Nests and Egg-eating 129 



darkness, the habit of egg-eating should be reduced 

 to a minimum. While it may not suffice to cure the 

 habit when once well formed, yet it should pre- 

 vent, in a large measure, the development of this 

 vice. It is the duty of those constructing poultry 

 houses to arrange them so that this vice, together 

 with other undesirable features of poultry-keeping, 

 may be avoided so far as possible. Another arrange- 

 ment of nests, in which they are attached to the 

 side or end walls, and therefore do not occupy 

 floor-space, is recommended by many practical 

 poultry-keepers. 



It is important to arrange the nests so that 

 they may be readily cleaned and disinfected, for 

 it is well known that if the perches and nests of 

 the fowls can be kept free from mites, or so-called 

 summer lice, the fowls themselves will be entirely 

 free from them. If the nest boxes, therefore, are 

 movable and can be readily taken out-of-doors 

 for thorough cleaning, it will be found somewhat 

 easier to keep them entirely free from these pests 

 than if stationary nests are used, and it will cer- 

 tainly be easier to exterminate them should they 

 once gain a foothold. 



Nests of Leghorns, Hamburgs, and Minorcas 

 may be constructed of boards, 6 inches wide, making 

 boxes 8x10 inches in the clear. The American 

 breeds and Asiatics should have somewhat larger 

 nests. 



