48 CANARIES 



hen began to sit closely. The method of testing is to 

 take each egg between the fore finger and thumb and 

 hold it before the gas, lamp, or some other strong light. 

 If fertile a small red spot with very fine red lines running 

 out from it will be seen. The advantage to be derived 

 from testing is that, should you have two hens going to 

 nest at the same time, and each of them have one or 

 more eggs unfertile, you can transfer the fertile eggs 

 to one hen, and remove the nest pan from the other hen. 

 This means you will save much time, as the hen wUl go to 

 nest again early. More than that a full nest of youngsters 

 always thrive better than a couple. 



If you are breeding pedigree stock care must be taken 

 not to place the eggs in a nest in which it would be im- 

 possible to distinguish one bird from another. As example, 

 it would not be wise to place eggs from two pairs of clear 

 Norwich in one nest, as it would be impossible to dis- 

 tinguish the young, but the eggs of clear and marked 

 birds could be mixed with a fair certainty that the young 

 could be recognised. 



When this cannot be done and you have say two or 

 three hens sitting on a couple of good eggs each, you can 

 leave them till they hatch, and then when about four or 

 five days old remove all to one nest, marking them 

 either with an indelible pencil under the wing, or by 

 attaching a piece of coloured sewing silk or cotton to the 

 legs. 



Food During Incubation. 



During the first twelve days of the incubatory period 

 it is wise to feed the parent birds on plain seed and green 

 food. If may be advisable twice during the period 

 to give them a pinch of Epsom salts in the drinking water 

 Not much — just enough to make the water taste salty. 

 On the thirteenth day the birds may be given just a 

 little egg food, about a teaspoonful, and again on the four- 

 teenth morning. Once the young have made their 

 appearance egg food must be given every day, and the 

 oftener it is given the better. Three times daily is better 

 than twice, and four or five times is better than three. 

 Little and often gives better results than much and 

 seldom. 



