CHAPTEE VII 



THE YOUNG CHICKENS 



rPlHE hatching of the eggs does not take place all 

 JL at once ; sometimes it is twenty-four hours be- 

 fore all the eggs are broken. A danger thus arises. 

 Divided between her desire to continue setting and 

 her wish to give her attention to the newly born, the 

 mother may make some sudden movement and unin- 

 tentionally trample on the tender creatures, or even 

 leave the nest too soon, which would cause the loss of 

 the backward eggs. What, then, is to be done ! The 

 first-born are taken as carefully as possible and 

 placed in a basket stuffed with wool or cotton and put 

 in a warm place near the fire. When the whole fam- 

 ily is hatched it is restored to the mother. 



6 ' The first days are hard ones for the young chick- 

 ens ; they are so delicate, poor little things, so chilly 

 under their light yellow down. Where will they be 

 kept at first I Shall it be with the grown-up poultry, 

 a turbulent crowd, quarrelsome, rough, and without 

 any consideration for the weak? What would be- 

 come of them, the little innocents, not yet well bal- 

 anced on their legs, in the midst of the greedy hens 

 which, in scratching for worms, might give them 

 some brutal kick? How dangerous for them to be 

 with the quarrelsome cocks that disdain to look out 



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