60 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



SITTING, HATCHING, HEARING, &c, 



|P the eggs are to be set under the hen that has laid them, she 

 should be in a quiet place, and undisturbed by other hens. 

 If, however, as is often the case, a strange h-en is obtained, 

 a small box having no bottom, -or aboard bottom if preferred,- should 

 be procured ; it should be large -enough for the hen- to -have room -to 

 turn without crumpling her tail feathers, as unless she is com- 

 fortable she will probably not sit steadily. A quiet place is 

 desirable for hatching, a turf two inches thick, the size of the 

 bottom of the nest, may be used for a foundation, or put in the nest 

 a good shovelful of earth. Beat this down well with the hand to 

 resemble the shape of a saucer, the centre being the lowest part. 

 Get some dry fern or oatstraw, well rub with the hand to make 

 it soft and lie close, and make a nice nest ; place two or three nest 

 eggs in it, and in the evening put your hen quietly on and shut her 

 in, either by a sack over the front, or other means. Next day she 

 should be taken off to feed, and if she does not go back in about 

 twenty minutes she should be caught as quietly as possible and 

 replaced and covered in as before ; the second morning she will 

 generally return of her own accord. Sitting hens should be fed once 

 a day, in the morning, with corn and water ; they can be all taken 

 off together, and at the end of twenty minutes those that have not 

 returned may be gently driven towards the nests, when they will 

 generally go on. They can then be shut in, and the dung, &c., 

 swept up and the place kept clean. Should an egg get broken in 

 the nest the others may be put into a bucket of warm water at 

 about 70° Fahr., and gently washed clean and put back under the 

 hen, otherwise they will all stick together and be constantly break- 

 ing, or sticking to the feathers of the hen. On the twenty-first day 

 the chickens usually make their appearance ; some latitude should, 

 however, be allowed, as sometimes they come out a day or so 



