FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 37 



Placing Nests for Sitters in Tiers. 



"When it is desired to set many more hens in a room than can be accommodated with nests on 

 the floor, poultrymen sometimes build the nests in tiers, two, three, or more tiers high, and 

 instead of a loose front, like that shown in the illustration of the double nest, make a slat (lath) 

 front, hinged to the strip at the bottom of the front of the nest, and either supported by a 

 bracket below or by a string or hook from above, so that when open it makes a shelf for hens 

 to go on when leaving and entering the nest. 



This arrangement of nests may be made with the nests built in large sections, each the full 

 height of the combined tiers, or with each small section of two, three, or four nests independent 

 of the others and combining like the sections in a sectional book case. When constructed in 

 this way the nests must, of course, have wooden bottoms. 



How to Make a Nest. 



In a Nest Box With a Bottom the nest may be made of earth covered with fine straw 

 or hay, or of straw or hay alone. The nest on a base of earth is usually more satisfactory if 

 properly shaped; if not properly shaped at the start, hens are more likely to break eggs and 

 crush chicks in it than in a nest of all hay or straw, because the latter will improve in shape 

 as a result of the movements of the hen, while the earth base formed once, there is no altera- 

 tion in its form. 



To make the base of earth for the nest: Take a shovelful of fine loam, not wet, but moist; 

 put it in the nest box, and with the hand make a hollow nest, working the earth up to the 



corners and around the sides, but leaving the 

 bottom of the nest, while a little hollow, not so 

 much so that eggs will roll to the middle. Now, 

 after having worked the earth quite firm and smooth 



\Cgn \ <in X with the palm of the hand, take a good handful of 



V j'-K ^S soft hay or straw not too long say six or eight 



inches long, and make the nest of it, distributing it 

 evenly over the earth base, and working with the 

 hand until you have it smooth and well pressed down. 

 It does not take as long to do this as to tell about 

 it. If it is not well done the hen will undertake to 

 do it herself with the eggs in the nest, and the result 

 Double Nest Box for Sitters. is apt to be hard on the eggs and also on the temper 



a Wooden latch to hold front in place. o f the keeper. 



When a Nest is Made Without Earth in the box, more nest material is used ; it must be 

 much more carefully shaped, and it does not hold the shape given it as well which is or is not 

 a fault according as the work was well or badly done. 



To Make a Nest on an Earth Floor the box is placed in position and the earth shaped just 

 as if earth had been put into the box. All lumps of earth must be broken fine, and all stones 

 or large gravel must be removed. Then the nesting material must be put in as described 

 above. 



A Few Observations on Nest Materials. Hay and straw, cut short, do not make good 

 nests, because the material works about, and does not retain the shape given it. 



Excelsior makes a very good nesting material. 



Waste tobacco leaves and stems make good nest material, whether used with other material 

 to keep lice out, or used alone. 



Nests of earth without other material, I have never found satisfactory. True, hens that steal 

 their nests and make such nests in them sometimes do well, but oftener they break eggs in them, 

 just as hens do in any poorly formed nest, and a good proportion of the stolen nests are poorly 

 formed. A hen by no means always makes a good nest, and seeing that the nest is a good one 

 is one way in which a poultryman can improve on nature. 



