284 



COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



The sitting hen is entitled to just as much consideration as the 

 brood mare or cow. Aside from the humanity involved, to 

 treat animals decently is the only way to obtain the full benefit 

 of their efficiency. 



Give the Sitters Privacy. — It is a mistake to allow the sitters 

 to bring ofif their hatches in the regular poultry house along with 

 the rest of the flock. In the first place, the sitting hens are al- 

 most certain to be pitilessly tormented by the other fowls. The 

 layers will fight for possession of the sitters' nests, lay in them, 

 sometimes drive the rightful owners off the nests entirely, or 



break their eggs, which is not 

 only a loss in itself, but the 

 presence of broken eggs seri- 

 ously endangers the safety of 

 the rest of the hatch. There 

 is also the risk of allowing 

 fresh laid eggs to become 

 heated and spoiled b>- the 

 sitters, or of removing the 

 hatching eggs in mistake for 

 fresh eggs. Or, if the nests 

 are entirely ignored, it is 

 likely that the layers will fill 

 them to over-flowing with 

 their eggs, making it impossi- 

 ble for the sitting hens to 

 cover the real hatching eggs, in which case they are chilled and 

 the hatch is a failure. 



Vermin. — ^Then, again, hens set in the poultry house are more 

 apt to be troubled with vermin than if they are given a clean, 

 new nest of their own somewhere else. This is an important 

 consideration. 



We like to think that our flocks and houses are free from lice 

 and mites; but free from these pests they seldom are; make no 

 mistake on this point. To delude ourselves on this score is to 

 invite trouble and losses. The brood is no sooner hatched than 



Fig. 180. — A farm brood. 



