22 BULLETIN No. 215. 



Nests. Every poultry house should be well supplied with 

 nests which are easily accessible and readily removed for clean- 

 ing and disinfecting. There are many methods of arranging 

 nests, each method having some particular advantage over all 

 others. The nests may in some instances be placed under the 

 front edge of the dropping board as in D Figure 11 and so ar- 

 ranged that the hens enter from the rear and the attendant gath- 

 ers the eggs by opening a door or doors on the front side. This is 

 an inexpensive arrangement, as the dropping board forms a cover 

 for the nests. These nests are dark, which is a decided advantage, 

 as hens like to hide, and there is less danger of them learning to 

 eat eggs. It has the decided disadvantage of making the floor 

 under the dropping boards of little use in feeding. It darkens 

 the floor and hens are much more likely to lay in the straw on 

 the floor than in the nests, with the result that many times eggs 

 are left for several days before being gathered. The careful 

 poultryman who furnishes guaranteed eggs will not sell those 

 which have been laid on the floor. In buildings which have a 

 high rear elevation, some of this trouble may be obviated by 

 elevating the roosts and dropping board. This can be done, 

 especially with Leghorns or other light breeds that fly well. For 

 the heavier breeds, it will be found necessary to put in a slant- 

 ing board with cleats to enable the hens to walk to such a 

 height. It will always be found necessary to keep the floor ex- 

 tremely well bedded. Many heavy hens will jump down from 

 the dropping board instead of walking down the inclined perch 

 and if the litter is thin, they may injure their feet. 



Another and quite common arrangement is to fasten small 

 open boxes to the walls of the poultry house. These boxes can 

 be fastened with two 6 d nails and easily removed for cleaning. 

 Where this system is used, if the boxes should accidentally be- 

 come badly infested with mites, the entire box being of little 

 value, can be burned and new boxes put in. This method does 

 not allow trap nesting, and the nests are not dark, yet it is used 

 very extensively by poultry men. 



Where hens are confined and allowed to lay in open nests of 

 this type, the eggs should be gathered at least twice each day. 

 This is an extremely good practice and should be followed, es- 

 pecially on farms where a good quality of table eggs is being 

 produced, 



