DOMESTIC POITLrBT. 



Kngs •were dead, and two more died afterwards. M went 



again and again, and to botli tlie poultry-yards, and brought 

 up forty fowls — all that were in danger — every one of which 

 would have been dead before morning. Of course she had not 

 a dry thread about her, nor a dry hair on her head ; but the 

 wetting was a trifle in comparison with the bewildering effects 

 of the thunder and lightniag in such a midnight. She did 

 not, however, suffer from it more nor less, and our poultry- 

 yard was saved." 



CONOEBNING EGGS AND CHICKS. 



Eggs intended for hatching should be removed as soon as 

 laid, and placed in bran in a dry, cool place. Choose those 

 that are near of a size ; and, as a rule, avoid those that are 

 equally thick at both ends, — such, probably, contain a double 

 yolk, and will come to no good. Eggs intended for hatching 

 should never be stored longer than a month, as much less 

 the better. Nine eggs may be placed under a Bantam hen, 

 and as many as fifteen under a Dorking. The odd number is 

 considered preferable, as more easily packed. It will be as well 

 to mark the eggs you give the hen to sit on, so that you may 

 know if she lays any more : if she does, you must remove them ; 

 for, if hatched at all, they would be too late for the brood. If 

 during iacubation an egg should be broken, remove it, and take 

 out the remainder, and cleanse them in luke-warm water, or it 

 is probable the sticky nature of the contents of the broken egg 

 win make the others cUng to the hen's feathers ; and they, too, 

 may be fractured. 



Some hens are very capricious as regards sitting ; they will 

 make a great fass, and keep pining for the nest, and when they 

 are permitted to take to it, they will sit just long enough to 

 addle the eggs, and then they are off again. The safest way 

 to guard against such annoyance, is to supply the hen with 

 some hard boiled eggs ;. if she sits on them a reasonable time, 

 and seems steadily inclined, like a good matron, you may thenp 

 give her proper eggs, and let her set about the business in 

 earnest. 



Sometimes the chick within the sheH. is unable to break away 

 fi om its prison ; for the white of the egg will occasionally harden 

 in the air to the consistence of joiners' glue, when the poor 

 chick is in a terrible fix. An able writer says : " Assistance in 

 hatching must not be rendered prematurely, and thence unne- 

 cessarily, but only in the case of the chick being plainly unable 



