698 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTURE. 



Step into the box without being compelled to jump down on t'o the eggs. 

 When I want a clutch of eggs brooded I put the eggs in one of the boxes, 

 bring. a broody hen from one of the laying houses and carefully put her 

 on the eggs. I select one that gives signs of being a resolute sitter, and I 

 rarely fail to get her to settle down to business. It is best usually to set 

 three of four at a time, so that if some of them have poor hatches the 

 chicks can be given to the other hens. A Plymouth Rock or Langshan 

 can brood from 12 to 15 chicks. 



This sitting-hen is provided with water, grit, and a dust box. A 

 record is kept of the dates of the setting of the hens, and as soon as one 

 begins to hatch the chicks are taken from under her and put in a basket 

 lined with some soft cloth and placed near a warm stove. In this way 

 every chick is saved — none are trampled to death by the hen. When the 

 hatch is over the brood is put with the hen in a dry place and they are 

 given water and fine grit. Nothing is fed them for from 30 to 40 hours. 

 Two days is probably not too long a fast for them. 



Tills plan I have found to be the best of any I have tried. In this 

 way the sitting hens are separated from the rest of the flock, they are 

 not disturbed by other hens, they are not inclined to remain off the 

 eggs too long, and they are more easily cared for. 



Usually the method of allowing the hen to run with her brood is not 

 satisfactory. The loss from storms is pretty sure to be heavy. Of course 

 a hen will hunt a great deal of food for her young if she is given free 

 range. On the whole, though, I find it best to keep the hens confined 

 most of the time in comfortable coops. These should be roomy and rain- 

 proof, and if they are without floors they should be moved so as to secure 

 cleanliness for the hen, and her brood. 



Another thing that needs to be attended to with scrupulous watchful- 

 ness is the dusting of the hens with some good insect powder. Pyrethrum 

 I have found to be thoroughly satisfactory for this purpose. There 

 is no other such source of loss in the poultry yard as that from lice. 

 One fatal lapse of care in this respect may spoil a summer's work. The 

 poultryman must settle it with himself once for all that eternal vigilance 

 is the price of a healthy, vigorous young flock. Dust the brooding hens 

 wfth your insect powder at least once in two weeks. Do it thoroughly. 

 Use an insect pow^der bellows that will blow the powder down to the 

 skin and all through the feathers. Look out for head lice. These are 

 the most destructive of all kinds that infest poultry, and they are the 

 hardest to get rid of. I could a tale unfold in regard to these pests. Last 

 summer in my absence from home for two weeks they started in on one 

 of my young white Langshan flocks, and when I returned more than a 

 dozen pullets were nearly ruined by their ravages. Nothimg short of dip- 

 ping this entire flock in an insecticide was sufficient to destroy them. 

 Again I say watch out for head lice. They will get in their work when 

 you least suspect. 



The red mites are not found on the boides of the hens and their 

 broods, but in the cracks and hiding places of the coops, from which they 

 sally forth at night and prey upon the fowls. It is easy to get rid of 



