POULTRY. 555 



If an egg is broken in any nest and the remaining ones become soiled, they must be care 

 fully washed in warm water, or the coating of egg will stop the pores of the shell, and smother 

 the chick. The nests are examined daily to see if all is right. One restless hen will often 

 cause much trouble in this way. As the season advances and the weather becomes dry, it is 

 best to sprinkle the eggs and hay towards night slightly with warm water twice, first about 

 the fourteenth day, and again the eighteenth or nineteenth. This softens the shell and so 

 moistens the atmosphere that the lining will not dry upon the chick before it has time to 

 release itself. 



If possible, a room full of hens is set at the same time, as it takes little longer to care for 

 twenty than for five. &quot;When the chicks begin to hatch, they are removed from the hen as 

 soon as dry, into a basket lined on the bottom with paper, and are covered closely with a 

 woolen cloth, and set by the fire. We once placed fifty in a corn basket and put it by the 1 

 kitchen stove, and after an hour s absence returned to find the fire increased and the poor 

 things nearly smothered to death. They are kept in the basket two or three days until their 

 mother, or some other hen, is ready to receive them into the coop. They will begin to eat on 

 the second day, and this early handling does much to make them tractable. 



The first foe that confronts us is the large brown louse from the hen, which is properly a 

 tick, and fastens itself firmly to the head of the chick; and sometimes a dozen of these giants 

 can be found on one little pate. There they suck the blood until the poor victim grows weak 

 and thin, and perhaps dies of gapes 

 or any other chicken disease that 

 may prevail. 



To prevent this, we used the 

 kerosene in the nest boxes ; but lest 

 by chance one should appear, we 

 grease the head of each one before 

 putting it again with the hen with a 

 moisture of equal parts of lard and 

 kerosene. An assistant once, intend 

 ing to make very thorough work, 

 used so much oil that it ran into the 

 eyes, and caused thirty to die of 



blindness. BARREN *** FEKTILE BGff 



The coops are movable, with board bottoms, and are placed each year in a new spot, in 

 the sun early in the season, and in the shade later. Twelve or fourteen chicks are given to 

 each hen, and for a few days she is confined to her coop, but afterwards allowed liberty in the 

 dry part of the day. She has all the corn she will eat as long as she broods the flock, and so 

 keeps fat and warm, and often begins to lay before she weans her family.&quot; 



An occasional sprinkle of sulphur or Scotch snuff in the nest while the hen is sitting will 

 be a good preventive against vermin. The nest and eggs must be kept dean. After the hen 

 has set about ten days, it will be well to sprinkle the eggs and nest with tepid water three 

 times a week. At the eighth or tenth day of sitting, the fertile eggs can be distinguished 

 from those not fertile by holding them up before a strong light; if fertile, the egg will be 

 dark and opaque; if not fertile, it will be merely transparent, as shown in the accompany 

 ing cut. 



Forty-eight hours from the time of the first breaking of the shell commences is sufficient 

 time for the entire brood to hatch. Where the eggs set were all laid about the same time, 

 the hatching will be quite uniform; but when the eggs vary much in age the time of hatch 

 ing will vary. When small, light hens are set, or when all the eggs were about the same age, 

 we do not approve of removing the chicks as they hatch from the mother, as they are more 



