Journal of AgricultJirc. [lo Jan.. 1910. 



Eggs Without Shell. 



This is generally due to a lack cf shell-forming material. Sometimes 

 dilation of the shell-forming chamber of the o\iduct is responsible, and 

 at times a sudden fright will bring about the trouble, viz., premature 

 expulsion of an egg before the shell has been deposited. 



Give the foAvls plenty of shell-forming material. Place a tin close 

 by the layers and fill with a mixture of burnt lime, old mortar, oyster- 

 shells, cut or I:>urnt bone, the latter for preference. Add more green 

 food, \\heat, bran, and crushed egg-shells to rations. All of these will 

 improve matters, reducing at the same time the amount of animal food — 

 too much meat will produce soft eggs. 



"What Poultry-raisers should Avoid. 



Low-lying ground — it is difficult to drain. 



Second-hand material — risk of disease. 



Making perches too high. 



Buying mixed lots of fowls — thev mav Ije past the laying stage. 



Leaving eggs in nest — gather daily. 



Keeping cockerels with laying pullets — infertile eggs keep better. 



Cheap and musty food. 



Kitchen scraps from hospitals. 



Late hatching — means lack of stamina. 



Too much grain — causes liver troubles. 



Giving watej when birds suffer from diarrhoea. 



Overcrowding. 



Too wide a ration — it should be quality rather than quantity. 



Feeding grain to sick birds. 



The sitting hen with wing cut — eggs get chilled. 



The leggy sitter — too clumsy and often breaks eggs. 



The hen covered with vermin — the chicks will also have them. 



L'sing a broody hen twice in succession — her temperature will be low_ 



Breeding from deformed stock — like begets like. 



Breeding from birds after suffering from roup. 



Dirty water in the pens. 



Feeding tainted meat — affects flavour of eggs. 



An excess of condiments — they irritate and cause thirst. 



Spices — A sheep's liver or boiled rabbit is better. 



High nest boxes — the hen breaks more eggs than she hatches. 



Thin-shelled eggs for incubatoi. 



Opening egg drawer in incubator bt-fore three davs have elapsed. 



Opening egg drawer when shells chip — chicks get chilled. 



Feeding chicks for first thirty hours. 



Too high temperature in incubator — keep at 103 degrees. 



Too high temperature in brooder — 85 degrees is sufficient. 



Delay when bad symptoms appear in the flock — isolate sick birds. 



Placing duck eggs in cool storage — they do not keep. 



Packing eggs in musty chaff — it taints them. 



Packing eggs in cases on which kerosene has been spilt. 



Carbolic powders in nest boxes — eggs are affected. 



Setting hens in flat-bottomed boxes. 



Putting too many eggs under hen. 



Damp houses — ill-ventilated ones conduce to catarrh and roup. 



Narrow perches — contracts the breast bone. 



