36 



THE CHICK BOOK 



Some of our hens take their broods fully a quarter of a 

 mile from their coops every day, and in this way teach them 

 to hustle for themselves. Nothing will develop a Barred 

 Rock cockerel's muscle and make his bones grow like clias- 

 ing grasshoppers through a cornfield. It answers the same 

 purpose as foot-ball for a boy. When the hens begin to 

 wean their chicks, great care must be exercised to prevent 

 crowding in the coops at night, as several broods will often 

 be found in one box. If they are not separated, crooked tails, 

 twisted wings and small, stunted chicks will be the result. 

 I believe crowding and overheating in the coop or brooder 



to be the cause of more poor chickens, more crooked, de- 

 formed birds, more attacks of roup and other contagious 

 diseases, than all other causes combined. We do not intend 

 to allow more than ten or twelve chickens in one coop, no 

 matter how large it may be, and as soon as possible teach 

 them to roost, as they are less liable to crowd and pile up in 

 a heap on the roost than in a coop. For this purpose we 

 use a weaning coop, or colony house, set up from the ground, 

 Into which we move our growing chicks as soon as they 

 evince a desire to fly upon the top of their small coops at 

 nlgbt. M. S. GARDNER. 



HOW I MANAGE SITTING HENS, 



A Well Known Breeder Tells How He Has Reduced to a Minimum the Work of Hatching with Hens. 



By Dr. H. F. Ballard. 



TO BEGIN with, breeders of Asiatics should have, or at 

 least they like to have some early sitters. To have 

 early sitters we must have early layers. To have 

 early layers we must begin to feed for eggs early, 

 say January 1. Then if you get a few hens to start the in- 

 cubating fever in February you have done well. I aim to 

 set every hen that goes to sitting early, and I do not wait 

 for two hens to sit at a time so early in the season. I have 

 an old shed barn in which I set all my hens, and they are 

 never allowed outside of the barn from the day they are 

 set until the chicks are three days old. Each hen has a nest 

 box about eighteen inches square that can be closed in front. 

 I generally get boxes at the grocery or drug store and nail on 

 boards in front and use a barrel stave as a door, which can 

 be slipped down in front when closed. 



The first evening the hen is placed on two or three 

 china eggs to test her persistence as a sitter and her charac- 

 ter as to temper. If she settles down quietly the first thing 

 she is A No. 1. If she stands and begins to poke her head 

 out between the boards, she is A No. 2. But do not pay any 

 more attention to her now, just go quietly away and let her 

 think it over. The chances are she will be sitting quietly 

 in the morning, but whether she is or not I do not let her 

 off the nest, but place food and water before her where she 

 can reach it, and do not disturb her otherwise. If she is 



A Prize-winning Hen and Healthy Brood. 



quiet the eggs can be given her the second evening, but if 

 she is restless it is better to wait until the third evening be- 

 fore giving her the eggs. Some hens will do better after 

 they get a nest full of eggs. They seem to know that the 

 china eggs are a delusion and a snare. 



If the hen persists in standing up and cackling and 

 tramping over the nest regardless of the eggs, the quicker 

 you break her up the better. For the last five years I have 

 never seen a sitting hen that I could not break from sitting 

 in three days, and I am breeding Cochins, a breed that are 

 considered by many people as good for nothing but sitting. 

 Those people simply do not know much about Cochins — that 

 is all. I have bred Liangshans, Brahmas and Plymouth 

 Rocks, and the Cochins are no worse than any of them 

 about sitting, while they make the best mothers of the 

 whole list when they sit and hatch a brood. 



In the same building where I set my hens, I keep all my 

 extra cocks and cockerels. These are divided up into coops 

 of one, two, or three or more, according to their fighting 

 propensities. Into one of these coops our contrary sitting 

 hen — that thought she wanted to sit and would not— goes 

 instanter. If she is a white hen, of course she is put in 

 with a white male bird; if a Partridge, with a Partridge, 

 and so on. Inside of three or four days he has persuaded 

 her to give it up as all a mistake, this sitting business any- 

 how, and you can then turn her into the regular pen again. 

 So much for the breaking up, and it will work every time, 

 whether your hen has been sitting three days or three weeks. 

 . To return to the sitter, providing she sits all right, on 

 the morning of the third day, when she has been on the nest 

 about thirty-six hours, open the door of the coop so she can 

 come off. Do not take her off, but let her come off In her 

 own way. She will be much more apt to go back to the nest 

 of her own accord, but if she does not, try to gently drive 

 her back. If she won't go back, catch her and put her back 

 and fasten her up again. It she goes back of her own free 

 will you may leave her nest open, as by that time she is 

 getting used to things and will perhaps need little further 

 attention. Sometimes it requires two or three trials before 

 she will go to her own nest, but she must be taught to do so, 

 or fastened up each time until she learns it. In the house 

 where my sitting hens are I always keep plenty of food, 

 water, grit and ash heap to roll in.^ 



After your hen has been sitting about eight days you 



