Nibletts suggested our getting a patent laying-box, furnished with
(what he apologised to my aunt for calling) a false front. My aunt did
not at first grasp the idea, but what Nibletts did in fact refer
to was a contrivance that would admit one sitter only at a time,
subsequent unauthorised entrance being cut off by an ingenious drop
slide. Further elaborate construction also prevented the sitter
herself from turning round to peck. She had to remain sitting till
some human came and lifted her out.
Just one egg was laid in that patent box. The object of it was also
patent--to the hens. Nothing would induce them to use it after that
once.
Nibletts then recommended (if he might so describe it) a "tit-up."
That was, so to speak, a conjuring-trick of a laying-box, which let
the egg fall through a trap-door into a padded cell beneath. My
aunt thought it unnatural and feared that it might be exhausting.
Nevertheless we tried it, and extracted one solitary egg from the
basement.
Then, being an engineer by profession, I conceived a mechanical means
of giving those hens the scare of their lives if they persisted
in their antisocial habits.
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