Now let us prepare a nest for the bird, so that she will have a good opportunity to do her best work. We can either partition off a part of the chicken house, or we can fix up a nest in another building entirely, such as a garage, barn, or any other building that we may have on the premises. Next let us take some soil, and make a round nest, over a foot in diameter, and four or five inches deep. Then we will dig out the center of the nest, so as to make it hollow in the middle, leaving at least two inches depth in the center. Then we will cover this earth with a few inches of cut straw, shavings, or leaves, and press this covering down to conform to the shape of the soil foundation. We can now place our eggs for hatching in the nest, and put the bird on them. However, best results will be obtained if we wait until towards evening before we place the bird on the nest, as she will be more contented then. Take the bird that you have chosen and place her gently upon the nest of eggs. If she is at all broody, she will be quite contented when she feels the eggs underneath her, and settle down to business at once. The hen should spend practically all of the next three weeks upon the nest, the only time that she should be allowed to leave being the short time that she takes food and water twice a day. Having a quiet place, and giving her nourishment twice a day, she will be quite contented. The hen does not need any special ration during this time, other than one that is fairly heating. Corn is excellent during this period, supplemented with a few other grains, such as oats, wheat, etc. A sufficient amount of fresh water should be available, together with some kind of green food, if possible, such as cabbage or mangoes. The hatch will not be endangered by the hen leaving the nest to eat. In fact, it is beneficial to the eggs to be temporarily cooled, at least once a day, while the hen is off the nest for a while. The hen has a habit of turning the eggs under her every day, not only removing their position from the center to the outside, and vice versa, but also turning them over, so that perhaps the part of the egg that was in contact with the nest one day, will be in contact with the hen’s body the next day. Or, in other words, she turns it half way around. These are all peculiarities that we have to imitate in artificial incubation, if we would be successful. Now that we have seen the process of the natural method of incubation, let us see how the ingenuity of man has successfully imitated the mother hen, and made possible the hatching of a far greater number of chicks than the hen can naturally hatch.