REPORT OF THE POULTRY MANAGER. 255 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



constitutional weakness.' And which may also be said to be the cause of so many- 

 chicks dying in the shell, near the hatching period. The foregoing conclusions seem 

 to point to a faulty condition of the breeding stock, and to justify our own conclusions 

 in that respect. 



In our poultry department steps have been taken to ascertain whether the eggs 

 of December will give stronger germs and more of them than those of early March, 

 when the vitality of the laying stock is presumably less. With this object in view, 

 two pens of eleven two-year old hens, and two of pullets, have been mated up. When 

 sufficient eggs have been collected they will be placed in an incubator and results 

 noted. 



BREEDING PENS MADE UP. 



On January 15 the following breeding pens were made up : — 



Breeds. Cocks. Cockerels. Hens. Pullets. 



Barred Plymouth Rocks 1 . . 8 



White Plymouth Rocks 1 . . 7 



Langshans 1 . . 7 



White Wyandottes 1 .. 10 



White Leghorns 1 .. S 



Black Minorcas 1 8 



Brown Leghorns 1 . . S 



White Minorcas 1 . . 5 



White Indian Game 1 .. .. 4 



Crosses. 



Light Brahma, male, mated with 4 Barred P. Rock hens. 



Barred P. Rock, male, mated with S W. Leghorn pullets. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE SITTERS. 



When the hens became broody, they were set in wooden boxea placed in vacant 

 pens of No. 2 house. The pens were 7x9 feet in size, and no more than four sitters 

 were allotted to a pen. The wooden nest boxes contained no bottoms, and had a hinged 

 door in front The nests were made of dry lawn clippings, which were found to answer 

 the purpose much better than the cut straw used in previous years. Grain, grit and 

 drink-water were constantly before the sitters. On being made, the nests were thor- 

 oughly dusted with a disinfecting powder, and so were the sitters, before being put on 

 the nests. If the sitters are not so dusted at time of sitting, and dui'ing the hatching 

 period of twenty-one days following, they are apt to become infested with vermin. It 

 was found beneficial to place two or three china eggs in the nests as arranged and 

 allow the broody hens to sit on them, for a day or two The sitters having proved 

 reli.ible. the china eggs were removed and replaced by the valuable ones. In the case 

 of borrowed sitters this will be found a wise precaution, as will also the thorough 

 ridding of the birds of any vermin that might be on them. In the morning the doors 

 of the nest boxes, which had been closed from the previous day, were opened and the 

 sitters allowed opportunity to get out for food, water and a short run. In early spring, 

 when the weather is likely to be cold, the sitter should return to her nest inside of ten 

 minutes. Some space is given to the foregoing details becaiise they are all important 

 in the successful hatching of chickens bv hens. Where incubators avd brooders are 

 used they do not, of course, apply. (See cut of nest box.) 



