February, 1912 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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POULTERY 
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THE SITTING HEN AND HER 
MANAGEMENT 
By IDA D. BENNETT 
HE “sitting hen” is not so much in evi- 
dence these days as one would wish 
her to be, perhaps. When one has jealously 
saved up one or more settings of our choic- 
est eggs in anticipation of utilizing them 
for future additions to the flock, it is try- 
ing, to say the least, to see all one’s flock 
go on contentedly from day to day laying 
eggs and busying themselves about the 
house and yards with apparently no 
thought of their duties to the coming gen- 
erations of chickens which shall fill the pot 
and egg basket when they are no more. 
Formerly, the sitting hen was the bane of 
the poultry keeper and schemes for her 
effacement were rife. Every country woman 
has some dearly cherished formula for 
“breaking up a hen,’ but so far no one 
has evolved a satisfactory scheme for set- 
ting them. There is no question of the 
superiority of a hen over an incubator and 
as a mother she discounts any brooder yet 
invented many times over, and could she be 
set during the early spring months, we 
would have little, if any, use for the ma- 
chine-completed chickens. 
Frequently a hen will show broody ten- 
dencies for a day or two and then go back 
to laying, and it is never wise to set a hen 
until it has been clearly demonstrated that 
she has a well developed attack of incubat- 
ing fever. When a hen stays on the nest in 
the daytime and is cross when ap- 
proached, but returns to the perches at 
night, the symptoms are not to be trusted, 
but if she remains on the nest throughout 
the twenty-four hours, leaving it only 
once or at most twice a day for food, and 
comes off clucking and with outspread 
wings and ruffled feathers, it may be ac- 
cepted as prima facie evidence that the 
attack will run its usual course of 
twenty-one days and arrangements may 
be made for setting her, if setting be de- 
sired. If, however, it is not desired then 
means for “breaking her up” must be 
adopted, and this is usually quickly ac- 
complished by a change of environment. 
Much time is lost and little is gained by 
shutting a hen up. This serves rather 
to encourage the broody tendency, but 
if the hen can be placed in another yard 
where the conditions are different and 
more congenial than those she has been 
accustomed to, she will become so in- 
terested in her new surroundings as to 
quite forget that she was intending to sit. 
When, however, it is decided that 
Biddy shall follow her natural inclina- 
tion and sit, the first thing to be consid- 
ered is the condition of the fowl; she 
should be perfectly well and, above all 
things, entirely free from lice of all de- 
scription. To ascertain the last condi- 
tion a careful examination of the fowl 
should be made; take the hen up gently 
in both hands, holding the wings close 
to the body and turn her over onto her 
back, head toward one side and gently 
separate the feathers along the breast 
bone and other parts and look sharply 
for the big body lice which will be found 
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