The Red Cloud chief., 1896-07-17
EGR Eating.

diana.-I have had considerable expe.
rience with the fault mentioned above.
/ have tried a number OF remedies, but
have found nothing 30 effective as
changing them to new quarters, and
watching them closely for a few days,
getting each egg as II is laid. Several
years ago | broke a fine lot OF Black
Langshans OF this habit. This year !
had "A lot of White Javas that got the
habit and / broke them in the same
way. The cause is chiefly confinement
in close runs. | had to shut up my
fowls for several days in the house and
that Is where they learned the habit. /
put them into a new run and gathered
the eggs as fast as they were laid for
a few days and the habit was loon bro
ken up. When | have Il hen that is SIT
ting and brings off an egg every time
she ONE from the nest | cover up her
sitting place and take her out and feed
and water her every morning, giving
her meat scraps If I have any. | do
this for several mornings and after
that have no trouble. | practice taxi
ing of my hens, feeding them, and
putting them back on the nest, cover
ing the eggs with a warm cloth while
the hens are off. | use incubators but
usually have some hens sitting toward
the end OF the season.. ! had one egg
eater this season, but soon broke her
as above. Hens will not eat eggs IL
they have proper animal food. A NOR
| hin unnatitn ia fhn rntca uhnu1H
find one that could not be broken by
the treatment that / have mentioned ]
would take her off the Eggs for a few
days and put another hen on them las
] generally have supernumeraries) and
give the egg eater a few china eggs to
practice on. She would forget her old
habit in a few days. One way that hens
learn to eat eggs Is by having too
many hens laying in the same nest.
Some Of the eggs are broken, and in
this way the habit is begun. Whole
eggs or half egg shells thrown to them
Will teach them to break eggs; that
was the way my Langshans learned
the trick and my Javas learned it by
being kept shut up where they were
idle. Now when I feed egg shells ] al
ways crush them. | now have about
400 chicks. or the older broods there
will weigh eight pounds. The next
brood are three weeks younger, and ]
have two other broods 0ncubator) at
intervals OF three weeks in age. The
four broods consist of White Javas,
White Cochins, White Langshans, and
White Plymouth Rocks with a few
half-breed Javas with the latter birds.
Ruben G. Porter, Emmett county
Michigan.-I have had some trouble
with hens eating their eggs in the
nests where they were laid, but none
eating them when they were sitting
on them. Make the nests in kegs and
the hens cannot get at them and will
soon stop the habit.
+. J. Marshall, Butler county. Ohio
Yes, have had some experience with
the egg eaters. 1t is a pernicious habit
and hard to break up If several get at
II at the same time. The best way Their
Is to make a nest slanting so that the
egg will roll out of the reach and sight
of the hen as SOC as it Is laid. Care
should be taken that the construction
OF the nest Is such that the eggs will
not be broken as they roll away. Con-
fined hens are most apt to contract this
habit. ! have also had hens that were
sitting eat their eggs. They would
bring off an egg with them every time
they came of to eat and keep up the
habit till the eggs were all gone. Such
hens usually break an egg when get
ting on the nest and then take it out
with them next time they go to feed. |
never could remedy this to my salts
faction. Nests for sitters should not be
deep at point Of entrance as that con
dition Is most likely to result in bro
ken & think that II they did not
get an egg broken at first they would
not carry them of, but the smeared
eggs make them worse. Whenever an
egg has been broken and the other
eggs smeared they should be at once
washed in lukewarm water and the
nests made dark. II possible.