FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING, 



127 



induce them to lay in it. After 

 they begin to lay in this nest it may 

 be raised gradually from the floor 

 until it is at the usual height. 

 Some hens, however, will make 

 their nest on the floor as near the 

 corner as they can, no matter what 

 arrangements are made to tempt 

 them to do otherwise, and all that 

 can be done with them is to put a 

 low box in the corner so that the 

 eggs will not be rolled out or cov- 

 ered up. 



For several years I have been 

 using nests reproductions of photo- 

 graphs of which are shown here- 

 with. These are my own design, 

 and as far as I know none like 

 them are in use except such as 

 were made from them. I like them 

 better than anything I have used, 

 and poultrymen who see them 

 seem to take to them. The object 

 was to make nest boxes that were 

 as near skeletons as possible, easy 

 to keep clean, and easy to knock 

 apart for thorough cleaning if that 

 seemed necessary, and put together 

 again. In use in my houses these 

 nests have seemed to have some 

 desirable effects, some good points 

 which I had not anticipated, 

 chief of which is that with them 

 the hens seem to have no favor- 

 lies, but go to one as readily as to another. "When a hen gets up on the front rail and 

 finds one nest occupied and the next vacant she almost always steps promptly into the empty 

 nest. Just why she should do this I cannot say, unless it is because the divisions between the 

 nests being so low in front, as long as she remains perched on the edge of the nest the empty 

 nest is right before her eye. 



The nests in most of my houses are on the side wall or cross partition near the front where 

 they get the full light, yet I have not found the hens more disposed to go to the corners of the 

 house to lay than when I tried to humor them by giving them secluded nests, and I have had 

 very little egg eating in them. I find eggs broken, but not touched many times oftener than 

 I find evidences of broken eggs having been eaten. 



It would l>e premature to consider any general principle or fact as proved by my observations 

 on these nests, but I am inclined to think that in trying to devise an easy nest to clean I inad- 

 vertently stumbled on a point which is of some use, i. e., that the nest on the floor, entered 

 from the floor, and the nest with running board in front to accommodate the hens, are the great 

 encouragers of egg eating, because in such nests the hens have better opportunities to spy out 

 the condition of things in the nest, and also the waiting hens have a better vantage ground 

 from which to quarrel with the hens in the nest than in nests like these, or boxes nailed to the 

 wall. The hen in this nest has all the advantage of position. 



My nest boxes are made with the bottom a little narrower than the ends, and the strips next 

 1t on front and back are placed about half an inch from the bottom edge of the end and 

 division pieces. This leaves a space too narrow for an egg to go through, yet wide enough to 



Double Skeleton Nests. 



The nests as photographed were attached to an outer door 

 to get full light and a position that would show construction'. 

 This frame is 12 in. wide; 28 in. long. Ends 10 in. high in front, 

 18 in. high at back. Front strip 4 in. wide ; 2 back strips 2 in. 

 wide. 



