Ova gallinae subdenda ab eo potissimum tempore aedi etiam debent, quo spirat Zephyrus, usque ad Autumnale aequinoctium. Nempe a septima Februarii, usque ad vigesimamsecundam Septembris. Quare dum emittuntur hoc tempore, separatim serventur, ut ex eis pullorum exclusio fiat. Quae enim ante id temporis {a}eduntur ova, aut etiam eo transacto, quaeque etiam {a}edidit primo gallina, eorum certe nullum est subijciendum. Infoecunda siquidem fiunt, imperfectaque. Est autem praestantissimum tempus aequinoctium vernum ad incubandum, hoc est a vigesima quarta Martii usque ad nonas Maias, Florentinus. Ova Luna nova supponito, Plin.[1] Incubare oportet incipere secundum (post) novam Lunam, quod fere quae ante (prius inchoata) non succedunt, (non proveniunt,) Varro[2] et Plinius[3]. Semper cum supponuntur ova, considerari debet, ut Luna crescente a decima usque ad quintamdecimam (quod et Palladius repetit[4], et Tragus hodie a mulieribus in Germania observari scribit) id fiat, nam et ipsa suppositio per hos fere dies est commodissima: et sic administrandum est, ut rursus cum excluduntur pulli, Luna crescat, diebus quibus animantur ova, et in speciem volucrum conformantur <ter septenis opus est gallinaceo generi, at pavonino et anserino paulo amplius ter novenis>, Columella[5].

The eggs to be put under a hen have also to be laid above all starting from that time when Zephyr blows until the equinox of autumn. And precisely from February 7th until September 22nd. That's why, when are laid during this period, they are kept aside so that chicks are born. In fact of all the eggs laid before this period, or also when it elapsed, and also of all those a hen laid at the beginning of the period, it is ascertained that no one must be set for incubation. Being that they become infertile and defective. In fact for incubation is suitable in a marvelous way the period of vernal equinox, that is from March 24th up to nones of May - May 7th, Florentinus. Set the eggs under the hen for incubation in new moon, Pliny. It is worthwhile to start incubation soon after (after, Pliny) new moon, being that mostly those put for incubation  before (those previously started, Pliny) don't have a positive result (they are not born, Pliny) Varro and Pliny. When eggs are put for incubation we have always to take into consideration that this happens with waxing moon starting from tenth up to fifteenth day (also Palladius demands this, and Hieronymus Bock writes that today in Germany this rule is followed by women), in fact also the putting for incubation during more or less these days is very profitable: and it is necessary to do so that later when the chicks are hatched there is waxing moon, for the hens the number of days during which the eggs become animated and slowly take the form of a bird is twenty-one, while for peacocks and geese a little more than twenty-seven, Columella.

Oportet subijci ova Luna increscente: hoc est, a primilunio usque ad quartamdecimam diem. nam quae ante novilunium subiecta sunt, tabescunt et corrumpuntur, Florentinus. Ex ovis natis in defectu Lunae (non generantur pulli,) sed plurimum sunt generantia. (horum verborum sensum non assequor: et ni fallor, omitti possunt,) eo quod ova a novilunio usque ad plenilunium et replentur et humectantur, et sunt laudabilia ad generationem. et e< >converso, quae generantur a plenilunio usque ad novilunium, Elluchasem. Audio hanc apud nos quorundam persuasionem esse, ut ex ovis suppositis omnibus foemineae generentur, subiici oportere plenilunio, et ea quoque ad hoc praeferunt quae in plenilunio nata fuerint: et ita observandam temporis rationem, ut in plenilunio etiam excludantur pulli.

We have to put the eggs for incubation in waxing moon: that is, starting from full moon until the fourteenth day. In fact those put for incubation before new moon, liquefy and go bad, Florentinus. From eggs laid with lack of moon (chicks are not generated), but they are very fertile. (I don't succeed in understanding the meaning of the following words: and, if I am not wrong, they can be omitted) Since the eggs, starting from new moon up to full moon, are filling besides moistening, and are suitable for generation. And behave in an opposite way those laid from full moon up to new moon, Elluchasem Elimithar. I hear that some of ours are convinced of the fact that, in order that from all the eggs put for incubation females are born, it is necessary to put them during full moon, and for this purpose they also prefer those laid during full moon: and that likewise attention has to be paid in calculating the time, so that also the chicks are hatched during full moon.

¶ Parientium et incubantium cura. Gallinas includere oportet, ut diem et noctem incubent, praeter quam mane et vespere, dum cibus ac potio his detur. Curator oportet circumeat diebus interpositis aliquot, ac vertat ova, ut aequabiliter concalefiant, Varro[6] et Florentinus. Recludere autem {h}ostium[7] est opus, tum diluculo, tum crepusculo vespertino, illisque pro consuetudine offerre et nutrimentum et potum: ac postea rursus occludere, quod si aliquae non ascenderint ultro, cogendae sunt, Florentinus. Supponendi consuetudo tradita est ab iis, qui religiosius haec administrant eiusmodi. Primum quam secretissima cubilia eligunt, ne incubantes matrices ab aliis avibus inquietentur: deinde antequam consternant ea, diligenter emundant, paleasque quas substraturi sunt, sulfure, et bitumine, atque ardente taeda perlustrant, et expiatas cubilibus iniiciunt, ita factis concavatis nidis, ne ab advolantibus, aut etiam desilientibus evoluta decidant ova. Plurimi etiam infra cubilium stramenta graminis aliquid, et ramulos lauri, nec minus alii capita cum clavis ferreis subiiciunt: quae cuncta remedia creduntur esse adversus tonitrua, quibus vitiantur ova, pullique semiformes interimuntur ante, quam toti partibus suis consummentur. Servat autem qui subijcit, ne singula ova in cubili manu componat, sed totum ovorum numerum in alveolum ligneum conferat; deinde universum leniter in praeparatum nidum transfundat. Incubantibus autem gallinis iuxta ponendus est cibus, ut saturae studiosius nidis immorentur, neve longius evagatae refrigerent ova: quae quamvis pedibus ipsae convertant, aviarius tamen, cum desilierint matres, circumire debet, ac manu versare, ut aequaliter calore concepto facile animentur. Quin etiam si qua unguibus laesa, vel fracta sunt, ut removeat. Idque cum fecerit <duodeviginti diebus>, die undevigesimo animadvertat, an pulli rostellis ova {percuderint} <percusserint>, et auscultetur, si pipiant. nam saepe propter crassitudinem putaminum erumpere non queunt. Itaque haerentes pullos manu eximere oportebit, et matri fovendos subijcere, idque non amplius triduo facere, nam post unum et vigesimum diem silentia ova carent animalibus: eaque removenda sunt, ne incubans inani spe diutius detineatur effoeta, Columella[8].

¶ Cares to be taken of those laying and hatching. It is necessary to shut up the hens so that they brood day and night, except at morning and evening when to give them food and drink is needed. The person in charge has to take his stroll at regular intervals of some days and has to turn the eggs so that they get warm evenly, Varro and Florentinus. To open the entrance is needed both at dawn and twilight of evening, and regularly give them both food and drink: and then to close again, because if some of them didn't want spontaneously climb the nest, we have to force them, Florentinus. By those who rather scrupulously take care of these matters the method of placing eggs has been handed down as follows. They first choose nesting places the most secluded as possible so that incubating broody hens are not disturbed by other birds: then, before they cover the nests, carefully clean them and purify the chaff which are about to place under the hens with sulphur, bitumen and a flaming torch, and when have cleaned the chaff they throw it into the nests, nests which are made hollow so that the eggs by rolling will not fall out when the hens fly in or jump down. A lot of people under the straw of the nests also place some couch grass and twigs of laurel as well as bulbs of garlic with iron nails: all things they believe to be remedies against the thunders by which the eggs are spoiled and the half-formed chicks are killed before are entirely completed in their parts. Besides, he who sets eggs for incubation, bewares of arranging the eggs one by one in the nest with his hand, but has to place all the eggs in a small wood container; then to kindly transfer all of them in the arranged nest. The food has to be located near brooding hens so that, being satiated, they remain more gladly in the nest and so that don't allow the eggs to cool when they are strolling too much time:  and although they themselves are turning them by feet, nevertheless the keeper of hen-pen, when broody hens jumped down, has to take his stroll and turn them with his hand, so that easily the eggs take life by receiving the warmth in a homogeneous way. Besides, if by chance they are injured or broken by toenails, he has to remove them. After having done this for eighteen days, at nineteenth he has to pay attention if the chicks with their little beaks are striking the eggs, and it has to be listened if they peep. In fact often, because of the thickness of the shell, they don't succeed in coming out. Insofar it will be needed to bring out with the hand the chicks which don't succeed in freeing themselves and to put them under the mother who warms them, and this has not to be done for more than three days, in fact the eggs keeping silent after the twenty-first day don't contain a living being: and we have to remove them so that the broody hen by now exhausted doesn't stay longer, urged by a vain hope, Columella.

In cubilibus, cum parturient, acus substernendum: cum peperint, tollere substramen, et recens aliud subijcere, quod pulices et caetera nasci solent, quae gallinam conquiescere non patiuntur, ob quam rem ova aut inaequaliter maturescunt, aut consenescunt, Varro[9].

In the nests, after they started to lay, some chaff has to be put: when they ended to lay, the straw has to be removed and to put some other new, since fleas and other parasites are usually born which don't allow the hen to rest, that's why the eggs either don't ripen in a homogeneous way, or they go bad, Varro.

Curae autem debebit esse custodi, cum parturient aves, ut habeant quam mundissimis paleis constrata cubilia, eaque subinde converrat, et alia stramenta quam recentissima reponat: nam pulicibus, aliisque similibus animalibus replentur, quae secum affert avis, cum ad idem cubile revertitur. Assiduus autem debet esse custos, et speculari parie<n>tes, quod se facere gallinae testantur crebris singultibus interiecta voce acuta. Observare itaque dum edant ova, et confestim circumire oportebit cubilia, ut quae nata sint colligantur, notenturque quae quoque die sint edita, ut quam recentissima supponantur glocientibus: sic enim rustici appellant aves eas, quae volunt incubare. Caetera vel reponantur, vel aere mutentur, Columella[10]. Cum volumus ut ovis gallinae incubent, stramen nitidum est substernendum, in eoque imponendus ferreus clavus: quod is videatur habere vim vitium quodvis propulsandi, Florentinus. Ova quae incubantur, si habeant in se semen pulli, curator quatriduo postquam incubari coeperint, intelligere potest: si contra lumen tenuit, et purum uniusmodi esse animadverterit, putant eijciendum, et aliud subijciendum, Varro[11]. Quarto die postquam coepere incubari, si contra lumen cacumine ovorum apprehenso una manu, purus et uniusmodi perluceat color, sterilia existimantur esse, proque eis alia substituenda, Plin.[12] Ova incubationi idonea, quarto die sanguineas habent venas: quo tempore si quae ad radios Solis clara apparuerint in [428] acutiore parte, reijciantur, Albert.

The custodian will pay attention that when the hens will lay the eggs they have nests covered by straw as cleanest as possible, and often he has to clean them and put very recent straw: in fact the nests fill with fleas and other similar animals the hen brings with herself coming  back to the nest. Moreover the custodian has to be industrious and observe the moment when they lay the egg, a thing of which the hens give notice with frequent gurgles intercalated by a sharp note. Therefore it will be needed to observe them while laying the eggs and at once to go round the nests, in order to pick up the laid ones, and a countersign is affixed on those laid in that day, so that under those doing the voice of broody hen very fresh eggs are put: in fact the farmers call in this way - glocientes - those hens wanting to brood. The other eggs are either preserved or exchanged for money, Columella. When we want that hens start to incubate eggs, we have to put under them very clean straw and add an iron nail: since it would seem to have the power to hold far whatever kind of negative effect, Florentinus. If the incubated eggs contain the germ of the chick, the  person in charge of hen-pen can know this four days after they started to be brooded: if he holds it against a light and sees that it is uniformly transparent, it is believed that it must be thrown away and another to be put underneath, Varro. The fourth day after they started to be incubated, if the extremity of the eggs has been taken with a hand and they have been put against a light, and the color allows the light to pass uniformly in a transparent way, they are regarded as sterile, and in their place we have to put other ones for incubation, Pliny. The eggs fitting for incubation, at fourth day show some veins full of blood: at this moment, if some of them put against the rays of the sun will appear clear by the side of the sharp end, it must be eliminated, Albertus.