Hatching the Egg. 31 



can stick their heads in to eat, but cannot soil the food. Whole corn 

 is the main feed, but I give some wheat with it once or twice a week for 

 variety. Some people have a great deal of trouble to make hens sit in 

 any place except where they have been laying, but if the change of place is 

 done rightly there is seldom any difficulty. 



"Don't move them in the daytime. Don't take them by the legs and 

 carry them along with heads handing down and thrust them in on the 

 nests, as I have seen folks do — carrying three in each hand — and then 

 expect them to stay put. 



"I save the unhatched eggs from my incubators to put in nests to try 

 the hens on. Let the hen sit at least two days on her own nest before you 

 move her where you want her to sit; then after dark take the hen and 

 put her gently on the eggs. She will usually settle down on them at once 

 and stay on all night, but may come off in the morning and stay off all day, 

 but will generally go on the nest at night, and then it is safe to put the 

 good eggs under. If she does not go back on the nest at night, it is no 

 use trying that hen any further. It doesn't pay to try to confine the hen 

 on the nest; a hen is feminine, and if she won't, she won't. 



"My sitting house has three windows facing the nests, which make it too 

 light, so I tack grain bags over the windows, as hens like a secluded place 

 better. I give all sitting hens a thorough dusting with insect powdei 

 and scatter some in the nests before setting, and again about a week before 

 they are due to hatch. When the hens are sitting it is necessary to look 

 at them once or twice a day to see. that all the nests have hens on, for 

 sometimes two get on the same nest, but don't be discouraged if the eggs 

 are cold; they will usually hatch just as well; it will delay the hatch, that 

 is all. 



"Of course hens may be allowed to sit where they have been laying, by 

 marking the eggs put under them, and removing the eggs laid to them 

 every da3% but there is considerable risk of broken eggs, also that the 

 sitter may be driven off and go on some other nest. In some cases the 

 nests in the 'sitting room' are made double; that is, they are deep, with 

 a partition at the center. The eggs are put in the rear part. The hen 

 may if she likes get off the nest and come in front. Thus a hen that is 

 tired of sitting is less likely to break her eggs. The nests are sometimes 

 closed with a gate, so that the hen is shut in, being let out once a day for 

 a few minutes to eat and drink and dust." 



Hens of the larger breeds will sometimes remain broody for three 

 months. They will frequently hatch out two and three broods in succes- 

 sion — the chicks being taken away, and put in a brooder. Where a number 

 of hens are set together it is a good plan to test the eggs as we do those in 

 an incubator. By taking out the infertile eggs we can put what is left 

 under part of the hens and start the others on a new lot. 



