The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-16
Should Be a Part of the Daily Routine at This Sea- son of the year
Starving and Keeping the Hens From Water Are Wrong and Defeat Their Object
By ROBERT ARMSTRONG Experienced Poultryman.
 Copyright 1916.


 ther maternal instincts, and is therefore prone to attempt to hatch them rms tendency must be discouraged and promptly broken up, or it will cause a serious falling off in the egg yield. Its importance cannot be overestimated, es- pecially on commercial egg farms, where the hen is not held responsible for next seasons bullets, rather where the in cubating and breeding are done artifi- ciallyq.
 Contrary to the opinion of many poul- try Keepers, egg production is not a se- quence of so much nourishment taken into the body daily, digested, assimilated and then converted into the materials for making eggs. In other words continu- ous operation, unbroken, as it were, pro viding the care and feeding of the hen are as they should be. The egg cells, technically known as the "ova," of which there are many hundred in the well bred, vigorous fowl, are formed. or rather de- veloped in series or clusters, sometimes called ''litters'' or clutches" each clus- ter being developed or retarded in accord ance with the hens physical condition, and her ability to consume sufficient quantities of the proper nutrients. Be- tween these clusters there is an interval of nonproduction, a sort of rest period, which varies quite considerably with diff ferent breeds and with specimens, and which may be week or month, and not infrequently it is three months, as in the case of impoverished fowls. or where they have not been bred along biological lines for heavy egg production.
 Furthermore, the number of eggs in each cluster varies with each breed and specimen as much as the variation in the duration of the rest periods. There may be but a dozen eggs in a litter, or 50, and in rare cases a hen will continue to lay almost without cessation, and continue to do so for couple of years. Usually, hens that lay short filters take but a few days to the intervals between them, whereas the hen that lays series of 40 to 60 eggs, in almost daily succession, will require rest period of a couple of weeks With specimens of like breed ing and vigor there is usually an aver age struck.
 TENDENCY TO BECOME BROODY
 Between the laying of each litter, especially at certain seasons of the year and notably the spring months,
 
 dulge in her maternal instincts, in the shape of desire to sit and hatch a brood of chicks. She has completed the first step in the operation--the laying of the eggs-and quite naturally feels that she cannot acquit herself of the responsibility until she has trans formed them into a flock of chicks. Hens of the heavier varieties, such as the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Or pingtons and Brahmas, are especially prone to this form of domesticity; yet the desire is also found among the lighter breeds, even to the so-called nonsitting breeds, the Leghorns, Cam pines and Hamburgs. In the latter, however, the tendency is not so habitual nor so likely to be difficult to break up.
 It is not definitely known whether a hen can control the development of an egg once the kolk is well formed and has left the ovisac, but it is quite cer- tain that she can influence or check the development of the yolks at the be- ginning of the process, and she also has the power to hold the finished egg for considerable time. When a hen be- comes broody and shows a determina- tion to sit on the nest day after day, for in many cases the desire is but a passing fancy, the succeeding cluster of egg cells is held in a dormant state for two of three months, or until she has matched, reared and weaned her brood of chicks, and subsequently, re- invigorated herself for further pro- ductiveness.
 On farms devoted to egg production where the incubation and breeding is done artificially, the hen is not held re- sponsible for the production of next seasons bullets. It is the hens exclu- sive business to produce eggs, conse- quently she must be encouraged in that specially as much as possible. As soon as she shows signs of shirking her task she must be held to Strict account ability" her broodiness must be dis coura uraged-harmlessly, not brutally- and her internal workings stimulated and spurred on to further achieve ments.
 Even on the general farm. where chicks are reared naturally, there are times when more hens become broOdy than are ever needed to hatch the young flock, and because they are al lowed to sit as long as they choose without interference from the farmer although he may not give them eggs to sit upon. the habit soon becomes confirmed and there is a very noticea ble decrease in egg production. Fail ure to discourage broodiness is prob ably the most potent cause for the low egg production in farm f1ocks, and fol which the farmer has nothing to blame but his own indifference or ignorance EGG PRODUCTION SECONDARY We have all noticed the poor, thin ant emaciated condition of the hen that ha been sitting on a nest for couple o weeks, and perhaps marveled at her abil ity to sustain life at all, when we conside that she eats and drinks very little, ana takes practically no exercise. If it were no for her internal storehouse. on which sh' draws heavily for sustenance, she woult not survive. Before she started to sit she carefully stored up a supply of fatt, tissue that was intended to help nourisl her during the period of her inactivity and the depreciation of this supply il
 what causes her to become so thin. Egg production is in reality the resul of over stimulation, or what is sometime termed a secondary circulation. Fowls ca to repair and restore the daily wear ant tear on the body tissues, and if this nour ishment is merely equal to this task alon there is no surplus left to go to the pro duction of eggs. It is the excess of nour ishment, that which Is assimilated owe and above the daily demands of the body that goes into the stimulation and activ development of the egg organs, and the. progress no faster than this nourishmen is provided.
 Obviously, the broody hen eats so littl that her egg organs soon become con tracted, and revert to the dormant stat found in the immature bullet. Anothe good example of this dried-up condition may be found in the fowl half-wa, through the mott, in which the abdomina section that was formerly relaxed an, distended, is drawn well up into the body and pelvic bones that were once plia bl