26 The Hen as a Mother. 



will also destroy his usefulness as a sire. These are among 

 the many causes for eggs not being fertile. 

 ' The difficulty of raising a brood of chicks in winter is much 

 greater than in spring or summer. Some hens will not become 

 broody in winter unless under very favorable conditions. The 

 chick is really naked when hatched, the down being no pro- 

 tection, and the slightest exposure to extreme cold will cause 

 fatal results. Roup is the winter scourge, and attacks chicks 

 in a different manner from adults, and the loss of chicks from 

 bowel disease is the effect of roup, caused by exposure to cold 

 or dampness. As the chicks grow the hen is sometimes unable 

 to hover them, and for that reason the loss is sometimes 

 greater among chicks of the age of four or five weeks than 

 among those more recently hatched. The custom of using 

 eggs for incubating purposes without regard to the source of 

 the eggs, leads to the hatching of chicks of no uniformity, and 

 there will necessarily be some that are more vigorous than 

 the others. These vigorous chicks will keep the hen is con- 

 stant anxiety, and her restlessness will usually end with the 

 loss of the weaker members of the brood which are physically 

 unable to keep pace with the stronger chicks, and as the hen 

 does not hover them sufficiently they slowly succumb to the 

 cold. 



The strongest chicks are those hatched from eggs laid by 

 hens that are full of energy. Hens that scratch from morning 

 until they go on the roost, and have plenty of exercise, produce 

 the hardiest chicks. The hen does not differ from other animals 

 as a breeder. It is well known that pigs from a fat sow are 

 usually puny, and the same may be said of the young of other 

 animals when the dams are over fat. A fat hen does not lay 

 regularly, and her eggs will either fail to hatch or produce 

 weak chicks. Often it happens that such chicks die in the 

 shells, and the fault is charged to the sitting hen. Until poul- 

 trymen learn to feed the hen on something more than grain, 

 and to feed her with a view of keeping her in a laying condi- 

 tion, failures to hatch may occur with eggs from the best 



