522 Tlie Rearing and Mayiagement of 



be excelled as parents, layers, or sitters : their eggs are large, 

 and the birds very good for the table, I have not the least diffi- 

 culty in rearing chickens from any of the above-named breeds, 

 and feel convinced that success depends upon the breeding and 

 feeding. 



I find that the cross-breds stand the winter months better than 

 the pure breds, and therefore prefer the former to the latter, 

 because of the high prices they will command at that season of 

 the year. The question is often asked. What kind of fowls will 

 pay the best to keep? The answer depends entirely upon the 

 purpose for which they are chiefly kept. If for laying, I prefer 

 the Moonies, having had pullets of that breed which have laid 

 for twelve months, not missing more than two days a week. 

 They are a good-sized fowl, and are handsome withal ; but as 

 table fowls, I should make choice of the Dorking or Game, or 

 the cross-breeds, before alluded to. 



The Hatching or Sitting House. — To some persons it Avould 

 appear quite absurd to think of setting hens where they have not 

 been accustomed to lay : but " where there's a will there's a 

 way." The sitting-house is really a most important apartment, 

 necessary to ensure the successful hatching of poultry ; for how 

 frequently do we see hens spoil their eggs by forsaking the nest 

 when !^they are allowed to sit where they are hourly interrupted, 

 and perhaps driven off their nests by other hens wishing to lay. 

 To prevent all this, a separate apartment is required for sitting 

 hens. It should be divided into compartments, of sufficient 

 size to contain a nest for one hen, and so arranged that the hen 

 can be secured on the nest by a lattice-door, allowing plenty of 

 air ; or the following plan may be adopted. The nests (14 inches 

 wide, 14 inches high, and 16 inches from front to back) may 

 range in two tiers along the lower part of a house (8 or 10 feet 

 by 6), each nest being provided with a loose wooden door, 

 reaching within 3 inches of the top, so as to admit of ventilation 

 at the same time that the hen is secured on the nest ; the door 

 when closed is fitted into a groove at one end and fastened with 

 a wooden button at the other ; each button fastens two doors, and 

 each door is numbered with paint, the corresponding number 

 being painted on xh.e facia of each nest. 



I never set less than three hens at one time, and that number 

 may always be had broody in the course of a week or ten 

 days by leaving a few spoilt eggs in the nests where the 

 hens you wish to set are accustomed to lay. The broody 

 hens should be managed thus : — During the day make as many 

 nests as you require in the sitting-house, with clean, soft, bruised 

 straw, underneath which, during the summer months only, place 

 a green sod ; when evening arrives place the broody hens thereon, 



