The Hen as a Mother. 29 



feed and a dust bath every morning. For the feed I give some 

 kind of grain and some soft feed in separate dishes. Remain 

 near at hand and when the hen starts toward the box, raise it a 

 little and she will crawl under and attend to business until the 

 next morning. Caring for the hen in this way causes some 

 work, but I could not afford an artificial incubator, being only 

 a poor farmer's daughter, so I discovered the next best thing. 

 About once a week I dust pyrethrum powder out of an old 

 pepper-box in among the hen's feathers, and also into the nest 

 after carefully removing the eggs. A box with a tight roof 

 that will thoroughly protect the hen when it is raining, is nec- 

 essary. I keep a small block of wood under the edge of the 

 box to let in air, and on hot days I put under it a large block 

 and substitute a smaller one at night, so that no rats can get 

 in. This year I shall use one-inch mesh wire netting around 

 the edge of the box." 



SEPARATE BUILDINGS FOR SITTING HENS. 



Mr. Henry Hales gives this description of his plan: "I 

 have a small building divided by a wire partition into two 

 parts, with a door from one to the other, and a small yard 

 made with a wire netting, also divided. I have a slide from 

 each compartment into each yard. The size of the house will 

 depend on the number of chickens desired. Two rooms two 

 by six feet, with yards twice that size, will be large enough for 

 14 hens to sit in, and if these sit twice it will be equal to 50 sit- 

 ting hens. In some cases the houses may be used a third 

 time, and thus several hundred chicks may be raised in them. 



"When my hens get broody I set a lot together in one house, 

 using small, shallow boxes for nests not over u or 12 inches 

 square so that two hens can not crowd into one nest. I set 

 these on the floor all around the sides and a few inches apart, 

 so that a greedy hen can not reach the eggs in the next nest. 

 I have water and food in the house, so that the hens can eat or 

 drink at any time when they come off the nests. There are no 



