School: Sruthar (C.)

Location:: Shrule, Co. Mayo
Teacher:: Bríd, Bean Uí Éanacháin

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Hatching Hens and Eggs etc. (continued)

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out. It is right to take three wisps out of the nest, where a hen is to be put hatching, and to hang them on a rafter of the hen house, until all the chickens are out. It is not right to throw away shells which chickens came out of, and it is right to put three grains of ashes into the shell that the first chicken came out of in the clutch.
Before a hen is put hatching eggs a few of her feathers should be pulled out and left on top of the eggs. When eggs are hatched for about a week, it is right to turn the thin top of them up.

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Hatching Hens and Eggs etc.

It is not right to give away a clocking hen, without getting three pennies for her. The house-keeper usually puts and odd number of eggs under the hen, she believes it to be the luckiest. Sometimes in a family there is one of them very lucky for exchanging eggs for a clutch. The house-wife usually looks at her clocking hens' eggs when they are ten or eleven days hatching. With her lighted candle she takes away all of the gluggers. She is always very careful not to have a heavy hen over them, as a heavy hen leaves the nest before her times has expired.