Hisce itaque omnibus sedulo observatis, Gallinas includere oportet, ut tam interdiu quam noctu, ac in summa semper incubent, nisi dum cibus potusque exhibendus est. Id autem fiat mane, et vesperi. Cum volumus, inquit Florentinus[1], ut ovis Gallinae incubent, stramen nitidum est substernendum, et in eo imponendus ferreus clavus: quod is videatur vim habere quodvis vitium propulsandi. Erant autem veteres in supponendis ovis admodum diligentes, ne dicam superstitiosi, ut ex hoc Columellae[2] cuivis, ni fallor, constet. Supponendi consuetudo, inquit, tradita est ab iis, qui religiosius haec administrant, huiusmodi. Primum quam secretissima cubilia eligunt, ne incubantes matrices ab aliis avibus inquietentur: deinde antequam consternant ea, diligenter emundant, paleasque quas substraturi sunt, sulphure, et bitumine, atque ardente teda perlustrant, et expiatas cubilibus inijciunt, ita factis concavatis nidis, ne ab advolantibus, aut etiam desilientibus evoluta decidant ova.

Then, when all these recommendations have been carefully observed, the hens must be shut up so that they incubate both day and night, in short, always, except when food and drink must be given them. This should be done in the morning and evening. Florentinus says: When we wish the hens to incubate eggs, we must put clean straw under them, and an iron nail placed in it: because it seems to have the power of driving away whatever harm. For the ancients were quite diligent in setting eggs, not to say superstitious, as to whoever appears, if I am not wrong, from this passage of Columella. The method of placing eggs, he says, has been handed down as follows by those who take care of these matters more scrupulously. They first choose nesting places the most secluded as possible so that the incubating broody hens may not be disturbed by other birds: then, before they scatter anything in them, 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.

Caveat Gallinarius, ne ova multum manibus moveat. Nam venae, et humores, dum vertuntur facillime vitiantur, quod vel inde constat, quia cum Gallina in occulto incubat, ova omnia foecunda fiant: manibus vero hominum tractata plurimum corrumpantur. Conradus Heresbachius[3] sibi compertum esse tradit, quassata claudos produxisse pullos. Quare curator, dum ea vertit, cum summa dexteritate id facere debet. Debet autem ea necessario vertere ex Varronis[4], et {Columellae[5]} <Florentini> praecepto, ut aequaliter concalefiant.

The chicken raiser should be careful not to shake much the eggs with his hands. For the veins and fluids are very easily deteriorated when the eggs are turned, which is also proven by the fact that when a hen incubates in a hidden place all the eggs are fertile: but when handled by men they grow rotten a lot. Conrad Heresbach records that he checked that eggs which had been shaken produced lame chicks. The chicken raiser thus ought to use the greatest dexterity when he turns them. Afterwards he must necessarily turn them according to the advice of Varro and Florentinus, in order that they may be warmed equally.

Substramen[6] saepius tollat, et recens aliud subijciat, alioqui ex acere veteri pulices oriuntur, et caetera huiusmodi animalcula, quae Gallinam conquiescere non patiuntur: ob quam rem ova aut inaequaliter maturescunt, aut consenescunt. Columella[7] monet, ut cibus iuxta ponatur, ut saturae studiosius nidis immorentur, neve longius evagantes ova refrigerent: quare commode seorsim ab aliis recludentur. Curabit etiam omnino, si aliquae nolint ascendere ultro, ut ad incubandi munus redeant, coactae etiam, si necessitas urgebit, item si quae unguibus earum laesa, vel {pacta} <fracta[8]> sunt, ova removeat.

He must remove the straw rather frequently and place beneath the hens a new one, otherwise lice grow in the old chaff and other little animals of this kind, which do not allow the hen to rest: because of this fact the eggs either mature not evenly or grow old. Columella advises that the food is placed nearby, in order that they will remain more zealously upon their nests since their hunger is satisfied and do not cool the eggs when they stroll about rather far away: therefore they should be shut up apart from the others. He will also take a lot of care, if some hens do not wish to climb on their nests spontaneously, that they return to their incubation task, even under coercion if necessity is pressing, and at the same time, if some eggs have been damaged by their claws, or broken, he must remove them.

Die undevigesimo animadvertat, an pulli rostellis ova pertuderint, et auscultet, an pipiant. Nam saepe propter crassitiem putaminum erumpere nequeunt. Itaque haerentes pullos manu eximito, et matri fovendos subijcito, idque non amplius triduo. Nam quae post illum diem silent ova animalibus carent, quare et removenda sunt, ne Gallina diutius incubans inani spe pullorum detenta, effoeta reddatur. Mirabile magnum, quia non plane comprehenditur, inquit Petrus Gregorius, virtus, et omnipotentia Dei, quia pullus intra ovi corticem conclusus, antequam putamen effringat, pipiat ales factus intra conclusus post undevigesimum diem ab incubitu Gallinae in ova.

On the nineteenth day of incubation he should note whether the chicks have struck the eggs with their little beaks, and he should listen for their peeping. For often because of the thickness of the shells they cannot break out. Then let him draw out with his hand the chicks which are stuck and put them under the mother hen to be warmed, and he must do so for no more than three days in succession. For the eggs which are silent after that lapse of time lack creatures and should be removed lest the hen, incubating too long because of a vain hope of chicks, should become exhausted. Pierre Grégoire says: The power and omnipotence of the Lord are a great marvel because not clearly understood, being that the chick, while shut up in the egg shell, and before he breaks it, peeps like a shaped and finished bird inside of the egg after the nineteenth day since the hen lay down on eggs.

Porro supponere etiam Gallinis diversi generis volucrum ova non tam nostro aevo, quam apud veteres usitatum fuit. Nam praeterquam quod Plinius[9] id, aliique Geoponici tradunt, etiam apud Ciceronem[10] legimus: Anatum, inquit, ova Gallinis saepe supponimus. Quomodo vero ea, nec non Anserina subijciantur, suo aliquando loco, Deo volente, docebimus, uti etiam abunde de Phasiano diximus[11].

Further, to place under the hens eggs of a different genus of birds has been usual not so much in our time, as among the ancients. For besides Pliny and other geoponic writers record this practice, we also read in Cicero: Often, he says, we put ducks’ eggs under hens. How these as well as goose eggs are placed under hens I shall explain, God willing, sooner or later in its place, as also I said at length speaking of the pheasant.

Quod si vero quis, vel mares, sive Gallos, sine faemellis, et e contra faemellas sine maribus nasci velit, id ita praestabit. Ova eliget oblonga, et fastigio acuminata, si mares volet: sin faeminas, quae rotundiora, et parte sui acutiore obtusa, orbiculum habent. Ita enim legendum est apud Aristotelem[12], ubi ex correctione Alberti contra ex rotundioribus mares, ex acuminatis foeminas prodire legitur. Et multi sane Aristotelis veterem textum, ita vere legi solere putant, quod posteriores Geoponicos in hac determinatione ab illo nihil recedere videant. Nam Marcellus Virgilius cum Columellae, et Aristotelis de sexu ovorum discernendo sententias contrarias, ut credebat, recitasset: Est sane, inquit, in natura gravis author Aristoteles. Col{l}umella tamen villaticam pastionem ex quotidiana observatione, et experientia docebat: nec nostrum est inter tam graves authores tantas componere lites. Quasi vero Columella ab Aristotelis sententia recedat, quod sane nequaquam facere quivis dicturus sit, qui haec verba eius[13] leget. Cum quis volet, inquit, plurimos mares excludere longissima quaeque, et acutissima ova subijciet, et rursum cum faeminas, quam rotundissima.

- Sex of the chick and shape of the egg - But if someone wishes to have born males, or roosters, without females, and on the contrary, females without males, let him proceed as follows. He should choose elongated eggs and with sharp ends if he wishes males: if he wishes females, let him choose eggs which, being more rounded and blunt at their more pointed end, have a roundish shape. For we must read in such a way in Aristotle, where owing to the correction by Albertus we read that on the contrary from the more rounded ones they are arising males, females from the pointed ones. And really many people think the old text of Aristotle should usually read truly in this way, because they think that the later geoponic writers don’t want at all to part from him a propos of this conclusion. For Marcellus Virgilius, when explaining the conflicting opinions, as he was believing, of Columella and Aristotle regarding how to distinguish the sex of the eggs, he said: Really, in natural history Aristotle is a weighty author. Columella, however, taught poultry husbandry from daily observation and experience: and it is not for us to conciliate such great controversies between such weighty authors. As if truly Columella was diverging from Aristotle’s opinion, and really whoever will read the following his own words, by no manner of means he will be able to affirm that Columella is doing so. If someone, Columella says, wishes that very many males are hatched out, he will place under the hen all the longest and most pointed eggs, and if on the contrary he wishes females, the roundest ones.

Sed praeter Columellam ipsemet Plinius ubique fere in animalium natura Aristotelis interpres ita sentit, dum ait[14]: Faeminas edunt quae rotunda gignuntur, reliqua marem. Hoc idem sentire videtur Horatius[15], ubi ova oblonga gratioris saporis esse scribit, inquiens:

Longa quibus facies ovis erit, illa memento

Ut succi melioris, et ut magis alba rotundis

Ponere, namque marem cohibent callosa vitellum.

Contra Albertus, cum Avicennam scribere aliter videret, propriam nobis experientiam obtrudere non est veritus, veteremque Aristotelis textum immutavit, vitiumque non ex dictis Philosophi, sed ex perversa scriptura fuisse arguit. Verum quicquid ille dicat, vetus [225] illa lectio vera est, et genuina Aristotelis, quam scilicet Horatius, Plinius, et Columella, qui, ut dixi, ex proprio periculo tradebat scriptis, comprobarunt.

But besides Columella, Pliny himself, who almost everywhere is a translator of Aristotle on nature of animals, does think alike when he says: Those which are born round produce females, the rest a male. Horace seems to think the same thing when he writes that elongated eggs have a more pleasing savor, saying:

Remember to put on the table the eggs with oblong appearance

for their flavor is better, and are more rich in albumen than the round ones,

for the shell contains a male yolk.

On the contrary Albertus, seeing that Avicenna was writing in a different way, did not hesitate to superimpose on us his own experience, and he changed the old text of Aristotle, and infers that the error arose not from the affimations of the Philosopher, but from corrupted transcription. But whatever he says, that old reading is true and authentic of Aristotle, and it is glaring that it has been confirmed by Horace, Pliny, and Columella who, as I said, was putting down in writing what was resulting from his own experience.