Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-07-14

ing them to new
quarters, and watching them closely
for few days, getting each egg
as 1t is laid Several years ago
broke a fine lot of Black Lang
had lot of White Javas that got the
habit and / broke them in the same
way. The cause is chiefly confinement
In close runs. l had to shut up my
fowls for several days in the house and
that is where they learned the habit. l
put them into new run and gathered
the eggs as fast as they were laid for
a few days and the habit was soon bro
ken up. When have hen that is sit
ting and brings off an egg every time
she comes from the nest / cover up her
sitting place and take her out and feed
and water her every morning, giving
her meat scraps if / have any. / do
this for several mornings and after
that l have no trouble. practice TAX
Ing off my hens, feeding them, and
putting them back on the nest, cover
Ing the eggs with warm cloth while
the hens are off. / use incubators but
usually have some hens sitting toward
the end of the season. i had one egg
eater this season, but soon broke her
as above. Hens will not eat eggs ii
they have proper animal food. A NOR
bid appetite is the cause. II lould
find one that could not be broken by
the treatment that have mentioned j
would take her off the eggs for few
days and put another hen on them (as
| generally have supernumeraries) and
give the egg eater few china eggs to
practice on. She would forget her old
habit in 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 feed egg shells / al
ways crush them. l now have about
400 chicks. OF the older broods there
will weigh eight pounds. The next
brood are three weeks younger, and ]
have two other broods Qncubator) 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.
F. ]. Marshall, Butler county. Ohio
Yes, have had some experience with
the egg eaters. 1t is pernicious habit
and hard to break up If several get at
it at the same time. The best way then
Is to make nest slanting so that the
egg will roll out of the reach and sight
OF the hen as soon as 1t 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 off 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 l
never could remedy this to my salts
faction. Nests for sitters should not be
leep at point of entrance as that con-
1ition is most likely to result in bro
Ken eggs. l think that IL they did not
,et an egg broken at first they would
OF carry them OF, but the smeared
ggs make them worse. Whenever an
gg has been broken and the other
ggs smeared they should be at once
ashed in lukewarm water and the
SITS made dark, II possible.
nah EoI