110 AN EGG FARM. 



tious but not especially stimulating food like a colt at 

 pasture. When they arrive at the laying age, they are 

 then kept as is the horse, which is kept, broken to work, 

 and put to constant and severe labor, and fed as high as 

 he will bear. 



FOWLS FOR SITTERS. 



The sitters are of a breed chosen for persistence and 

 regularity in incubation, fidelity to their chickens, and 

 gentleness of disposition. The Plymouth Rocks are our 

 choice, and cannot be excelled for hatching and rearing. 

 The white variety is preferred, because when a fowl is 

 dressed, white pin feathers show less than colored ones. 

 Also, as stated elsewhere, there are occasions when we 

 want to designate individuals by a dab of fresh red or 

 blue paint, which shows well on white plumage. 



The sitters are not kept at detached stations like the 

 layers, for several reasons. One is, they should all be 

 near together, because of the great amount of attendance 

 necessary in connection with hatching. Then the build- 

 ings should be large enough for the keeper to enter, in 

 order to take care of the nests and chickens, but the 

 size of the structure and the risk of jarring eggs will 

 prevent moving. Nor can the system of indirect feed- 

 ing and no yards be pursued, for the sitters should be 

 fed at the attendant's feet, and tamed so as to submit 

 quietly to the handling they receive while hatching and 

 rearing. Their yards are sufficiently large to admit of 

 exercise, and for the same reason their dry grain is 

 buried in the ground or under straw. In very cold 

 weather, they are confined to their houses for warmth, 

 and are given a stimulating diet to promote winter lay- 

 ing, not so much for the value of the eggs as to render 

 it certain that there shall be a considerable number of 

 birds ready to sit in February, and many more in March. 



The fowls chiefly depended upon for this consist of the 

 earliest pullets of the previous year, and also the old 



