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Show CARE OF SETTING HEN Nothing Will Dislodge Perfectly Hard-Working Matron. Box op Barrel Laid on Side, Painted Inside With Carbolineum or Some Other Good Lice Paint, Is Suitable Nest. (By PROF. JOHN WILLARD BOLTE.) A setting hen is a perfectly respectable respect-able hard working matron, suffering from an acute attack of spring fever. She will not work, she refuses to lay or even talk about it, and she develops devel-ops a very crabbed disposition in a remarkably short length of time. Seeking Seek-ing out some chosen nest she takes possession, by force, if necessary, and proceeds to occupy it for about 23 hours and 25 minutes every day. She leaves it secretly and in silence, only when food is necessary. Having satisfied sat-isfied her wants, she suddenly remembers remem-bers that unguarded nest, and makes for it with great speed and confusion. It matters not whether the nest contains con-tains eggs or a doorknob, it is dear to her, and nothing will dislodge her. There she will hold the fort until her motherly longing is satisfied in a brood of little downy peepers. The writer once hatched three successive broods of chicks under the same hen, the hen setting for 75 consecutive days, and coming off the nest reluctantly reluc-tantly and in good health at the end of that time. The best way to detect a broody hen is to look through the nests after dark and see whether there are any hens on them. If so, they should either eith-er be brought up or placed on some worthless eggs in the hatching quarters, quar-ters, as they do harm in the regular laying pens by partially incubating eggs and fighting with all the other hens. Almost any concave nest, well lined with hay, will do for setting a hen. Take a box, or barrel laid on its side, paint it inside with carbolineum or some other good lice paint, and form the nest out of earth with two inches of hay covering it. Be sure to get the corners filled so that the eggs cannot roll into them. Have the edge of the box not over three inches higher than the eggs, so that the hen -will not jump on them. Dust the ben with insect powder, place her on the nest on some dummy eggs, and cover her with another, ventilated box. Let her off in 24 hours, and if she goes back again, it will be safe to put good eggs under her. Use an odd number of eggs, depending depend-ing upon the size of the hen and the season. Thirteen in cold weather and 15 in warm, is about right for a Plymouth Rock hen. Keep whole corn and pure water at hand and let the heii take care of herself. her-self. The chicks usually begin to hatch on the twenty-first day. Let them alone until the night of the twenty-Becond twenty-Becond day. Then move her and the chicks to a w-arm, dry coop and do not feed the chicks until the twenty-fourth twenty-fourth day. s It is a good plan to set two hens at the same time and give all of the chicks to one hen after they are hatched. |