THE CHICK BOOK 



37 



should test out all the Infertile eggs. All the tester I use is 

 a common lantern and my two hands. I set my lantern on 

 top of the box in which the hen is, any time after dark, on 

 the eighth day, or on up to the tenth day. I take each egg 

 between the thumb and first finger of both hands and hold 

 it up between my eyes and the light, so I can see through. 

 If th* egg is infertile it will be a clear yellow color all over. 

 If there is a chick started in it the embryo can be seen. 

 Testing in this way is the simplest thing imaginable. I 

 leave the infertile eggs in a basket until morning, when they 

 are broken into the ground feed and fed to the laying hens. 

 If you have a pen of hens that have taken to eating their 

 eggs feed them to them without breaking them. Peed them 

 all they will eat and they will get foundered on eggs and 

 soon let them alone. 



Some writers advise setting two hens at once, and when 

 you test out a part give what eggs are left to one hen, and 

 set the other on fresh eggs. Do not do it It makes the 

 second hen have to sit too long and about the time she 

 comes off with her chicks you may lose her. But let each 

 hen keep her own eggs and if there are not more than eight 

 or nine chicks when they both hatch, one hen can take all 

 and the other, for her own good, must be broken up. Another 

 thing that I do for my sitting hens is to sprinkle every hen 

 once a week with some good insecticide. I make a mixture 

 of crude carbolic acid one ounce, sulphur four pounds, and 

 sifted coal ashes about eight or ten pounds. This dilutes 

 the carbolic acid sufficiently, so it is not dangerous and can 



be sprinkled over the backs of the hens on the nests, with 

 the bare hand. 



As I said In the beginning my sitting hens are among the 

 least of my troubles, but if somebody can tell me how to 



The Brooder ot Our Forefathers. 



kee^p my neighbors' dogs and cats and rats and weasles and 

 minks from killing my birds, without my getting into a 

 racket with my neighbors, such information will be thank- 

 fully received. H. F. BALLARD, M D. 



HATCHING WITH STRANGE HENS. 



Orange Boxes Made Very Good Double Nests — The Care of Sitting Hens that are Moved from One f^arm to Another. 



By C. A. Button. 



THE plan which I have followed for the past three 

 seasons in managing sitting hens has given very 

 good results, and I will attempt to explain it with 

 the hope that some reader may glean a kernel of 

 helpful information therefrom. 



I use a small room in the barn for sitters, partitioned 

 off for that purpose. For nests I have found nothing better 

 than orange boxes, which generally can be had at any gro- 

 cery or fruit store for the asking. They are about the proper 

 size, each box holding two hens. They are made so as to 

 give a free circulation of air through the nests, which is 

 very essential to the comfort of the hen in warm weather. 

 I have a hinged door to each box to make it handy in letting 

 the hens off and on their nests. For nest material I use 

 straw. 



Being a Leghorn breeder, I have to buy sitters from the 

 neighbors. I gather them at night and place them in the 

 nests on china eggs. They are not let off until the second 

 day after they are put on the nests. After this they are 

 taken from the nests each day and fed whole corn and grit. 

 The hens are often quite wild, but by being gentle with them 

 they soon become quiet enough to place eggs in their care. 

 Bach day these hens are taken from the nests, fed and re- 

 turned again in about fifteen minutes and shut up. This 

 prevents hens from leaving their nests and fighting with 



other hens, which generally results in broken eggs. I then 

 darken the room and all is quiet till the next day. By this 

 method I have had hens hatch two sittings of eggs and come 

 off looking well. 



When buying sitters it is best to make sure that each 

 one has taken up the business in sober earnestn^s belfore 

 they are moved to their new location. Those who sell 

 them naturally desire to g'et them out of the way as soon 

 as possible, and will often urge the buyer to remove them 

 before they have been broody long enough to be reliable. 

 A hen should sit three or four days before she is trans- 

 ferred to another place. Then, if th'ey are handled care- 

 fully and made comfoirtable during the journey, they will 

 continue to behave well in their new home, even when the 

 surroundings are entirely different. The man who care- 

 lessly pulls a hen off her nest, thrusts her into a sack and 

 jolts her home on his shoulder, ought not to expeot the 

 hen to sit. But sometimes she does, for some hens can 

 scarcely be induced to change their minds by the harshest 

 treaitment. 



During the past three years I have bought from twenty- 

 five to forty sitting hens a season and out of this number 

 have had only three which positively refused to sit; and I 

 have had an average hatch oi eleven chicks per hen, the 

 season throug'h, by following this plan. C. A. DTJTTON. 



