BREEDING. 23 



reverse the next, or she may be completely 

 destroyed by the effort. One that has two 

 or three nests and four or five eggs each time, 

 must be a mother sufficiently valuable, and 

 to overtax her is both unwise and unsafe. 



The period for incubation lasts fourteen 

 days, but in very warm weather, the process 

 may be completed in thirteen days. Be- 

 tween seven and nine in the morning is their 

 regular time of laying, and for the purpose 

 of preventing waste of time, by permitting 

 the hen to sit on unfecundated eggs, some 

 breeders are in the habit of taking the eggs 

 out when eight days old, and holding them 

 between their finger and thumb before a 

 strong light, when it is ascertained that those 

 which are transparent are unimpregnated, 

 and therefore, useless, but the good ones are 

 dark and thick. 



If they are all bad, they should be thrown 

 away ; the nest should be taken out, shaken 

 and cleaned, and an inducement, and an op- 

 portunity afforded the hen to lay again, 

 which she will generally do in a very short 

 time. 



After laying two or three eggs, some hens 

 will desert them, and it is found upon ex- 

 amination, that these eggs are in general bad ; 

 nature, by some mysterious process, giving 

 the bird an instinctive hint, that to brood 

 over them longer, would be labor lost. 

 These, therefore, should be immediately 

 broken, and the hen allowed to go to nest 

 again. 



