92 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



eggs are chipped on the last occasion you tether her 

 out. If you see several chipped eggs in a nest, or 

 unexpectedly discover the hen with a chick or two 

 partly hatched, leave her quiet at once. 



Should you irritate a hen by meddling with her 

 just when she is hatching, in order to satisfy your 

 curiosity, she may either kill her chicks one after 

 another, or else, from shifting her position, tread 

 some of them to death under her feet. 



If you even touch a hen that has just hatched 

 her chicks, she will that moment sit firmly and 

 heavily down over her nest, and likely enough 

 smother some of her charge beyond revival. 



Shut a hen securely into her coop or box when 

 hatching, and do not disturb her for at least twelve 

 hours. By that time all her eggs should be empty, 

 and the young birds dry and lively, and they will 

 hourly gain strength from contact with the hen, the 

 warmth of whose body is very life to the young birds 

 the first eight to twelve hours of their existence. 



Some keepers, with a view to cleaning out the 

 riest, remove the broken eggshells directly a hen has 

 hatched all her eggs. This is a mistake, as, if the 

 pieces of shell are left in the nest, the hen will sit 

 lightly directly she feels these crackling under her 

 weight. There is then no fear of her crushing the 

 chicks. 



For twenty hours at least after hatching, the 

 chicks require no feeding whatever ; as till that time 



