THE CARE OF POULTRY 27 



■chop Up the celery trimming to keep them supplied 

 with green food. I try to give them the kind of food 

 that hens naturally seek when on a large range in 

 summer. Then furnish them a warm house, and make 

 them work for a part of their living." 



Egg-eating is a habit more easily prevented than 

 ■cured. Give the hens plenty of exercise, with a variety 

 ■of food. Gather the eggs frequently, provide sufficient 

 nesting places and keep one or more porcelain eggs 

 upon the floor of the house. Dark nests are advisable, 

 and a meat diet is excellent. To cure the habit provide 

 'dark nests and add meat to the food. Remove one end 

 from several eggs and pour out the contents. Make a 

 ■mixture of flour, ground mustard and red pepper, add- 

 ing a little water to hold the materials together. Fill 

 the shells and place upon the floor of the henhouse. 

 The hens will make a wild scramble for these prepared 

 ■eggs, will gobble down some of the contents, and will 

 soon be gasping with open beaks. Follow up this 

 treatment until the hens refuse to touch an egg. It 

 seems, and perhaps is somewhat severe, but no perma- 

 nent ill effects will follow. The hens will soon learn 

 that eggs are not so palatable as they regarded them, 

 and will desist from the bad habit. Positive cures 

 have followed this method. Another is to cut off the 

 ■end of the upper beak, making it blunt by paring back 

 near the quick. Probably the best way to prevent 

 egg-eating is to use one of the simple automatic nest 

 Tjoxes that are now becoming so popular. These nest 

 toxes are necessarily dark. Only one hen can get in at a 

 time, and after getting in the hen can only get out 

 into another compartment. Once here she cannot get 

 tack to the egg. It would take a pretty clever hen 

 to beat a mechanical contrivance of this sort. With 

 •darks nests there is no temptation to scratch and eggs 

 seldom get broken. If they do get broken it is so dark 



