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228 FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
nest. All this goes to show that in making the nests in our 
city poultry buildings, where space is too limited to allow 
of a wide range for our fowls, it should be our object to 
imitate nature as much as possible in the construction of 
proper nests for them. “ 
I could mention a score or more of elaborate poultry- 
houses throughout the country where everything was designed 
to be in keeping with the beautiful pets which they shelter. 
Patent feed-boxes, patent roosts, and patent everything was 
the fashion, and I must confess that I have been as much a 
victim as any one, so far as the use of the above useless 
appendages are concerned. I had a fine set of nests made 
the entire length of our buildings, with doors arranged to 
open into thevhall, &c.; but, after a year’s trial, I have dis- 
carded them, and find, after all said and done, the simplest 
contrivance is the best. To give a simple definition of what 
is wanted, I will only say, darkness and difficulty; some 
long, dark box lying on the floor for the larger birds; what 
I mean by long is three or four feet, by sixteen inches wide, 
and fourteen inches high. Keep the nest in the farthest end 
by a cross-board four inches high. Let the entrance be in the 
end and next to the floor, and so small that it will bea “‘ tight 
squeeze’’ for the hen to enter or come out; and lastly, place 
the open end so close in a corner of the room that even the 
entrance will be hard to get at. You can use your own 
mode of getting the eggs out, say by a small hand-hole with 
a lid to it on top of the box. We hada fine coop of Buff 
Cochins, and also one of Dark Brahmas, addicted to the 
provoking habit of egg-eating. I suppose that this habit 
was first contracted by the eggs being accidentally broken 
by the hens in the exposed and uncomfortable nature of our 
fancy nests. Of course, a hen’s motherly affection and care 
for her eggs gives way to her appetite on sight of a broken 
one, hence the habit of eating them. In this dilemma I 
closed those puckered-up things, and placed in their stead 
the nests described in this article, and the result was that 
we got all the eggs they laid. As hens wild not eat their 
eges after they have hidden them, or when they are near in 
sight while the whole flock are wandering about the coop 
throughout the day. After the habit was broken up en- 
tirely in these two coops, our Light Brahmas and’ Par- 
tridge Cochins fell into the habit, and nearly loved on eggs; 
in fact, I do not know but that they would have become 
self-sustaining, had we not given them the long, dark, diffi- 
cult, &c., box, whereupon we were rewarded at once with 
well-filled baskets. The small entrance to the nest also 
prevents the cock from getting into them, as they often will 
where possible, seemingly to show, in their politeness and 
solicitude for their charge, the whereabouts of a nest. A 
few weeks ago I placed a common open-top box in our Ply- 
mouth Rock coop, furnished it with plenty of clean straw 
for their nest, they having shown signs of laying. The box 
was no sooner in position than the cock took to nest first, 
and scratched, fluttered, and tore about, and was in every 
position imaginable, all the time clucking, while the hens 
all stood around amazed—so did I.—I took away the open 
box, and gave them the dark nest, and Mr. Cock has stayed 
outside since. Only yesterday I made some new nests for 
our White Leghorns; they were hardly in place before the 
cock took to one of them, and such a time as he had; why 
he would have broken all the eggs in the nest, had they not 
been china nest eggs, but I declare, I must again apologize for 
the length of this article. Inthe future I will try to write less. 
Should I at any time write too much for my share of space 



in your paper, you may curtail a little. I have only refer-. 
red to nests for the larger classes of birds: the rule will 
apply to all, only elevate the closed nest it preferable, always 
remembering nature’s rule—difficulty, darkness,—then plenty 
of room inside. J. H. WATLING. 
SENECA FAaLLs PouLTRY YARDS, 
SENECA FA.tus, N. Y., March 23, 1874. 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 
No man should engage in any business without some 
knowledge of what he is about to enter into. Especially 
does this rule apply to dealers in fancy fowls. I am well 
aware that a good many of those who advertise fancy poul- 
try for sale, at the present time, were in the first start taken 
with the ‘hen fever’’ spontaneously, and without any knowl- 
edge of what a good fowl should be; would at once write to 
a score or more of advertisers, and the one that would make 
the price the lowest would receive his order, and the chances 
are one hundred to one that his fowls would be very inferior, 
and yet the purchaser would feel confident that he had 
just as good fowls as anybody. I used to have a good deal 
of sympathy for such men, but at the present time, when 
there are so many books and periodicals published devoted 
especially to the Poultry interest, and when Poultry exhi- 
bitions are of so frequent occurrence, there is no excuse for a 
breeder to sell inferior fowls on those grounds. 
I would therefore recommend to all who contemplate start- 
ing in the Poultry business a few practical suggestions : 
First of all, procure a copy of the new American standard of 
excellence, and become perfectly familiar with it as far as 
the kind or kinds of fowls you anticipate breeding is con- 
cerned ; subscribe for the Fanciers’ Journal, or some other 
good periodical devoted to poultry and poultry appurten- 
ances; attend to all the first-class poultry exhibitions that 
you conveniently can, for I am convinced that an amateur 
can learn more by visiting exhibition-rooms than in any 
other manner, for he there has an opportunity of examining 
the premium fowls, notice all their fine points, compare them 
with less meritorious birds, and in this manner he will soon 
become familiar with the kind which he proposes to breed. - 
Then take but one or two kinds to commence with. Be sure 
that you have found a reliable breeder of your varieties; and 
this may not always be an easy matter, for in many in-- 
stances breeders that win Premiums at our exhibitions are 
not what they should be. I know of some men that will buy 
a first-class trio of fowls in.the fall and take them to all the 
principal Poultry fairs during the winter and win prizes 
with them, and in the spring advertise eggs from first pre- 
mium stock (when in reality that one trio was all he had 
that were fine), and would sed? dozens of eggs from them and 
send eggs from very inferior fowls. Neither does it follow 
that because a man has been engaged in the business ten, 
fifteen, or twenty years that he is honest and reliable, but it 
is probable that he will at least be a good judge of the vari- 
eties he breeds; then if he does not do by you as he agrees, 
you may be certain that he is dishonest, and should be pub- 
licly branded as a fraud. Yet, I can say with much pride 
that there are very many noble, honest, and reliable men 
engaged in the poultry traffic, many of whom are successful 
exhibitors, and on such men I would recommend you to 
bestow your patronage. C. N. Brown. 
UNADILLA Forks, Orsrco Co., N. Y. 


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