THE VICE OF EGG-EATING. 



shells vvitti iiauseous compounds, of a yellowish 

 colour, like strong mustard, or carbolated 

 vaseline. We have seen a hen eat the whole 

 of a single mustard-filled egg without ruffling a 

 feather ; but generally if the plan is persevered 



with, and such prepared eggs regu- 

 Egg-eating larly left in the nest and about the 

 Hens. yard, the habit will be conquered. 



There is, however, a more certain 

 plan, which we owe to the experience of 

 American farmers, who often suffer far more 

 largely in this way, owing to long close confine- 

 ment during the winter. There is a very large 

 agreement amongst these experienced breeders 

 that the best, most certain, and in fact almost 

 invariable cure for egg-eating, is to give a fire 

 supply of either eggs or egg-shells for a few 

 days ! Some of them regularly save up their 

 egg-shells for such contingencies, showing how 

 common the trouble is under the conditions ; 

 others get them from the restaurants. At first 

 the hens just go for them ! And they are given 

 the shells freely, for breakfast, dinner, supper. 

 But soon the appetite palls ; by the end of the 

 second day they care little, and on the third, 

 fresh eggs may be rolled about among them 

 with impunity. The editor of one of the 

 American poultry journals states : " We have 

 tried this plan for some years, and have never 

 known it to fail. We save up our egg-shells, 

 and have a stock on hand for any pen of fowls 

 that shows a tendency towards the egg-eating 

 habit. This remedy has never failed us." 

 Then a farmer writer : " Go to the bakery and 

 get a basket of fresh egg-shells ; give them to 

 the hens as fresh as you can, and throw them in 

 whole ; don't dry them, or break them up, but 

 give as fresh and whole as you can get them. 

 Give them all they will eat, and throw in some 

 more, and keep them before them all the time 

 for a l&^M days, and your hens will stop eating 

 their eggs." Others report that they have given 

 the entire eggs, using unfertile ones tested out 

 of the incubators. " At first the hens would 

 trample all over each other to get at the broken 

 eggs, but before they got through, they wouldn't 

 touch an egg." There is a whole pile of testi- 

 mony to the success of this cure. 



Another way of meeting the vice is to em- 

 ploy nests so constructed that the egg rolls 

 away out of the hen's reach as soon as laid. 

 The first nest we ever knew so made was 

 figured in a journal of forty years ago, as in 

 Fig. 29. The board A is inclined so that the 

 egg rolls down it as at B, on to some straw. 

 We found ourselves that hens refused to lay in a 

 nest made exactly like this ; but by making A of 

 carpet, which sagged a little in the middle, and 



cementing a nest-egg half-way through as at 

 C (or cementing half the egg on the carpet), 

 they would do so. The portion B should also be 

 of carpet or some soft material. A box merely 

 furnished with a false bottom of carpet or 

 canvas, in which two cross-slits are cut rather 

 towards the back, will often suffice for an 

 emergency. In America it is found that making 

 the nests dark, as by placing them away from 

 the wall and making the hens enter them by 

 this dark passage from behind, the front towards 

 the house being closed up, greatly prevents, and 

 often checks egg-eating. But when it once 

 occurs, the weight of American testimony 

 inclines us to the egg or egg-shell cure. 



Fig. 29.— Safety Nest. 



It is a tradition of ages, dating back at least 

 to Horace (Lib. ii., Sat. 4) and Columella, that 

 long, slender eggs will produce cocks, and 

 rounder ones hens. These old fables 

 Siz^^* ^^^ ^'^^^ '^^^" refuted again and again ; 

 the fact is that nearly all of any 

 hen's eggs are almost exactly alike, and can 

 be known as hers. Strange coincidences 

 have occurred from time to time ; when we 

 experimented, we had some too; but sooner or 

 later these are upset by as flagrant contradic- 

 tions. The little foundation there may appear 

 for this superstition probably lies in the facts 

 which we had ascertained and stated many 

 years ago, that a pullet's early eggs are gener- 

 ally rather slimmer and more pointed, and on 

 an average also produce rather more cocks, 

 and that in less degree the same applies to hens' 

 eggs as laid early in the season. Generally 

 speaking, there are more cockerels in a brood 

 the more vigorous the pen ; hence cockerels 

 usually preponderate in early broods, which are 

 mostly from cockerels mated with adult hens. 



We would certainly prefer, for sitting, to 

 select eggs of the fair ordinary size and shape 

 generally laid by any given hen, but this should 

 not be pressed too far. Some Spanish and 

 Minorcas lay all sorts of shapes, even as round 

 as a tennis-ball, and we have known strong 

 chicks from these and other rather exceptional 

 eggs. Still, good average eggs with firm and 



