The wisest poultry-farmer does not understand broody hens better than
the gamekeeper. The ways of the broody hen are at once deep, and
stupid, and annoying. No power on earth will force a broody hen to
sit when she is in a revolting spirit. To take a hen from the nest of
her choice and expect her to sit properly on a fresh nest, where even
pheasants' eggs costing a shilling apiece await her, usually means
disappointment. Yet it is as risky to put the pheasants' eggs in the
broody hen's chosen nest. Other hens will disturb her, rats are likely
to steal the eggs, dogs may worry her, and she cannot be relied upon
to return to her own nest after going off to feed. And if she may leave
the nest at her own free will she is liable to sit too long without
a break. Her eggs in that case do not have enough fresh air, and the
heat of the hen diminishes through want of food, so that weak chicks
develop, and may fail even to break their shells. So the keeper is
obliged to provide a suitable nest, and to try to induce the broody hen
to take to it kindly. He finds that an empty cheese-box with a lid will
make a capital nesting-box for occasional use. If rats are feared, he
encases the box in an armour of wire-netting. Then within he fashions
a shallow nest, using firm mould, and adding a little bruised straw;
if the hollow is too deep the eggs may be piled on each other, and the
hen cannot plant her feet comfortably or sit evenly over the eggs. The
hollow is lined with a ring or collar of twisted straw, to retain the
warmth of the hen, and prevent her eggs falling out when she moves her
feet to turn round. Then the keeper goes off for the broody hen, which
he carries in a sack of open texture. Whether or not a hen is really
broody may be determined most easily at night. A hen chosen by day,
though she imitates the broody plaint, may be intent only on laying
eggs--not on sitting. But the hens who are in earnest will be found
in the nests after dark; and they are known by their dull combs. Into
the sitting-box the keeper shuts the hen of his choice, leaving her
with a nest-egg or two by way of encouragement. He is in no hurry to
give her live eggs. He waits until she is well settled after the move,
and has had time to round up the nest to her liking. At first she may
be inclined to stand, or at least not to go down properly; but after
a little while she will be found spread out in the proper fashion of
the hen who intends to hatch eggs at all costs, and she will complain
loudly, and peck fiercely if touched. And then she is entrusted with
the precious eggs.
Once a day the keeper gently lifts each broody hen off the nest to
feed, tethering her by a string tied to her leg or shutting her into a
coop. On the first day she is taken from the eggs only for ten minutes;
but her time off is gradually increased, as the eggs require more
oxygen, to half an hour during the second week of sitting, and then to
three-quarters of an hour or longer towards the end of the third week,
if the weather proves genial. Plenty of air is good for the chicks in
the eggs, especially during the last days of the hatching. A hen was
accidentally kept from her eggs for a whole afternoon on the day before
they were due to hatch; yet all the thirteen eggs hatched out, and
stronger chicks were never seen.
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