SETTING EGGS FOR CHICKENS. 65 



A sinsrle brood of chicks will thrive and take care of them- 

 selves. With even care, one hundred can be reared in a 

 flock, and all do well. But if more are to be reared, care should 

 be taken to confine those of the same age together, — the Feb- 

 ruary and March chicks in one field, April and May chicks in 

 another, and those hatched later in a third. Each lot will be 

 found to do well ; but, if running all together, the young ones 

 get trampled to death by the older ones. Suppose we should 

 rear our children as many do their chicks, the whole family 

 running over and stepping upon the nursling, should we 

 wonder if it grew up crippled and deformed? 



Avoid huddling them together. Twelve to fifteen chicks 

 are all that should be allowed to brood in one coop. We are 

 apt to let the brood quarter in the chicken-coop till quite late 

 in the fall, when they outgrow the coop, and crowding into 

 it, they suffer from their own exhalations ; and the piling 

 one upon another causes, in many cases, the slipping down of 

 their hips and the one-sided appearance which so often comes 

 to our notice. 



The best mode of setting hens is, to sink a barrel on its 

 side one-third into the ground, filling up with earth even with 

 the earth on the outside, using a small quantity of hay to form 

 the nest, especially in early spring. This, you see, will pre- 

 vent tbe cold air from reaching the egg through the hay from 

 the under side, and chilling them, while the earth in the bar- 

 rel becomes heated by the hen, which increases your chances 

 for an early brood. Place one of the chicken-coops described 

 in front of the barrel, and by the means of a slide-door admit 

 the hen to and from the nest. The coop becomes a feeding 

 and dusting yard for her while setting, and a home for her 

 and her brood when hatched, besides preventing her from 

 deserting her eggs. As the season approaches June and 

 July, pour into the barrel, before putting in the earth, a 

 half-pailful of water. The heat of the hen will draw the 

 moisture up, and prevent too rapid evaporation in the eggs, 

 and secure for you a better hatch. 



By setting an even number at a time, and doubling up the 

 broods, you can reset the hens thus released (which generally 

 do better the second time), by which means you secure 

 eighteen clutches of chickens from twelve incubating hens, 



