162 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



confined as soon as she is seen remaining on the nest 

 at night, and kept in the coop four days, she will be 

 broken of her desire to sit and will usually begin to 

 lay again in a week. While in confinement she should 

 be well fed, so that she may be in condition to begin 

 laying as soon as possible. Starving hens, shutting 

 them up in the dark or turning the hose on them 

 are methods of treatment that are worse than use- 

 less. The broody hen must be helped to forget her 

 desire to incubate, and only gentle treatment will 

 do this. 



ROOSTS 



Roosting too early is generally believed to be the 

 cause of crooked breastbones. Whether or not there 

 is any foundation for this belief it is well to guard 

 against any such trouble by not trying to force 

 young birds to roost before they are ready. 



Chickens of different breeds and often of the same 

 breed differ greatly in the age at which they wish 

 to roost. Last spring some of my young Orpingtons 

 which had been deserted by their mother began to 

 roost in a tree when they were barely a month old, 

 but this was exceptional. Most chicks do not try to 

 roost before they are six weeks old, and some delay 

 till two months or even longer. 



When the chicks are about six weeks old and no 

 longer need other warmth than that of their own 

 bodies, it is a good plan to place them in colony 

 coops which have roosts but are also bedded with 

 straw. Sometimes I put a shallow box or basket 

 half full of straw or dry leaves on the floor of the 

 coop under the roosts, and the first night I put all the 

 chicks in this. They soon learn to go to bed in the 

 right place, but little by little the more venturesome 

 find the roosts and go there instead of into the bas- 



