276 
FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

A good plan, especially for large, heavy hens, is to have 
nest boxes on the ground, and closed off, with the exception 
of one end, which should have a strip over the lower part 
of the open end, and high enough to prevent the eggs from 
rolling out. The nest should then be shaped with damp 
earth, and on the top of this ought to be placed fine hay or 
straw to the depth of about half an inch. Where it can be 
done it is best to have these boxes placed in a sitting apart- 
ment, with a good yard or run attached. In the morning, 
or at whatever time of day is most convenient, so that some 
uniformity is observed, the hens may be taken from the 
nests, and food and water placed before them. It is very 
important, also, that they have dry earth or coal ashes in 
which to dust themselves. 
Some take off the hens only every second day, but I do 
not think this is best. The irregularity in evacuating often 
produces diarrhoea, and sometimes causes the loss of the hen, 
at others the entire destruction of the eggs. Some hens will 
not remain off the nest long enough to take sufficient exer- 
cise or to evacuate; such hens should have the nest covered 
up until they have remained off a sufficient length of time. 
- Where hens are procured from neighbors, or where they 
are changed from the laying to the sitting-room, they will 
sometimes require to be watched, and placed back on the 
nest after feeding. Ina few days they will learn to return 
to the nest of their own accord.. After all-of the hens have 
returned to their nests, or have been placed upon them, all 
should be securely covered up, where they will be safe from 
all intrusion for the day. Sometimes hens will desert the 
nest before their broods are hatched; a little watchfulness and 
experience on the part of the breeder will enable him to de- 
tect this disposition a day or two before the hen actually 
leaves her eggs, when they can be placed under another hen. 
Many persons, for want of this precaution lose several sit- 
tings of eggs each season. If eggs become broken in the 
nest, as will often happen, the hen, in her endeavor to re- 
move the pieces of shell which adhere to the sound ones, will 
break others, and the eggs will adhere together, so that the 
hen cannot turn them properly. Whenever an egg becomes 
broken the remaining ones should at once be washed with 
tepid water. A neighbor told me that he had a hen which 
was eating her eggs, and he feared he should be obliged to 
remove her from the nest. At my suggestion he washed the 
eggs and renewed the nest, when the trouble was at once 
ended. I find whole corn to be an excellent feed for sitting 
hens, though I give my layers but little of it. 
‘When the chicks begin to come out of the shell they need 
considerable care. Often after the eggs are pipped they will 
become partially crushed by the uneasiness of the hen; un- 
less the chicks have help they will become pasted fast to the 
shell, and will perish. A small portion of the broken shell 
and the thick skin under it should be removed near the bill 
of the chick, and if any sign of blood appears the egg 
should be replaced under the hen, and allowed to remain 
several hours, when it must again be examined. Whenever 
indication of blood appears all efforts to free the chick should 
cease for the time, but, if there is no appearance of blood, 
enough of the shell and thick skin may be-removed to 
enable the chicken to free itself. Ihave in this way saved 
a number this year, which I should, otherwise, certainly 
have lost. I frequently find it convenient to give the hatch 
of two hens to one mother, and reset the other one, and I 
have never found a hen the worse for sitting six weeks, 
indeed, I have thought that a hen which has been hatching 
Poultry Department 
Kan. State Agr. College 


six weeks will remain longer with her birds than one that 
has been on the nest but three weeks. 
Many who read this will no doubt say ‘I knew all that 
before.’’? -I am well aware that I have advanced no new 
ideas, and, perhaps, the treatment which I have described is 
not even the best, but I have given the method pursued by 
myself, and one which I have found so successful that I fell 
safe in recommending it to others. 
You have doubtless among your subscribers very many 
who: are beginners in poultry breeding, and it is with the 
hope of interesting and benefiting them that I have written 
this article. F. R. W. 

My Dear Fanciers’ JOURNAL, 
I have just received No. 16, and find it as attractive as the 
preceding numbers, and although when the enterprise began 
I was among those who doubted its expediency, I now see 
my mistake, and, also, believe the “F. J.”’ to be what we 
have wanted for some time past. I look for your arrival 
every week with pleasure, which is not diminished when I 
read your columns of advice and happy ideas. I hope you 
will have the greatest success, as is certainly promised at 
present. 
This, however, is hardly what I started to write about; 
my object in writing is to ask your readers, through your 
columns, if you see fit to give me space, for information 
(derived from experience) on the subject of Game Bantams, 
Black-breasted Reds particularly. I know that some of 
your readers have had that experience, and, as I am per- 
petuating this beautiful breed, I should like to hear trom 
such men as Messrs. Simpson, Spaulding, or Howlett, and 
others, as to the selection of breeding-stock, what sort of 
sitters, mothers, and layers they make, &c. I daresay others 
might profit by the information thus given. Itseems to me 
that it would be an excellent plan if those who have kept 
one or more breeds of poultry for years would give their ex- 
perience, and the peculiarities of their flocks, so that ama- 
teurs could judge which breed to choose for themselves, by 
comparing their merits, and adapting them to their own in- 
dividual circumstances; thus giving all a chance, spreading 
the news of “ Fancy” far and wide, and bringing all to a 
realization of the merits of our domestic friends and com- 
panions, the ‘‘ Chickens.”’ 
I remain yours truly, 
NEw YorRK, April 18, 1874. 
Buack Rep. 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
Mr. Bicknell’s roup experience (in Journal of April 16) 
corresponds somewhat with mine, though I cannot report 
the same favorable results from the use of powdered alum. 
Chickens are like ‘‘humans’”’ in many respects, and require 
for the same diseases, different treatment in different locali- 
ties; and I have found in many cases, that what would 
benefit one ailing chicken, would have no effect on another, 
though both were apparently suffering from the same cause. 
I tried the powdered alum on the cockerel sores in the 
mouth, without effecting a cure. I burnt alum, mixed it © 
with honey, and administered in the form of a pill. I used 
almost every poultry powder, paste and pills, and though 
from some of them I gained temporary relief for the fowls, 
none seemed to get at the root of the disease. Before last 
fall, I never had a case of roup amongst my chickens, and 
often congratulated myself at the good healthy appearance 
my fowls presented, and the entire freedom from the attacks 
