Breeding and Management. 73 



and commence without ceremony to administer it to the small 

 objects that have just been ushered into being; but many 

 hens act with a watchful jealousy towards their first charge, 

 and prefer taking the opportunity of feeding their young 

 when the cocks, after having vainly endeavoured to coax them 

 to gratify their humour, have returned to the egg- trough for 

 a further supply of food. Cocks of this sort are always 

 good parents, and valuable on this account ; but there are 

 others who pay very little attention to the domestic pursuit of 

 assisting to rear their young, and permit the hens to use their 

 own pleasure in the matter entirely. I always look upon this 

 conduct as a bad omen BO far as a cock bird is concerned, 

 and, unless a hen is naturally a good mother, there is con- 

 siderable danger of losing the progeny, especially if she be of 

 a jealous and sulky nature. Whenever I notice this dispo- 

 sition I remove the male bird at once as all such hens feed 

 much better without them for a week or ten days, by which 

 time the hen loses this feeling of jealousy to a considerable 

 extent, and there is a very slender probability, if they have 

 been hitherto well cared for, of losing the young after this 

 period, and therefore I then return the cock with confidence. 



LEAVING COCKS BESIDE HENS DURING INCUBATION. 

 When a cock and hen are found to agree, the best plan is 

 to leave them together during the process of incubation and 

 afterwards, providing the cock does not interfere with the 

 newly-hatched birds. Some cocks destroy them as soon as they 

 are hatched; such birds ought to be removed as soon as the 

 hen is set, and not returned until the young birds are at least 

 fourteen days old from that to three weeks; if he interferes 

 with them at that age, that is, if he commences to pluck 

 and otherwise ill-treat them, do not leave him with the hen 

 for any length of time; he may be run beside her for about 

 an hour, and then removed until it is convenient to repeat 

 the operation. After he has paired with the hen two or three 

 times, it is not necessary to renew the connection. A bath 

 may be given to a hen during incubation twice or thrice a 

 week during hot weather. 



