86 INCUBATIOS. 



egg, which, as in all cases in which any life has existed, deconb 

 poses, and in time engenders gas. Such eggs should he buried, 

 not thrown where they can be picked at by other birds. 



It is a good plan to sit two or more hens at the same time; on 

 the tenth day you can test the eggs, and remove from both nests 

 the unfertile ones giving one hen all the other eggs and resitting 

 the other on a fresh lot of eggs. Besides, if two hens sit at once, 

 one ben when they batch out can take both broods, so you econ- 

 omise your stock of hens. I would never advise, as some people 

 do, that hen No. 3 should be given a fresh set of eggs and have to 

 sit another three weeks, for no hen could sit six weeks without 

 taxing her strength too much; this proceeding I look upon as a 

 downright cruel one. 



Short-legged hens are the best for sitting, therefore Brahmas 

 and Porkings make very good "broody" hens. Three weeks is 

 the usual time it takes for hens' eggs to hatch, but they may 

 eithei be a day or two befpre or a day or two after the twenty- 

 one days. 



If possible have a sitting-house, or arrange that your sitting 

 hens are kept in a quiet, rather dark place, away from the other 

 birds, else you will have endless trouble; for if kept in the same 

 house in which the other hens lay, they wUl be constantly- inter- 

 fering with the sitting hens, trying to lay in the same nests, and 

 eggs are sure to be broken in the scuffle. Tour sitter may prove 

 a little restless in a fresh place at first, but employ china eggs 

 for her to sit on until she is disposed to sit steadily^ and she will 

 soon settle down, you will find, in her new nest, especially if she 

 be really 'Tjroody" or "cluck." And here it may be as well, per- 

 haps, to say a few words about "broody" hens. Sometimesthey 

 are most tiresome, and very often this strong desire to sit, which 

 is termed storge, is so strong that no means you can try will abate 

 it. In such a case I should be tempted, even if I did not want 

 the chickens, to let the poor hen gratify her desire, and do as 



