SEASON OP LAYING. 85 



When laying has once commenced, it 

 goes on with considerable regularity, al- 

 though fowls vary in this respect. Some 

 lay one egg in three days, more commonly 

 one every other day, others every day, and 

 others, again, but this is very rare, two eggs 

 in one day. This, however, I have never 

 myself seen. In general, pullets lay more 

 eggs than hens of the second year, and at 

 the end of the fourth year they for the most 

 part cease to lay altogether. After laying 

 from twenty to thirty eggs, she ceases, or, in 

 popular language, her laying is out : she 

 shows an inclination to sit. If she is pre- 

 vented from doing this, she commences, 

 after an interval of a few days, to lay again ; 

 and thus it goes on, with one or more in- 

 terruptions of a similar kind, till moulting 

 commences, when laying ceases altogether. 



Various cruel and unmeaning practices 

 have been resorted to in order to break up 

 a hen from sitting ; we shall not mention 

 them here, lest the unthinking might be in- 

 duced to repeat them. Should the hen be 

 prevented from sitting one night over the 



