1 42 POULTRY-CRAFT. 



the hens in a flock in short order. Dark nests, as shown in Figs. 13, 16, 35, 

 and 36, are the best preventive of egg eating. Once the vice becomes fixed in 

 a flock, such dark nests in an ordinary well lighted pen do not stop it, for 

 enough light finds its way into the nests to enable the hens to see to eat the 

 eggs, if they are very eager to do so. To effect a cure, the pen itself must be 

 so dark that the hens can just see to make their way to the nests. Then the 

 nests are so dark that the hens cannot possibly see well enough to break and 

 eat the eggs. The point is to prevent the hens breaking eggs until they have 

 had time to forget about it. Fowls have short memories. From one to two 

 weeks of complete prevention usually effects a lasting cure. Some poultrymen 

 report having cured egg eating by giving the hens china nest eggs to pick at 

 until they gave up in disgust. This may work sometimes ; it has been tried 

 and failed. The pitch dark nest is a sure cure. 



190. Condition and Food, and the Quality of Eggs. Hens that are 

 fat without being over-fat lay the best eggs. Generally the eggs of corn fed 

 hens are richer than those of hens fed principally on other grains. 



THIN, WATERY EGGS come from using too much sloppy food, or vegetable 

 food, and from hens in poor condition generally, no matter what the kind or 

 quality of the food. 



PALE YOLKS result from lack of green food, and of fat, oil. It is rarely 

 possible to have anything like as good color in the yolks of winter eggs as in 

 eggs laid in May and June ; but by using hay cured green, and by feeding 

 corn quite freely, much better color is obtained than when root vegetables 

 only are fed, and corn almost excluded from the ration. 



191. Nest Eggs. The use of nest eggs for laying hens is unnecessary. 

 One may as well save the few dollars or few cents they would cost. 

 Hens in confinement have no opportunity to hide their nests. Most of them 

 go to the nests provided for them, and when hens show partiality for a 

 particular nest, the use of nest eggs in all the nests will rarely prevent 

 their crowding to the nest they favor. Hens which have opportunity and the 

 disposition to hide their nests, will do so though the nests provided for them 

 be filled with nest eggs. 



192. Practical Every Day Use of an Egg Record. In every pen of 

 laying hens there should be tacked up a sheet, ruled one way for the months, 

 and the other for the days of the month, on which to record the number of 

 eggs laid each day. A record of diet and weather is valuable, but that can 

 be kept on one sheet for many pens. The egg record sheet in each pen 

 furnishes a good guide in feeding ; is almost indispensable when one person 

 does the feeding and another collects the eggs, and is most useful always, 

 for memories are treacherous. The egg record shows the exact nature and 

 extent of fluctuations in the egg yield, and shows at once when something is 



