76 



AN EGG FARM. 



car must be of the best, so that the latter may be moved 

 at a touch. A wheelbarrow is sometimes used in a poul- 

 try house alley, but it is a nuisance, because, among 

 other objections, two hands are used in propelling it, 

 but a car can be pushed by one hand, or by the attend- 

 ant's body, leaving both his hands free. The best way 

 is as good as any other way. The car is provided with 

 conveniences the most handy that can possibly be con- 

 trived for transporting the fresh, moist earth used in the 

 nests of sitters, also eggs and, on occasion, mother hens 

 with their broods of newly hatched chicks. 



The laying hens, destined for sitting when they 

 become broody, must occupy the same building as those 



FIG. 24. COOP FOR SINGLE SITTER. 



actually sitting, because it takes time to move sitters 

 from place to place. A sitter incubates in the same 

 nest she used while laying. To keep laying birds from 

 access to nests of sitters a trap system is employed, each 

 sitter shutting herself in. In other words, when the 

 sitter is off her nest the trap is set, and when she goes 

 on it is sprung and she is a prisoner. The construction 

 of these traps will be described in detail, because they 

 are the controlling feature of the system of management, 

 with reference to which all the rest is contrived. By 

 but little more than a simple turn of the wrist, the 

 attendant can perform many of the most important 



