POULTRIY-CRAFT. 164 
the nesting material is most convenient for examining the eggs, if necessary, 
when the hen is on the nest, and is about the only style of handy nest in which 
a hen can be confined). If only two, four, or six hens are set in the same 
apartment, open nests may be used —though even for that small number, the 
closed nest is safer and surer ;— but where many hens are set together nests 
that can be closed are indispensable. The nest boxes may be with or without 
bottoms. They should be placed with backs to the walls, all facing the center 
of the pen. If with board bottoms, a few inches of earth should be put in 
each nest, slightly hollowed, and the corners of the nest filled up high (that 
if eggs are accidentally pushed toward them there may be no depression into 
which they can slip, remain and get cold), before the nest material proper is 
put in. Bottomless nests are more convenient, and more easily kept clean. 
They are, however, hardly suitable to use on a board floor, On an earth 
floor the bottomless nest is by all odds the best. The floor where the nest is 
to go should be raked smooth, and after the nest is in place the earth under it 
should be formed and firmed as described for the other nests. 
For nesting material, straw, hay, or excelsior may be used. Very long 
coarse hay or straw is not suitable. Soft hay or straw of medium leagth is 
better than cut stuff;—the nest made of it keeps its shape better. Just 
enough material should be used to make a good firm mat over the earth. 
Unless there is to be a period of probation, on china eggs, for the hens, each 
nest should be shaped and well firmed with the hand before eggs are placed 
in it; or the hen in trying to shape the nest with eggs in it will break some of 
them. It is a good plan to thoroughly dust the nest with insect powder before 
placing the hen on it. If this is done, and the hens were quite free from lice, 
they need not be powdered again for eleven or twelve days. 
235. Setting the Hens.— It is a good plan to have regular days — once 
a week is often enough — for setting hens, and to set as many as possible each 
time, that if there are many infertile eggs the sittings may be dowbdled up, and 
that the broods hatched may be equally distributed to just as many hens as are 
needed to take care of them. If open nests are used the hens are often given 
a few days probation on nest eggs, before being trusted with the eggs which 
they are to incubate. If closed nests are used, such probation is unnecessary, 
and a distinct gain of several days for each hen is made. (Those who use the 
open nests find it necessary to close in some hens at first, using a board or box 
for that purpose. The movable cover is handier, though used only for a 
few days). 
The hens should be moved at night, carried gently, one or two at a time. 
One who is about the poultry houses much in the daytime can generally do 
such work without a light much more quickly and with less annoyance to the 
hens, than if a lantern is carried. If a light must be used, and any of the 
hens are at all shy, it is best to place the lantern where it will throw just 
