THE BROODY HEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1938, Page 9

THE BROODY HEN

HOW TO SET HER. Introduce your broody hen to the new nest at night, having first well dusted her with a good insect powder; then let her sit for 24 hours on a few eggs of little value. Should she sit satisfactorily, place under her the eggs to be hatched; and do this after dark for preference. From this time onwards the hen is left more or less to her own devices. The exceptions are that she shoud have food and water always available or be released and given food and drink each day until the nineteenth day, after which she will be likely to show a desire to remain on the nest until the hatch is completed —this about the twenty-second day. When you are satisfied that all the chicks likely to hatch are out of the eggs, remove the hen and give her what may be her first meal for several days. Do not worry about the baby chicks. Nature has arranged their food supply for a couple of days at least. There is no doubt about the best food for the mother hen while she is sitting. It is grain to eat and fresh water to drink. The best grain for the purpose is maize, provided the bird has previously been used to maize; otherwise, give her the grain to which she is accustomed. Apart from the daily feeding, the only other time it should be necessary to disturb the hen is when testing the eggs for fertility. This can best be done when dark on the tenth evening or later. You need a lighted candle, a piece of cardboard (about the size of a shoebox lid) with an egg-shaped hole cut in the centre, the hole to be slightly smaller than a normal-sized hen egg. If you will first take a fresh egg and, in a dark room, place it against the whole in the cardboard and at the same tiihe within an inch of the candle flame, you will have before you the "vcture of'a clear egg. Henceforth every egg which has been upon by a broody hen for ten days and looks similar to the fresh egg with which you experimented should not be replaced under the hen, but taken away. If desired these can be used for cooking—they are clear eggs, have no life within them, and thus would not hatch. Incidentally, the eggs containing the chicks will show quite dark against the candle flame. All these should, of course, be returned to the nest under the hen. To keep the eggs from under the sitting hen for any time up to 30 minutes will not do any material harm.