BOOK \lir. V. 2-6 



is not available, vetch or millet. The keeper will 3 

 have to take care that the hens, when they are breed- 

 ing, have their nests strewn with the cleanest possible 

 straw, and he must sweep them out from time to time 

 and put in other litter which is as fresh as possible. 

 For the nests become full of fleas and other similar 

 creatures which the hen brings with it when it returns 

 to the same nest. The keeper ought also to be con- 

 tinually on the look-out for hens which are laying, a 

 fact to which they bear witness by frequent cackling 

 interrupted by shrill cries. He will have to watch until 4 

 they produce eggs and then immediately go round 

 the nests so that the eggs which have been laid may 

 be collected and a record taken to show the number 

 which have been laid each day and that the freshest 

 possible eggs may be put under the clucking hens, 

 for this is what country-folk call those birds which 

 wish to sit. The rest should either be stored or else 

 turned into money. Furthermore, the freshest eggs 

 are most suitable for hatching ; those, however, 

 which have been kept for some time can also be set, 

 provided that they are not more than ten days old. 

 Hens which have completed their first clutch of 5 

 eggs generally want to sit from January the 13th 

 onwards ; but they must not all be allowed to do 

 so, since young pullets are more useful for laying 

 eggs than for hatching them, and their desire to sit is 

 checked by passing a small feather through their 

 nostrils. Veteran fowls, therefore, will have to be 6 

 chosen for the task of sitting, which have already 

 done so frequently, and their disposition must be fully 

 known since some hens are better at hatching the 



per nares traiecta ac : per nasi et a S : per nasia et a ^. 



343 



