CHAPTER VI. 

 HOUSING AND HYGIENE. 



Housing is Unnatural. — ^Wheji the hen is confined in a 

 building she is placed under a highly artificial condition. 

 In her wild state she does not ordinarily seek protection or 

 seclusion in caves or burrows as do certain other birds. The 

 ancestors of the domestic white-egged varieties were jungle 

 dwellers, and sought safety and rest on the high limb of a 

 tree or the seclusion of the underbrush. While the ancestors 

 of at least a part of the feather-footed varieties probably 

 had somewhat different habits, nevertheless, they never 

 left the open. 



Housing is Necessary. — In all lines of husbandry it is 

 frequently necessary to offset an artificial condition by an 

 unnatural method. In the greenhouse, certain flowers must 

 be pollinated by hand, because there are no insects to do it. 

 The Leghorn breeder hatches his chicks in an incubator 

 because that breed has largely lost its maternal instinct under 

 the influence of domestication. 



It is equally true that unnatural methods are constantly 

 called on to produce artificial conditions. The breeders of 

 Barred Plymouth Rocks resort to double mating in order 

 that they may produce males and females of about the same 

 shade, when the males are naturally lighter than the females. 

 The egg farmer sets his incubator in the late winter or early 

 spring so that the pullets that are hatched may be mature 

 enough to lay the following winter, which is the unnatural 

 laying season. 



The housing of poultry is necessary, both to overcome 

 and to produce artificial conditions. As Brown' points out, 



' Races of Domestic Poultry. 

 (254) 



