one cock is kept to every six or seven hens; and that they are well fed and attended to. Have a steady broody hen ready to take the eggs.