CARE OF THE SITTING HEN 319 



should be placed under a hen than she can completely cover. A 

 hen of given size can cover materially more small eggs such as are 

 laid by pullets than she can large eggs as laid by two year old or 

 yearling hens. Under average conditions, a setting of eggs is 

 considered to be thirteen. When a setting is advertised for sale, 

 thirteen eggs are sold for the advertised price. Under practical 

 conditions of natural incubation, fifteen eggs are most often used as 

 a setting. 



In putting the eggs in the nest, great care should be taken to 

 see that they are evenly distributed, none of them lodging in holes 

 or buried in the straw. If the nest is roomy and well protected, 

 considerably more eggs can be put under a given hen than if the 

 nest is open and exposed to weather conditions. It is often desirable 

 to mark eggs placed in the sitting nest, for it often happens that a 

 hen placed on the nest lays one or more eggs after the brooding 

 period starts. Such eggs should be removed, as they might be of 

 a different strain or breed than the particular eggs under the hen. 



Care of the Sitting Hen. — In the care of the sitting hen system 

 is worth more than all other points combined; for, in the absence 

 of this, the birds may become mixed, the eggs disarranged, the 

 hatching time of the different nests forgotten or confounded, and 

 certain loss will be the result. In the management of sitting hens, 

 it is a safe rule to keep them all confined except when they are let 

 out for feed and water. This will obviate any danger of their 

 becoming mixed. They should be provided with feed and water 

 at a regular time each day, for this teaches them to expect it at 

 such time, and they will immediately come off the nest to eat and 

 soon return ; therefore less time is consumed in feeding them satis- 

 factorily. The nests should be numbered in rotation. It is a good 

 plan to set hens on the same day each week, as this will bring all 

 the testing and hatching on certain days, thereby precluding the 

 embarrassment of not knowing when this work ought to be done. 

 Since natural incubation is essentially a matter of detail, most 

 careful and thoughtful attention should be given to it. 



Feed for the Sitting Hen. — In feeding the sitting hens, the idea 

 should be to induce some exercise to keep her in good condition, 

 yet to provide the feed in such a way that she will not have to be 

 off the nest longer than is possible. The surest practice is ta 

 provide a mixture of equal parts of corn and wheat in an open pan 

 or on the ground in the vicinity of the nest. 



Fresh water should be provided in a clean vessel. During 



