80 The Business Hen. 



powder" the nests will soon be alive. The hay or straw should be taken 

 out and burned, and the boxes painted with kerosene before new nests are 

 made. The whole inside of the house should be scrubbed out with boiling 

 water, and whitewashed or sprayed with kerosene. The boy found to his 

 cost that you cannot afford to neglect these things in an old house. He 

 also found that some old building fitted up in this way cannot be made 

 equal to a house built especially for hens. 



KEEPING UP THE FLOCK.— The boy started with the notion that 

 "a hen is a hen," without much regard to her breeding or age. He had 

 heard some one say that "a hen is a machine," and he knew that we can use 

 the mowing machine and hayrake for many years. He was grieved to find 

 that some of his hens were sad loafers. Three of those he bought in New 

 York ate their fill of grain, and then instead of heading for the nests stood 

 about dumpy and lazy. What was the matter with them? They and four 

 of the farm hens proved to be at least four years old, and probably six. 

 They were like our old mowing machine — worn out. One day the men dug 

 through the yard to get at a cracked water pipe under the barn. They 

 threw out thousands of worms. These old veterans ate so many that the 

 next morning five of them were found dead, with their crops stuck full. 

 The boy buried his beloved hens around peach trees, and with many tears 

 learned that age in a hen is not entitled to respect. When Grandmother 

 failed to step about as spry as her daughters we expected it, and were all 

 glad to give her the most comfortable chair and the best light. The hen 

 is sure to fail with age just as Grandmother did, but we do not keep her 

 for the good she has done. So the boy began to understand that he must 

 plan for new pullets each year and dispose of the old stock. He now saw 

 that the hens he bought in New York were probably birds that had done 

 their best, laying for some one else, and were then sold for meat. We are 

 also likely to have accidents in the flock. One good hen tried to fly up 

 to a high roost, but failed, and fell and broke an egg inside of her. She 

 had to be killed. This taught the boy to have his roosts down low, and 

 made it clearer still that we must have young pullets each year. 



PICKING OUT LAYERS.— Having seen the need of young hens the 

 boy began to see that one young hen may be better than another. He 

 could see that the men and boys we hired to work on the farm did not 

 do an equal amount of work. Some did more and better work than others, 

 though all wanted the same wages when working by the day. Sometimes 

 the man who did the poorest job of work would eat most, or break most 

 tools. There seemed to be much the same difiference in hens. The Light 

 Brahma waited nearly a month before she laid an egg, though she ate her 

 full share, and then laid a dozen in succession. One of the Brown Leg- 

 horns proved to be lazy. Of course the boy did not want any more drones. 

 It may be fun to feed a lazy pet hen when some one else pays for the feed, 



