260 THE GAME FOWL. 



times in a year, with good success, and raise their own broods. 

 Nay, four times is possible, if you will be unwisely troubled 

 with a November brood. With a young Hen, the desire to 

 lay again soon returns, and she abandons her flock at five 

 weeks, and sometimes four, and even three iveeks. Under 

 these circumstances, a' Hen that brings out her early brood 

 on the first of April, deserts them about the first of May, lays 

 two weeks in an undisturbed nest, resumes the task of incu- 

 bation, and, on the 4th of June, brings out her second. At 

 the same rate, before the middle of August she hatches her 

 third litter. This is often the case with young Hens, that 

 have been well fed during their maturity, and not cooped up. 

 Old ones, whose ovaries are measurably exhausted, are not in 

 such a hurry to re-commence operations. I have seen such ones 

 running with their Chickens until they were nearly grown. 



The turning of a sitting Hen's Eggs, is, I verily believe, a 

 humbug. In the first place, it seems unnecessary, as the em- 

 bryo is said to be always uppermost, let the Egg rest as it will ; 

 and, in the second place, the Hen herself never turns them, 

 except by accident. Sometimes, and especially when she re- 

 sumes her nest, the Eggs are not fixed to her liking they do 

 not fit properly, and then she gives them a turn or two with 

 her beak, to adapt them to her fancy ; but certainly not to get 

 the other side up, as many people believe. 



I can put- your readers in a sure way of finding out how many 

 Chickens they are going to have, before the Hen is half done 

 sitting. I can tell very easily at the end of a week, but it is 

 safer for a green hand to wait two or three days longer. The 

 advantage is, that by taking out the unfertile Eggs, you give 

 the others a better chance ; and, if you have two or three Hens 

 contemporaneously sitting, two may be able to cover the good 

 Eggs of three, and the third be ready for a new batch. This is 

 sometimes desirable. And now " pro modo operandi." Take 

 the Eggs (very carefully, of course,) into a darkened apart- 



