76 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



woods and fields, or, in the event of bought eggs, the 

 moment they arrive. It usually happens a certain 

 number of eggs are in waiting from one cause or 

 another, usually from a paucity of quiet hens. Your 

 eggs should not, however, be kept without setting for 

 more than ten days, and recollect the fresher they are 

 when set under the hens the stronger will be the 

 chicks obtained therefrom. 



Eggs will keep three weeks and produce chicks, 

 but you will not rear these with nearly the same 

 success as you will chicks from eggs that were set 

 within a week after they were laid ; particularly in 

 the case of purchased eggs, or even those out of an 

 aviary at home.* 



Place all eggs, waiting for hens, on their ends, in 

 shallow trays, some 2 in. deep, filled with sawdust, 

 bran, or sand ; a common deal table with narrow laths 

 of wood nailed upright round its edges will answer the 

 purpose. Every morning reverse the eggs, placing 

 the points upwards that were previously downwards. 



A careful attention to this turning of the eggs will 

 give you many a bird you would otherwise be without, 

 as if the yolk of an egg settles to one side from lying 

 too long in the same position, the egg will certainly 

 prove unfertile. 



* It is true that there may be a fortnight or more between the first 

 and last egg laid in a wild nest, but then wild-laid eggs are invariably 

 better, and, curious to say, will always keep longer than any eggs 

 produced in an aviary. 



