1-26 



FIRST LESSOya IN VOULTRl KEEPING. 



Most poultry keepers still continue to provijp many more neets than are used. I find a neet 

 to every five or six bens enough, and bave often allowed only one nesi to seven or eight hens, 

 say three nests in a pen of twenty to twenty-five hens, and found the allowance satisfactory, 

 fiven when the hens were laying well. That, however, depends on the flock. Sometimes all the 

 hens in a flock are quick layers, again they are slow to very slow, or the laying habits ol the 



Triple Set Skeleton Nesls in Place in Poultry House. 



bens are very uneven. So I allow as a rule one nest to a pen of three or lour hens, two to a pen 

 of six to twelve hens, and from four to six to a pen of twenty to twenty-five hens, according as 

 they seem to need them. 



Styles of Nests. 



The nest boxes should he movable. Whenever more than one nest is necessary it is custom- 

 ary to make the nei-ts in sections of two or more. Sometimes these are built under the drop- 

 pings board, but even here the construction may and should be such that the nests are easily 

 moved and taken out of the house for thorough cleaning atul airing. 



It has been a very common practice to make and place the nests so they would be quite dark. 

 This is done in part because the hen is supposed to prefer a secluded place to lay, and in 

 part to prevent the development ol the egg eating habit among the hens. 



To economize floor space us much as possible, it is customary to place the nests on the wall 

 several feet from the floor; or if they are put under the droppings boards, these are usually 

 placed high enough to allow the hens the use ol the floor below the nests, \hough sometimes 

 In a house with low north wall and roosts next this wall, the nests are on the ground, with the 

 droppings board forming the top ol them. 



Leghorns and other high flyers will go as a rule to the highest nest accessible. I once 

 nailed a small box in a corner close up to the root in a pen ol Silver Dorkings, and all but one 

 or, two very heavy hens would go to that nest thoui,'h there were others more accessible. 

 Hens ol the larger breeds will often go to the corners on the floor of the poultry house to 

 lay, no matter how many or how attractive nests are provided for them elsewhere. It is 

 very difficult to break hens ol that habit. In many of them it is hereditary, and the beet thing 

 to do is to either put a box — a common soap boxJs good — on the floor in the corner, and let 

 Ihem use It lor a nest, or by fastening a nest to the wall a lew inches Irom the floor try to 



