342 Next to the Ground 



hard to break from the nest, whether laying 

 or sitting. A brooding hen deprived of eggs 

 or the chickens she has hatched, will some- 

 times starve, sitting upon the rocks with 

 which her nest has been filled. Hens some- 

 times choose to lay upon top of a beam or 

 a big bough in a tall tree, and continue to 

 do it, although each egg, as soon as laid, falls 

 and is smashed before their eyes. Hens 

 begin laying at from six to nine months old. 

 The average of egg-production in the common 

 barnyard fowl, is something less than five 

 hundred, distributed over four years' time. 

 After that age, hens lay but sparingly in 

 spring and fall. A laying runs anywhere be- 

 tween eleven and nineteen, in most breeds. 

 Leghorn and Black Spanish lay sometimes as 

 high as forty eggs without checking, and two 

 hundred within the year. 



Brooding, a hen lets herself go, and be- 

 comes a slattern of deepest dye. Though she 

 dusts herself in earth or ashes whenever she 

 comes off to feed — usually once in thirty- 

 six hours — that is a precaution against ver- 

 min. She does not preen and place her 

 rumpled feathers, while as for oil, they know 

 it not. Commonly a fowl's coat is oiled in 

 part each day. The oil-bag lies at the root 

 of and in front of the tail feathers. It is a 

 round gland with a queer little upstanding 



