CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



advantage ; so that, in place of twelve or four- 

 teen chickens, upwards of 200 may be raised from 

 the annual produce of a single fowl. 



Hens will lay eggs which have received no 

 impregnation, but from these, as a matter of 

 course, no hatching can take place ; they are 

 equally good, however, for eating. When the 

 chief object is to breed chickens, a cock should 

 be allowed to walk with ten or twelve hens ; but 

 when eggs are principally required, the number of 

 hens may be from fifteen to twenty. Endeavour 

 to procure a cock of a good breed, not game, and 

 let him be in his prime, which is at eighteen months 

 to two years old. Cocks will last two years, after 

 which they lose their liveliness of colours, and 

 become languid, inactive, and mere consumers of 

 food. It is fit, therefore, that younger cocks 

 should then take their place in the poultry-yard. 

 Crowing hens should be rejected, as worthless 

 layers. 



If left to themselves, hens produce not more 

 than two broods a year. Early spring, and, after 

 a cessation, the end of summer, are the two 

 seasons in which they begin naturally to lay. In 

 the depth of winter, under ordinary circumstances, 

 hens very rarely lay eggs, though, by artificial 

 means, as already explained, they can be made to 

 do so. If the temperature of the place where 

 they are kept be raised by a stove, or otherwise, 

 they will produce eggs. The fowls of the Irish 

 peasantry, and of some of the Highland Scotch 

 cottars, which are usually kept in the cabins of 

 the owners, lay often in winter, in consequence 

 of the warmth of their quarters. The fecundity 

 of hens varies considerably. Some lay but once 

 in three days, others every second day, and 

 others every day. In order to induce laying, 

 each hen should have its own nest, or nearly so, 

 made with soft straw or heather, and furnished 

 with a piece of chalk as a decoy or nest-egg. 

 The signs which indicate when a hen is about to 

 lay are well known. She cackles frequently, 

 walks restlessly about, and shews a brighter red- 

 ness in her comb and wattles. After the process 

 of laying is over, she utters a series of loud and 

 peculiar notes, to which the other fowls usually 

 respond. Shortly after the egg is laid, it should 

 be removed, for the heat of the hen soon corrupts 

 it. When the eggs are taken away by the poultry- 

 keeper, they should immediately be laid in a cool 

 and dry place. If allowed to absorb damp, they 

 soon spoil ; indeed, one drop of water upon the 

 shell quickly taints the whole egg. When the 

 hens lay in a secret corner or covert, the keeper 

 may sometimes discover it by placing a few 

 grains of salt in the oviduct, which hurries on the 

 process of laying, and causes the animal to retire 

 to the spot anew. 



Various methods have been tried to prevent 

 the absorption of air through the shell, and pre- j 

 serve the freshness of the eggs. Some keep them 

 secluded from the air in bran, rye, or ashes, 

 which may do very well where the eggs are to 

 be kept in this way till eaten, but is utterly useless 

 if quantities of them have to be sent to market. 

 If the eggs are gently rubbed with fresh butter 

 when newly laid, they will keep perfectly, and 

 be as fresh for breakfast three months after- 

 wards, as w.hen newly dropped. Mr Mollison 

 says he has found the following, with less trouble, 

 to answer the purpose even better, namely: 'Place 



666 



them in a water-tight cask, the small end of the 

 egg down, and keep the whole always covered 

 with a strong solution of lime-water.' 



In consequence mainly of the insufficient hen- 

 house accommodation, and the imperfect attention 

 to the fowls otherwise, the egg-supply of this 

 country is far from fully developed. Those who 

 have given their attention to the subject, and had 

 opportunities of observing how much the laying 

 faculties of the hens, in many rural districts, are 

 impaired by imperfect treatment, and how many 

 of the eggs that are dropped, through bad nest- 

 ing arrangements, are lost to the food-consumer, 

 will not be slow to admit, that, with proper 

 management, extended over all the poultry 

 departments, the annual import of eggs, amount- 

 ing to about 500,000,000, could be, if not entirely 

 avoided, at least immensely reduced. 



Hatching. 



When eggs are to be hatched, it is necessary 

 to pay attention to the choice of proper ones for 

 the purpose. Those too much pointed at the 

 ends should not be selected. The eggs must also 

 be fresh ; from the time they are laid, they should 

 lie aside in a cool place. It is said to be possible 

 to ascertain, from the appearance of the egg, 

 whether the forthcoming progeny is to be male 

 or female ; but this is, we fear, a delusion. When 

 eggs are left to be brought forth by the hen, a 

 certain number are placed under her in the nest, 

 when she is in the full inclination to sit. From 

 nine to fourteen eggs are placed, according to the 

 extent of the breast and wings ; and the time re- 

 quiredforhatchingisabout twenty-one days. Some- 

 times a hen will desert her eggs, a circumstance 

 which may occasionally be traced to an uncom- 

 fortable condition of the skin, caused by vermin 

 or want of cleanliness ; and this affords a strong 

 reason for keeping the hen-house clean, and giving 

 the animals the means of purifying their feathers. 

 Occasionally the hen is vicious, or, in short, a bad 

 sitter, and experience in pitching on the best 

 hatching-hen is the only remedy. Sometimes a 

 hen will break her eggs with her feet ; and in 

 such cases the broken eggs must be removed as 

 soon as observed, otherwise she may eat them, 

 and from that be tempted to break and eat the 

 sound ones, and thus spoil the whole. 



It has generally been found that hens which 

 are the best layers are the worst sitters. Those 

 best adapted have short legs, a broad 'body, large 

 wings, well furnished with feathers, their nails and 

 spurs not too long or sharp. The desire to sit is 

 made known by a particular sort of clucking note, 

 or, as it is termed in Scotland, clocking; and a 

 feverish state ensues, in which the natural heat 

 of the hen's body is very much increased. The 

 inclination, or, as physiologists term it, the storge, 

 soon becomes a strong and ungovernable passion. 

 The hen flutters about, hangs her wings, bristles 

 up her feathers, searches everywhere for eggs to 

 sit upon ; and if she finds any, whether laid by 

 herself or others, she immediately seats herself 

 upon them, and continues the incubation. 



With a proper provision of food at hand, 

 warmth, quiet, and dryness, a good hatching-hen 

 will give little trouble, and in due time the brood 

 will come forth ; one or two eggs may perhaps 

 remain unhatched or addled, but their loss is of 

 little consequence. As soon as the hen hears 





