1082 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



hens allowed to each cock should be reduced by about one-third. 

 For the Asiatic breeds, allow one cock to every twelve or fifteen 

 hens when on free range; one to every ten or twelve hens 

 when confined to yards. 



Choose the largest and best-shaped eggs for incubation; but 

 you need pay no attention to long eggs, round eggs, or wrinkled 

 eggs, with the idea that by so doing you can control the sex 

 of the chicks. There is no known way by which the sex of 

 the egg can be determined previous to hatching. 



To keep eggs for hatching, put them in a cool place and 

 turn carefully every day or two. 



Nests and Sitting Hens. Sitting hens should always be 

 where they can not be disturbed by the other fowls. When there 

 is no separate room for the sitting hens in the poultry-house they 

 should be removed to another building. Given an industrious 

 hen and fertile eggs the chances of chicks depend greatly upon 

 the nest. If the poultry-house or building used for the sitting 

 hens has a board floor, be sure there are no cracks under the 

 nests where the wind can come through and chill the eggs. If 

 the floor is all right arid covered as it should be with several 

 inches of dry earth, and you use the bottomless nest boxes, all 

 you have to do is to see the box in place, hollow out the earth 

 a little in the middle of the nest, and put in plenty of fine hay 

 or broken straw. In extreme cold weather line the nest with 

 feathers. As a precaution against lice sprinkle sulphur, snuff, 

 carbolic powder, insect powder, or fine cut tobacco in the nest; 

 or, better still, use tobacco leaves or stems mixed with the nest- 

 ing. If there is no earth on the floor of the place used for the 

 sitting hens, one must do the next best thing put a bottom on 

 the nest boxes, and put in a sod or a few inches of earth under 

 the nesting. If the nest box has been used for the laying hens, 

 scald it out with hot suds, or whitewash it inside and out before 

 using it for a sitting hen. Do n't use coal-oil about the nests of 

 sitting hens ; the fumes are so powerful and penetrating that 

 they are liable to destroy the germ of life contained within 

 the egg. 



In regard to setting the hens and caring for them during the 



