72 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 



NEST NOTES. 



Use small hens to hatch thin-shelled eggs. 



The best feed for sitting hens is corn. They 

 should have clean water and gravel and access to 

 dry earth. They need little else. 



If the hen deserts the nest for a few hours and 

 allows the eggs to become chilled, do not throw the A 



trggs away. L,et them have another trial ; they will HANGING 

 stand exposure for a long while and yet hatch well. NEST. 



Whatever else you do, don't follow the stereotyped advice 

 in poultry books and papers to make the nests of sitting hens 

 on the ground not, at least, before June. 



In April showers look after the young broods. A " saturated 

 solution " of chicken is N. G., except for soup. 



Boil beef or pork cracklings with small potatoes, add corn 

 meal, mash all together and make a dish fit for the chickens of 

 a king. 



The most acceptable lays of spring are furnished by the hens. 



It is bad policy to keep the big, slow-motioned fowls and the 

 small, nervous, quick-motioned breeds together in one flock. 

 They require different feeding and treatment ; they do not nar- 

 monize. 



A hen's teeth are in her gizzard. Sand, gravel and like sub- 

 stances are the teeth. Keep them sharp. 



A state of fear and excitement is unfavorable to egg produc- 

 tion. Every movement among a flock of hens should be gentle. 



The wide-awake poultry keeper is up and around among his 

 flocks early in the morning and late in the evening. 



Drinking water in cold weather should be neither hot nor 

 ice-cold, but simply cool, and always clear and fresh. 



A GENERAL-PURPOSE HEN. 



