46 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



feeds for the sitting hen. With these and careful at- 

 tention, she will be in better condition at the end of 

 incubation than when beginning. A dust bath will be 

 her great delight and help, throughout. If eggs are 

 not strongly fertile, time can be saved by setting three 

 hens at once, and giving the fertile eggs to two, reset- 

 ting the third after the first test. I prefer always to 

 set two to four hens at once, if conditions permit this. 

 The question of resetting after a full period is one 

 which often bothers the Beginner. In a poultry paper, 

 I recently saw the proud announcement that the author 

 of it (presumably a Beginner) has kept one hen sitting 

 from March to September. So far from being a matter 

 of congratulation does this seem to me that I feel like 

 rebuking sharply any one who thus practices cruelty to 

 the helpless in his power. A fat hen may, on occasion, 

 sit twice ; this will mean not less than seven successive 

 weeks, and probably more. But I think this should be 

 the extreme limit; it is really too long. 



With goose eggs, especial care is needed to make a 

 comfortable nest. It should be fashioned deeper than 

 for hens' eggs, as the eggs are often about three inches 

 in diameter. The nest should be deep enough so that 

 the hen may rest, in part, at least, on the rim of nesting 

 material. Three eggs is an uncomfortable number of 

 goose eggs, as they do not lie well together ; five is a 

 good number on which the hen may sit in fair com- 

 fort, and which she can cover properly in a well-made 

 nest. 



Testing is such a simple, desirable, and informing act 

 that I feel that no one should omit it. Through its in- 

 formation, one may, at least in part, count the chickens 



