206 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. ix. 



jection to placing more nests than one on the 

 same floor, for the hens will not interfere with 

 each other, however closely they may be 

 placed, and without any partitions to divide 

 them ; indeed Audubon mentions in his " Or- 

 nithological Biography," that he once dis- 

 covered in America three wild turkeys sitting 

 together in the same nest on forty-two eggs. 



The number of eggs put under the hen 

 should never be more than fifteen, whatever 

 may be her size, and if she be not large, a 

 smaller number will be sufficient ; so as to 

 secure her completely covering them with her 

 body. The laying of fifteen eggs will, how- 

 ever, occupy at least a month, and it is well 

 worth observation that new-layed eggs pro- 

 duce stronger chickens than those which have 

 been long kept. It is, therefore, the constant 

 practice in America, when the turkey has 

 layed six or eight eggs, to put them under 

 a common hen ; and, when the turkey-hen 

 is ready to sit, her number may be made up 

 either with guinea-fowl eggs, which take the 

 same time in hatching, or, in a few days after- 

 wards, with eggs of any other fowl. It has 

 also the further advantage of producing the 



