80 AN EGG FARM. 



The doorway to the door is narrowed by tacking on 

 strips of wood, according to the average size of the birds, 

 so that two hens cannot enter abreast. One or two split 

 shot, such as are sold to anglers for sinkers, are attached 

 to the cord near the center, so as to take up the slack 

 and keep the cord slightly taut over the pulley, p, while 

 waiting for the hen to drop her door. Treadles should 

 be made of three-eighths or one-half inch boards, so as 

 to be quite light, and hung so that the end nearest the 

 door will be merely heavy enough to overcome the fric- 

 tion of its pivots and of the joint and pivot of the rod, 

 so as to keep the door end of the treadle down at all 

 times, excepting when the trap is being either set or 

 sprung. 



When, the next day toward night, it is desired to open 

 all the doors to liberate the sitters, the shaft, /, is turned 

 so as to move the arms to the point 3 and the doors to 

 the point k 3 , called the third position ; they being lifted 

 not quite as high as the first position, but high enough 

 to let the birds pass out. When the sitters are all out, 

 turn the shaft back to 2, to put the doors in the second 

 position, that is, they will be closed so that none of the 

 birds can return to their nests prematurely ; for over- 

 zealous sitters are prone to air the eggs too little, and 

 to not spend sufficient time in dusting themselves, exer- 

 cising, eating and drinking. After an interval of five 

 or ten minutes or an hour or more, according to the 

 weather, the trap-setter, /, is again employed as pre- 

 viously described, to bring the door bars into the keep- 

 ing of the figure 4's, so that the doors will be in the first 

 position. 



Now there are one hundred and forty-four nests in one 

 row and only one hundred or less of these are to be used 

 at one time by sitters, leaving forty-four or more to be 

 used by the laying fowls, which occupy the same build- 

 ing. When a nest is no longer needed for a sitter, and 



