142 POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 
the hens in a flock in short order. Dark nests, as shown in Figs. 13, 16, 35, 
and 36, are the best preventive of egg eating. Once the vice becomes fixed in 
a flock, such dark nests in an ordinary well lighted pen do not stop it, for 
enough light finds its way into the nests to enable the hens to see to eat the 
eggs, if they are very eager to do so. To effect a cure, the pen itself must be 
so dark that the hens can just see to make their way to the nests. Then the 
nests are so dark that the hens cannot possibly see well enough to break and 
eat the eggs. The point is to prevent the hens breaking eggs until they have 
had time to forget about it. Fowls have short memories. From one to two 
weeks of complete prevention usually effects a lasting cure. Some poultrymen 
report having cured egg eating by giving the hens china nest eggs to pick at 
until they gave up in disgust. This may work sometimes ; — it has been tried 
and failed. The pitch dark nest is a sure cure. 
190. Condition and Food, and the Quality of Eggs.— Hens that are 
fat without being over-fat lay the best eggs. Generally the eggs of corn fed 
hens are richer than those of hens fed principally on other grains. 
Tun, Watery Ecocs come from using too much sloppy food, or vegetable 
food, and from hens in poor condition generally, no matter what the kind or 
quality of the food. 
PaLEe YOLKS result from lack of green food, and of faé, oil. It is rarely 
possible to have anything like as good color in the yolks of winter eggs as in 
eggs laid in May and June; but by using hay cured green, and by feeding 
corn quite freely, much better color is obtained than when root vegetables 
only are fed, and corn almost excluded from the ration. 
191. Nest Eggs.— The use of nest eggs for laying hens is unnecessary. 
One may as well save the few dollars—or few cents—they would cost. 
Hens in confinement have no opportunity to hide their nests. Most of them 
go to the nests provided for them, and when hens show partiality for a 
particular nest, the use of nest eggs in all the nests will rarely prevent 
their crowding to the nest they favor. Hens which have opportunity and the 
disposition to hide their nests, will do so though the nests provided for them 
be filled with nest eggs. 
192. Practical Every Day Use of an Egg Record.— In every pen of 
laying hens there should be tacked up a sheet, ruled one way for the months, 
and the other for the days of the month, on which to record the number of 
eggs laid each day. <A record of diet and weather is valuable, but that can 
be kept on one sheet for many pens. The egg record sheet in each pen 
furnishes a good guide in feeding; is almost indispensable when one person 
does the feeding and another collects the eggs, and is most useful always, 
for memories are treacherous. The egg record shows the exact nature and 
extent of fluctuations in the egg yield, and shows at once when something is 
