IMPORTANCE OF THE EGG RETURN. 



attention to proper diet, including a due propor- 

 tion of green and animal food, and by constant 

 precaution against insect vermin, which is, 

 beyond doubt, the proximate cause of this 

 vice in many cases. 



The first essential in this warfare is, of 

 course, constant attention to the dust-bath, both 



to keep it supplied with clean 

 Insect material, and to keep it dry. The 



Vermin. dust-bath itself will harbour vermin 



if not properly renewed, and if it is 

 damp the fowls cannot use it, and have no 

 resource. Where this is attended to and the 

 roosting-house kept clean, there will usually be 

 little trouble. All the walls should be gone 

 over twice a year if possible with hot lime-wash, 

 to which is added one ounce of carbolic acid in 

 crystals to every gallon. Where there is the 

 least suspicion, this should be not only laid on, 

 but well "worked into" all chinks and crevices 

 with a hand-brush. The ends of perches and 

 shelves, and anything else that makes a chink 

 or crevice, should be lifted every now and then 

 to see if the " red mite" is making any lodg- 

 ment, and the places painted with kerosene oil. 

 Dilute carbolic acid may also be " sprayed " all 

 over the walls, which is easily done by filling 

 a glass bottle, stoppering it with a cork in 

 which a small groove or notch is cut up one 

 side, and swinging the bottle round, when the 

 dilute acid will spray out through the small 

 groove in the cork. 



Any fresh purchase should always be most 

 carefully examined for vermin ; to do this often 

 saves much trouble. If found infested with 

 any, a bird should be isolated for a day or two, 

 and meantime well treated with some insecticide, 

 well rubbed into her plumage all over down to 

 the roots, and especially the under-parts of the 

 body, and fluff round the vent. The powder of 

 Pyretlirum (of which one brand is well known 

 as Persian Powder) does well for this. A 

 second application may be necessary. Another 

 cheap and good insecticide powder is made by 

 rubbing up powdered sulphur with as much 

 dissolved carbolic acid as can be taken up with- 

 out making it a paste or moist ; this may be 

 well dusted and rubbed into the plumage in 

 a similar way. Other expedients, and the 

 American method of fumigation and treatment 

 of the houses with volatile compounds, will be 

 found in the final chapter of this work. The 

 nests also need attention, changing the straw, or 

 fern, at proper intervals ; fusty straw always 

 means vermin. A couple of lumps of camphor 

 at opposite corners of a nest will do much to 

 repel lice. At moulting time feathers should 

 also be cleared up and, if possible, burnt every 



day or two ; leaving them about is a fruitful 

 source of vermin. 



Eggs should be looked for regularly, and if 

 possible twice a day. It is a curious thing that 

 many country servants, otherwise 

 Eggs. fairly honest, seem to have no con- 



science at all concerning eggs, and 

 a lock on the door often produces surprising 

 results. If hens look healthy and red, and 

 " prate," and are known to go to the nest, and 

 still there are no eggs, it is time to look into 

 matters. Again and again we have personally 

 found the suggestion of locks upon the doors 

 received with indignation ; but nevertheless its 

 adoption speedily resulted in hen-fruit Of 

 course, there might also be egg-eating by the 

 hens ; but if such be the case it is quite as need- 

 ful to discover that. Want of eggs, when due 

 allowance has been made for age, time of year, 

 and all other known circumstances, should 

 never be accepted as a normal state of 

 things, but every attempt made to trace its 

 real cause. 



For this and other reasons, wherever any 

 chickens are reared pains should be taken to 

 recognise, if possible, the egg laid by each 

 particular hen. In the case of a few only kept 

 for household supply, any regular attendant can 

 very soon manage so much, without any doubt 

 or difficulty. Out of any half-dozen hens got 

 together to start with in the ordinary way, it is 

 probable that about two will lay very well and 

 pay a large profit, three more a fair mediocre 

 number, paying a small profit, and perhaps 

 one very few indeed. Such poor layers should 

 be weeded out anyway ; and when chicks are 

 reared, only eggs from the best layers should be 

 saved for hatching. In this way enormous im- 

 provement can be effected ; but this subject 

 will be further discussed in a subsequent 

 chapter. Meantime, and merely to show its 

 vital importance, we may record that at the 

 experimental station in Maine, U.S., Professor 

 Gowell once placed 260 April- and May-hatched 

 pullets in breeding pens, and by trap nests the 

 laying of every bird was recorded for twelve 

 months, commencing on the 1st November, but 

 those not laying then, being reckoned from 

 when they did begin. Five died, and 19 were 

 stolen: of the balance of 236 birds, 39 laid 160 

 or more, and 22 birds less than loo. Three 

 only laid 36, 37, and 38 in the year, while the 

 five best laid 200, 201, 204, 206, and 208. The 

 last bird had laid a fortnight before she was 

 counted, and in the ensuing first six months of 

 a second year laid II 2 more. Some birds laid 

 well one month and very badly the next, while 

 others laid well continuously. No "egg-type" 



