Sitting Boxes. 



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sitting houses. Under these conditions the nests swarm 

 •with vermin, the sitting hens become irritable and break their 

 eggs ; and when the young pheasants come out they are 

 infested with fleas and Hce, and are nearly devoured alive. 

 Moreover, the dry, stifling air of these places is destructive 

 to the vitality of the unhatched birds, numbers of which die 

 in the shell either before or at the period of hatching. Every 

 poultry keeper knows that no nests are so prohfic of strong 

 healthy chickens as those that the hens " steal " under 

 hedges or in copses or concealed places, from whence they 

 emerge with strong flourishing broods that put to shame the 

 delicate, sickly younsters reared in the close air and drv 



HATCHING BOX. 



BOX AND KUN COMPLETE. 



over-heated nests of a hatching-house. The nearer we can 

 imitate Nature the better — and if the hens hatching pheasants' 

 eggs can be set on the ground, covered over with a ventilated 

 coop — more for concealment than warmth — and this sur- 

 rounded by a wire run, into which the hen can come out, 

 feed, drink, and, above all, dust herself, at her will, the eggs 

 will be found to hatch out much more abundantly than when 

 they are set in the vermin-infested, crowded pigeon-holes 

 adopted by many keepers. Such nesting boxes may be of 

 cheap and simple construction, as illustrated. The nest 

 should be on the ground, there being no bottom to the box ; 

 and if the sides and the wire work are sunk into the earth 

 and the latter is sparrow- and rat-proof, the hen may be 

 supplied once daily with food and water without entailing 

 any further trouble. But some dry ashes should be given 



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