72 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 



NEST NOTES. 



Use small hens to hatch thin-shelled eggs. 



If the hen deserts the nest for a few hours and 

 allows the eg;s to become chilled, do not throw the 

 eggs away. Let them have another trial ; they will 

 stand exposure for a long while and yet hatch well. 



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 har- 

 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 good dry-mash mixture : 100 parts each of bran, middlings, 

 ground alfalfa and beef scraps. 



A GENERAL-PURPOSE HEN. 



