50 CALIFORNIA POULTRY PRACTICE 



well to have several of them and keep one in each yard, then if a 

 bird shows any signs of sickness, it can be caught without having 

 to stop to think where you left the hook, and then run after it. 

 The hook is made of a six-foot piece of No. 10 steel wire and a 

 broom handle. The hook is so bent that it is larger where the 

 shank of the fowl is 'held than at the opening. Thus the fowl is not 

 injured when caught and it cannot get away. The wire is less con- 

 spicuous than the wooden end which attracts attention when you 

 slip the hook over the shank. The wire may be braced and made 

 stronger by wrapping it with No. 8 steel wire for the last two feet 

 next the handle, or it may be made of wire alone, braced the last 

 four or five feet and a hook made to hang it up by. 



How to Make An Egg Tester 



Take an empty box that has been used for breakfast foods, an 

 oat box is generally the strongest. Cut off one end, and then cut 

 away the/ pasteboard (on one side) on a curve so as to come 

 against your forehead. On the opposite side, make a V-shaped 

 opening to fit the nose; in fact, you want to fix this pasteboard 

 box so it will come up tight and close around the eyes, nostrils 

 and forehead. When put up against your face you have a dark 

 box. In the opposite end of the box make, with a small-bladed 

 knife, an oval opening. It should be just about the size and 

 shape of a good-sized spectacle glass. The egg is to be held 

 up against this opening, on the outside; but in order to have it fit 

 tight against the pasteboard you must paste around the opening 

 a circle of dark-colored cloth. A piece of black muslin is good. 

 The idea is to shut out every particle of light that might get in 

 around the egg. Then if the light is cut off in the same way when 

 the box comes up against your face, you will have a little "dark 

 room." With this instrument you can tell whether a white egg 

 shell has the germ, started in 48 hours. In 72 hours, three days, 

 you can tell very plainly. Point your egg tester right towards the 

 sun; or, if after night, hold the egg near a strong lamp or electric 

 light. 



Use For Tomato Cans 



Tomato, or other quart cans can be made to do service in the 

 poultry yards. After one end is cut out to get the contents, take 

 a pair of tin shears and cut a half moon down the side. Make the 

 edge dull with hammering it over a little, then make a nail hole 

 and hang up on side of house, or feed boxes. They do very well to 

 put grit or other things in, such as bone, etc., for small yards. Or 

 if you ship fowls either to market or to customers, they are better 

 than whole cans for watering in. Usually a male bird is a little 



