20 
THE POULTKY BOOK. 
February. The prejudice against setting young hens is not founded on observation, 
for we have invariably found that they sit equally well with older birds. 
When hens lay away, and escape discovery in so doing, the number of eggs laid 
before they sit is usually found to vary from nine to eighteen. If there are more, 
it is almost always a partnership business. Where it is desirable to induce a hen 
to sit early, her eggs should be left with her ; and so soon as the number, be it 
more or less, appears satisfactory to her, she is generally eager to commence her 
task ; but this requires the bird to be kept by herself, or at least where others are 
not in the habit of laying in the same nest. When the hen takes to her nest, it is 
best to let her remain there, giving her three or four new eggs to sit on to test her 
steadiness for a day or two ; for at times they commence somewhat irregularly, 
coming off two or three times during the first day or so, and often going to perch 
the first night, though they had occupied the nest during the whole day. At the 
end of this period — or earlier if she manifests continued steadiness — the nest 
being duly prepared, the eggs may be given her, and this is most quietly accom- 
plished by lifting her off at night, when the eggs may be placed in the nest, and 
the hen replaced, without any risk of their being broken by her struggles. 
Good sitters seldom or never leave their nests more than once a day, provided 
they are well fed when they come off ; and they seldom remain away longer than 
from a quarter to half an hour, rarely exceeding the latter period, unless food has 
not been supplied and they have to forage for themselves. 
The time a sitting hen may remain absent from the nest without injury to the 
eggs depends on so many contingent causes, such as the season of the year, and 
the particular stage of development at which the embryo has arrived, that it would 
be impossible to give a decided statement. An absence of from twenty minutes to 
half an hour is as much as should be encouraged ; but this may often be prolonged 
to several hours without the inevitable destruction of the brood. It is well known 
to comparative anatomists that, during development, the embryo passes through all 
the phases of animal life, beginning with the simplest, and gradually becoming more 
and more complex in its organization ; so that if it were possible to arrest its 
growth at any intermediate day and sustain its life, an animal of lower class would 
be produced — a circumstance that yearly occurs before our eyes in the case of the 
common frog, the eggs of which hatch, not into air-breathing reptiles, with lungs, 
but into lungless fish, familiarly known to us as tadpoles, and respiring by means 
of perfect gills. In the simplest forms of animal existence life can be maintained 
at a much lower temperature than in the higher ; and, therefore, at the earlier periods 
of sitting the hen may be absent for a prolonged time without injury, whereas a 
much shorter neglect of her duties would be fatal nearer the day of hatching. But 
where we found a hen careless of her charge, and requiring to be frequently driven 
tov/ards her nest, we would avoid employing her again as a sitter. Yi g have had 
lions, however, in our possession whom we have, day by day, been obliged to take 
off, as no inducement was sufiicient to lead them to do so of their own accord. 
Doubtless the main object in this periodical excursion is to obtain the necessary 
