Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1917-03-16
CARE, OF THE SITTING HEN

sitting hen, which is used most gener-
ally for incubation purposes on the
farm should receive a certain amount
Of care and attention during the pro-
cess OF Matching eggs. To great ex-
tent the care given sitting hen plays
an important part on the number and
condition OF the chicks when hatched.
With this end in view, the poultry
specialists OF the u. S. Department OF
Agriculture make the following sug-
gestions:
II several hens are sittingin the same
room, see that they are kept on the
nests, allowing them to come off only
once day to receive feed and water,
the feed to consist Of corn, wheat or
both. If there are any that do not de-
sire to come off themselves, they
should be taken off. Hens usually re-
turn to their nests before there is any
danger of the eggs chilling, but if they
do not go back in half an hour in ordin-
ary weather, they should be put on the
nest Where large number of sitters
are kept in one room il is advisable to
let them off in groups Of from to at
time. The eggs and nests should be
examined and cleaned, removing all
broken eggs and washing those. that
are soiled; in the latter case the .soiled
nesting material should be removed
and clean straw added. Nests contain
ing broken eggs that the hen is allow
ed to Sit on soon become infested with
mites and lice, which cause the hens to
become uneasy and leave the nest,
often causing the loss Of valuable sit
tings Of eggs. In mite-infested nests,
the hen, if fastened in, will often be
found standing over rather than sitting
on the eggs. Many eggs that are laid
in the late winter and early spring are
infertile. For this reason it is advis-
able to set several hens at the same
time. After the eggs have been under
the hens from to 7 days, the time de-
pending somewhat on the color and
thickness of the shells, white-shelled
eggs being easier to test than those
having brown shells, they should be
tested, the infertile eggs and dead
germs removed, and the fertile eggs
put back under the hen. In this way
it is often possible to put all the eggs
that several hens originally started to
sit on under fewer hens and reset the
others. For example, 30 eggs are set
under hens at the same time, 10 un-
der each. AT the end Of Z days we
find on testing the eggs from all the
hens that 10 are infertile, which leaves
us 20 eggs to reset, which we do by
putting them under hens, and have
the remaining hen sit over again after
she has sat only z days. In this way
considerable time can be saved in ones
Matching operations.
TESTING EGGS EOR FERTILITY.
An egg, whether impregnated or not,
has small grayish spot on the surface
OF the yolk known as the ''germinal
spot" As soon as fertile egg is placed
under a hen, or in an incubator, devel-
opment begins. All eggs should be
tested at least twice during the period
Of incubation, preferably on the
seventh and fourteenth days, and the
infertile eggs and dead germs removed.
White eggs can be tested on the fourth
or fifth day, while the development in
eggs having brown shells often can not
be seen by the use of an ordinary egg
tester until the seventh day. Dead
germs soon decay and give off bad
odor IL allowed to remain under the
hen. lnfertle eggs make good feed for
young chickens, and are often used in
the home for culinary purposes. Most
incubator companies furnish testing
chimneys with their machines which
will fit ordinary lamps. Electric or gas
lamps may be used in box with hole
slightly smaller than an egg cut in the
side of the box and at the same level
as the light. They may also be tested
by sunlight, or daylight, using shutter
or curtain with small hole in il for
the light to shine through.
A good homemade egg tester, or
candler, can be made with large shoe
box, or any box that is large enough to
go over lamp, by removing the end
and cutting hole a little larger than
the size OF quarter in the bottom of
the box, so that when il is set over a
kerosene lamp the hole in the bottom
will be opposite the blaze. A hole the
size of a silver dollar should be cut in
the top of the bon to allow the heat to
escape.
The eggs are tested with the large
end up, SO that the size Of the air cell
may be seen as well as the condition of
the embryo. The testing should take
I place in n dark room Tho infarfila