Egg-laying

“ They nest anywhere, where they can find or make a suitable cavity for the reception of their eggs; in trees in woods or solitary trees in large pastures, in apple trees in orchards, in fence posts, in holes under the roofs of buildings, etc. They ordinarily lay from five to ten very glossy eggs, but it has been found that they will continue laying, if one egg is removed from the nest at a time, until in one case seventy-one eggs were secured. Fresh eggs may be found at any time from May until August, as they frequently raise two broods a season. ”

“ I have even known the eggs carelessly dropped on the bare ground in a corner of a potato-field, and have found the female sitting on her eggs in all the bright glare of a noonday sun in June, and to all appearance undisturbed by its brilliance. A more common situation for the eggs is a slight hollow of a bare rock, the dark weather-beaten shades of which, with its brown and slate-colored mosses and lichens, resembling both the parent and the egg in their coloring, are well adapted to screen them from observation or detection. ”

“ Almost every hen-wife has her own special way of preserving her surplus eggs. For my own part I have tried several, but always found that the most simple was the best. Here are one or two sent me from an egg and poultry district:—Make a pickle of 1 bushel of stone lime, 4 lbs. of coarse salt, and about 60 gals, of water. Slake the lime first with a little of the water, and when all is mixed leave it till the lime has settled and the solution is clear. Draw off the water very carefully into a cask, or whatever you mean to put the eggs in. ”

“ When no more eggs are to be found, the mashing process begins. The egg, it may be here mentioned, has a flexible or leathery shell; it is quite round, and somewhat larger than a hen's egg. The whole heap is thrown into an empty canoe and mashed with wooden prongs; but sometimes naked Indians and children jump into the mass and tread it down, besmearing themselves with yolk and making about as filthy a scene as can well be imagined. ”

“ Too much green feed, especially green feed that springs from wet, soggy ground, will sometimes make the eggs watery. Or if you are feeding more mash feed than dry grain, it will have that tendency. Some people claim that the feed a hen eats does not affect the egg at all; but if it does not, why do eggs differ in color and quality? Eggs that are laid by hens fed wholly on wheat, or the by-products of wheat, such as bran, shorts or middlings, all have a pale yolk. ”

“ In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white, giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends downwards. ”

“ A full set of eggs is always desirable, if they can be obtained, but, as the old saying is, "A half-loaf is better than no bread." The contents may be removed by making a hole in the side of the egg with an egg drill, and sucking out the white and yolk with a glass blow-pipe, or by means of a little syringe with a bit of rubber tubing attached to the nozzle. ”

“ The eggs, which are generally laid singly or in pairs on either side of a leaf, sometimes on a stalk, are yellowish-green in colour. The shell is said to be netted, but under a fairly strong lens this does not show. About four hundred is probably the average number for a female to lay in a state of nature, but they seem not to deposit so many when reared from the egg in confinement. ”

“ Eggs of other individuals of the species, and even the eggs of Eumeces laticeps were accepted as part of the brood. Any of the experimental females would quickly retrieve one of her eggs moved a short distance outside the nest cavity. Even if the whole clutch of eggs were scattered about, the female would, over a period of hours, gather the eggs and return them to the nest cavity. This movement of the eggs is accomplished by rolling or pushing them in a loop of the body or tail, or, less frequently, by grasping an egg in the jaws, lifting it, and gently placing it in a new position. ”

“ Eggs, when not fresh, are more or less liable to disease. I might even say more. When not fresh, they are diseased. On this point we have the testimony of Drs. Willich and Dunglison. The truth is, that the yolk of the egg has a strong tendency to decomposition, and this decomposing or putrefying process begins long before it is perceived, or even suspected, by most people. There is much reason for believing that a large proportion of the eggs eaten in civic life,—except when we keep the poultry ourselves,—are, when used, more or less in a state of decomposition. ”

“ Mechanical Construction of Eggs.—We now come to another phase of the protective principle, even more remarkable than those we have already discussed, and equally useful. This is in the mechanical construction of eggs to suit their situation and surrounding conditions. What an admirable provision Nature has shown in placing the axis of a bird's egg just where it will prevent it rolling off a flat surface, such as a ledge of rock, when moved by the terrible gusts of wind that sweep over high latitudes, or perhaps roughly moved by the parent bird suddenly fluttering off when scared. ”

“ The analogy between seeds and eggs has long been observed, and is confirmed by the mode of their production. The egg is known to be formed within the hen long before its impregnation; C.F. Wolf asserts that the yolk of the egg is nourished by the vessels of the mother, and that it has from those its arterial and venous branches, but that after impregnation these vessels gradually become impervious and obliterated, and that new ones are produced from the fetus and dispersed into the yolk. ”

“ When they are ready to deposit, she is forced to place them whether she has mated or not. In case a mate has found her, a small pouch near the end of her abdomen is filled with a fluid that touches each egg in passing and renders it fertile. The eggs differ with species and are placed according to family characteristics. They may be pure white, pearl-coloured, grey, greenish, or yellow. There are round, flat, and oblong eggs. ”

“ The eggs are about half as large as a lead pencil in diameter, and the poor ones are white, the others colorless. In one of the many shallow troughs in the building through which water is constantly running were thousands of eggs spread out just ready to hatch. When they break through the shell the little fish are scarcely longer than the egg itself, which remains attached to them and is finally absorbed. ”

“ Large eggs should be filled half full of water and well shaken. Eggs treated in this manner are perfectly clean inside and offer no inducements to insects to harbor within, a thing that they will surely do in eggs prepared in a slovenly manner. Having blown all the water out of the egg, take a soft cloth and wipe it dry, removing any foreign matter that may be adhering to it, taking care, however, not to rub off the number you put on it when collected, and also notice that you do not rub off any of the markings on it. On some eggs the pigment is only loosely applied on the outside. ”

“ An egg being eighty per cent. water, consider the effect on eggs produced by the farmers’ flocks, where the water supply is mainly pools in the barn yard, which receive the drainage from the manure piles, and where the principal food supply is scratched out of manure heaps, consisting of undigested grain that has already passed through another animal.
A hen must have a large proportion of animal food to lay well, and to produce rich, nutritious eggs. ”

“ What is common to all eggs and essential to them all is that which corresponds to the yolk in the bird's egg. But their later mode of development, the degree of perfection acquired by the egg and germ before being laid, the term required for the germ to come to maturity, as well as the frequency and regularity of the broods, are all features varying with the different kinds of animals. There are those that lay eggs once a year at a particular season and then die ”

“ Many different men have studied this question. For the most part, they have started a dozen or more eggs at once, and then taken them one by one and two or three hours apart, and cautiously broken them open to see what was inside. Sometimes, however, a student of eggs carefully cuts away the shell on one side, until he has made a hole about the size of a ten-cent piece. Over this he cements a sheet of glass as thin as paper, so that he can look through this tiny window into the egg, and see the chick grow. ”

“ They are fed a large quantity of succulent green food, in the form which, perhaps, is more delicious to the hen than any other, that is, Sprouted Oats. The quantity of animal food in their mash is increased, and, with the vigorous digging for the grain in the deep litter, the problem of Winter eggs is solved, and from day to day, the number of eggs coming from the pullet houses, increases very rapidly. ”

“ The more recently laid are whiter than the staler, because by age, and especially by incubation, they become darker; the cavity in the blunt end of a stale egg is also larger than in a recent egg; eggs just laid are also somewhat rough to the feel from a quantity of white powder which covers the shell, but which is soon rubbed off, when the egg becomes smoother as well as darker. New-laid eggs, unbroken, if placed near a fire will sweat, and are much more palatable than those that have been kept for some time—they are, indeed, accounted a delicacy by some. ”

“ The white of the egg consists of two parts, each of which is enveloped in distinct membranes. The outer bag of albumen, next the shell, is quite a thin, watery body, while the next which invests the yolk, is heavy and thick. But few housekeepers who break eggs ever distinguish between the two whites, or know of their existence even.
Each has its appropriate office to fulfil during the process of incubation or hatching; and one acts in the mysterious process as important a part as the other. ”

“ If a dish of putrid beef were placed on the table before people they would shrink back in horror, yet they will eat eggs which have been produced by hens which have been fed on these identical ingredients, apparently entirely oblivious of the fact that the hen performs no miracle in the production of an egg, but simply manufactures the egg from the materials, whatever they may be, which she gathers into her system. ”

“ If the yolk be removed and dried, and the yellow oil separated, it will be found to form two-thirds of the substance. The whole weight in its natural state is about three hundred grains, of which three-fifths is water; of the white more than three quarters is water.
The yolk and albumen of a fecundated egg remains as sweet and free from corruption during the whole time of incubation as it is in new-laid eggs, and there is but little loss of water; whereas an unfecundated egg passes rapidly into putrefactive decay and perishes. ”

“ To preserve eggs they should be rubbed with fine salt or soaked for three or four hours in brine, and then cleaned off or packed in chaff or straw. Care should be taken to set eggs only in uneven numbers. The keeper can tell whether an egg is fertile or not four days after it is set, by holding it to the light, when he should throw it out if it is found to be empty and substitute another for it. ”

“ If it sort of topples in the water, standing on its end, it is fairly fresh, but, if it floats, beware of it. The shell of a fresh egg looks dull and porous. As it begins to age, the shell takes on a shiny appearance. If an egg is kept any length of time, a portion of its water evaporates, which leaves a space in the shell, and the egg will "rattle." An egg that rattles may be perfectly good, and still not absolutely fresh.
TO PRESERVE EGGS To preserve eggs it is only necessary to close the pores of the shells. ”

“ The eggshell will now be beyond the reach of corruption; the membrane for ever retains its pristine whiteness, and no insect, for the time to come, will ever venture to prey upon it. If you wish your egg to appear extremely brilliant, give it a coat of mastic varnish, put on very sparingly with a camel-hair pencil: green or blue eggs must be done with gum arabic, as the mastic varnish is apt to injure the colour.
2342. Fishes
Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. ”

“ Over and over again it is stated in articles that large quantities of animal food and rich meals in the mash are very stimulating and wear the hen out. This is a great mistake. When the hen is being supplied [146] with the proper ingredients for a large egg production she is not being stimulated, but rather helped and sustained in the natural way.
“Egg Foods” Kill Layers
On the market, to-day, is found an ever increasing number of preparations advertised as “egg foods”; “foods” warranted to produce eggs without fail and in record breaking quantities. ”

“ The male grasps his mate below the waist; the eggs are combined into one thick string, which is about 18 inches long, and is wound round and between the leaves and stalks of water-plants. The eggs measure 2-2.5 mm., and are very numerous, a large string containing several thousands. The larvae are hatched on the fifth or sixth day in a very unripe condition. They are only 4 mm. long, quite black, and still devoid of gills and tail. They attach themselves to the empty gelatinous egg-membranes, which they possibly live upon. On the following day the tail begins to grow ”