28 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



Sixth year after birth 50 to 60 



Seventh " " 3S " 4° 



Eighth " " 15 " 20 



Ninth " " I " 10 



It follows that it would not be profitable to keep 

 hens after their fourth year, as their produce would not 

 pay for their keep, except when they are of a valuable 

 or scarce breed. 



Natural Hatching. 



The hens of all kinds of gallinaceous fowls sit for 

 twenty-one days ; ducks of the usual kind, such as 

 Aylesbury, Rouen, and others, twenty-eight days ; Mus- 

 covy ducks, thirty to thirty-five days ; geese, thirty to 

 thirty-five days ; Guinea fowls, twenty-eight to thirty 

 days ; turkeys, twenty-eight days ; pea hens, twenty- 

 eight to thirty days. With a view of obtaining more 

 eggs in a given time from a fowl, many writers suggest 

 to prevent the hen from sitting by cooping her up in 

 a dark place on a low diet. Nothing can be more 

 cruel than to force nature without giving that neces- 

 sary rest which overwork requires. Already the do- 

 mesticated fowls lay many more eggs than wild ones 

 between their hatchings, and by a judicious housing 

 and feeding, can be made to lay still more ; but then 

 it is absolutely necessary to allow her to recruit her 

 strength by a rest of twenty-one days on her nest, and 

 a liberal poultaceous diet, as the laying of eggs, and 

 more particularly of large ones, is attended with con- 

 siderable pain, as is evidenced by the difference of 

 sound hens utter before and after their laying, and 



