TEE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



245 



Rearing Chickens in tite Spring. 



VU i). TECJETMEIEE, the well-kuown 

 M « English authority on poultry, 

 writes as follows in the "Live Stock 

 Journal" : — 



The general rearer, as distinguished 

 Ironi the fancier who breeds birtis for the 

 early shows, will now be raising chickens 

 m what may be called the natural season 

 of the year, when the finest and most pro- 

 lific birds are produced. With the fine 

 weather we may now expect, chickens can 

 be reared in a much more natural and 

 consequently healthy manner than was 

 practical in the previous month. Hens 

 may now be allowed to sit in the open, 

 where they will rear much stronger, heal- 

 thier, and hardiei' chickens than if 

 the eggs are taken and kept in a warm 

 room, as they very often are b}' ignorant 

 fanciers. If it is convenient the eggs 

 should be allowed to remain where the 

 hen lays them. These nests will always 

 produce the strongest clutches of 

 chicken-;. There is no fear of their being 

 injured Ijy occasional showers of rain or 

 night fronts. The hen adds an egg to them 

 every day or every other day, and when 

 some seventeen or eighteen have accum- 

 ulated she will usually begin to sit, and 

 in all probability will bring out as many 

 chickens as she has eggs under her. If, 

 as generally happens, the eggs are re- 

 moved, they should not, as is often done, 

 be brought into a warm- room with a fire, 

 in which the air is rendered impure by the 

 breathing of the occupants and by the 

 burning of lights, but they should lie 

 placed in a cool, pure atmosphere. 



The nest for the sitting hen if not on 

 the ground should invariablv be made 

 of damp earth, and no attempt should be 

 made to set the hen in one of a set of 

 close, vermin-haunted nest-boxes placed 

 in rows on a shelf, these lieing the worst 

 nests that can be imagined. A hen's or 

 pheasant's nest in a natural condition is 

 placed on the dani]) ground, and the 

 closer we can imitate nature the better. 

 If the hens are set by the owner it is much 

 the best to set if practicable two or three 

 hens on the same day. At the end of a 

 week the eggs should be examined. A 



hole cut in a piece of cardboard a little 

 less than the size of an egg should be held 

 before a lamp, as shown in the diagram. 

 This should be done in a dark room. If 

 the eggs are sterile, they will look as 

 transparent after being sat on for a week 

 as if new laid, but if they contain a 

 chicken they will be perfectly dark ex- 

 cept at the larger end. The clear eggs 

 should be taken away, and if two or three 

 hens are set on the same day, it is pro- 

 bable that the entire lot may be given to 

 one or two of them and a fresh lot to the 

 other, thus preventing the waste of a sit- 

 ting fowl and doing much to ensure large 

 broods. 



The less interference with the sitting 

 hen during the remainder of the period 

 the better, although in some cases it may 

 be necessary to take her ofE the nest once 

 every day, giving Tier a full feed of corn, 

 allowing her to dust in a heap or large 

 box of ashes, which should always be pro- 

 vided for the purpose, before returning 

 to her nest. On the twenty-first day, 

 the same day three weeks that the hen 

 was set, many of the chickens, if strong, 

 may be hatched out. They should not be 

 removed from the nest, and put before 

 the fire in a basket lined with flannel — a 

 silly plan pursued by some ignorant per- 

 sons, which the chickens resent loudly by 

 cheeping in a most unpleasant manner, 

 only to be quieted when returned to the 

 natural warmth of the hen. They should 

 not be fed, inasmuch as they are nourished 

 on the materials of the yolk, which is 

 drawn into the body as the chicken is 

 breaking through the shell. If all be 

 well, on the twenty-second day they are 

 strong and vigorous, and ready to feed. 

 The hen should then be taken out in the 

 o])en, and if she be cooped should be 

 placed on the ground, not in a coop with 

 a boarded floor, in as warm a position as 

 possible. If practicable, the ground 

 should be that on which chickens have 

 not been reared before, for as great a de- 

 gree of success on tainted ground cannot 

 be expected as on that which has not been 

 soiled by fowls. The pheasant rearer 

 knows this very well, and never attempts 



