38 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Selection of Sitting Hens. 



Because not all hens that have the disposition to incubate make good sitters, there must be a 

 judicious selection of the hens to be used for hatching. Otherwise, good hatches will not be as 

 frequent as they should to say nothing of the difference in the work of handling good and 

 poor sitters. 



While no rule will apply universally, I think it will be found to be the general rule that 

 rather small hens make the best sitters, but large hens the bes^t mothers. The superiority of the 

 small hen as a sitter is not due altogether to her light weight, and the greater danger of a 

 large hen breaking eggs particularly when, as is too often the case, the large hen is set in a 

 nest none too large for a small one. The great superiority of the small hen in incubation is 

 that she is, as a rule, more warm blooded, generates heat more rapidly. When it comes to 

 brooding the chicks, her small size and short plumage handicap her, and the chicks quickly 

 reach such a stage of growth that she is too small a brooder for the chicks she hatched, and 

 unless the weather is very mild her chicks cease to thrive. 



The small hen often has the objectionable trait of being wild and nervous, not docile and 

 easily handled as a sitter should be. This fault can generally be overcome by judicious hand- 

 ling. While I do not think it is as necessary as some authorities on poultry keeping say, to 

 " be sure your hen wants to sit" before you give her the eggs you want her to incubate, I 

 do consider it very necessary to be sure your hen will allow herself to be handled before you 

 set her. Hens that are unmanageable provoke tempers that are out of place among sitting 

 hens, and the result is likely to be unsatisfactory. Be sure then, that the broody hen will 

 allow herself to be bandied, by dusk or dark, if not by daylight. 



Temperature of Hens. That the temperatures of hens vary, and that hens that seem very 

 hot, generally make the best hatches, is, I believe, agreed among poultry keepers who have 

 closely observed conditions of hatching by natural methods. The difference in temperatures 

 is apparent to the touch if hens are so handled that the palm of the hand comes in contact 

 with the body of the hen, which is generally partially stripped of feathers when she begins to 

 incubate. If, in handling several hens, you find one that seems to have perceptibly less heat 

 than the others, do not use her; or, if you use her, watch her eggs and chicks and you will 

 nearly always find her a poor hatcher and a poor mother. Some poultrymeu who batch large 

 numbers of chicks with hens, overcome the effect of using these low temperature hens for 

 sitters by changing them from nest to nest, so that a low temperature hen will not be likely 

 to be on the same eggs for more than a day at a time, and perhaps not for more than one day 

 during the entire period of incubation. Under ordinary circumstances, however, I think it is 

 better to reject low temperature hens when selecting sitters, for with no more hens sitting at 

 one time than on the ordinary plant where hatching is by natural methods, it is an advantage to 

 have the hens keep the same nests. 



When and How to Set Hens. 



"When a hen is not to sit in the nest she has been laying in, it is best that she should be moved 

 after dark. It is not in all cases necessary to do so, but it will be found that a much larger pro- 

 portion of the hens will settle down quietly in their new quarters if moved after dark, and their 

 nests kept darkened until they are let out to feed just before dark the next evening. 



If there are many hens to be moved, and they have to be moved some distance, it is a good 

 idea to have a coop to move them in, but if only a few hens at a time, and no great distance, 

 take one hen under each arm and carry them. Whether carried separately by hand or in coops, 

 the hens should be handled gently and not excited. 



A novice in handling sitting hens may find it better to keep them on nest eggs for a few days 

 while breaking them and himself in. After one is sure of his steps it saves time to have the 

 eggs that are to be incubated in the nests when the hens are moved to them. 



Except with the quietest hens it is necessary to close the nests after the hens are put on them, 

 and advisable to darken them. When I use a single open nest I put a wide board in front of it. 

 For darkening nests, like that in the second illustration, we use an old grain sack. With the 

 nests darkened, and the place quiet, the hens will nearly always settle down to business. 



