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is no proof that it was on account of having had 

 their own way. Other hens steal their nest and 

 only hatch one or two chicks ; sometimes they fail 

 to hatch any. A hen that steals her nest generally 

 sits on the eggs laid by herself. If her eggs are 

 strongly fertilized, and she is a good sitter and has 

 a good place to sit, she will bring off a good hatch. 

 If the eggs are not well fertilized she does not 

 make a good hatch, but brings out perhaps six, 

 two, or no chicks. The unhatched eggs may 

 prove all unfertile, or most of the chicks may be 

 dead in the shell. 



What is the cause ? 



On the first event no impregnation ; in the sec- 

 ond, imperfect or weak fertilization. A bad sitter 

 or poor incubator might cause the same result with 

 good eggs. 



When a good, quiet hen sits steadily on fifteen 

 fertile eggs and hatches seven of them, is it not 

 reasonable to suppose that the other eight must 

 have differed somehow, in quality, at the begin- 

 ning, or they, too, would have hatched? All 

 having been subjected to the same conditions and 

 treatment, why did not all hatch, or else all fail to 

 hatch all being fertile or containing the germ 

 of life? 



The answers to this question are legion ; but 

 most writers agree that it was lack of vigor in the 

 germ, traceable to the parent stock, or to a mal- 

 condition of the laying stock, which produced the 

 eggs. Had all the eggs failed to hatch we might 

 reasonably suspect that the sitting hen had neglected 

 56 



