她的目的并不在研究遗传，并不想有甚居积，充其量只是想给孩子们多吃几个鸡蛋罢了。
She does this not for studying genetics or making a profit out of it, but merely for collecting more eggs for our kids to eat.
因此之故她总是爱养母鸡。
Therefore, she always prefers to raise hens.
每逢母鸡要生蛋的时候，她真是欢喜极了，她要多把些粮食给它，又要替它做窝。
She will be immensely delighted whenever a hen is laying, giving it additional feed, making it a new roost, etc.
Sometimes she finishes making two or three roosts at one go.
有时候一时要做两三个窝。
She will be immensely delighted whenever a hen is laying, giving it additional feed, making it a new roost, etc.
Sometimes she finishes making two or three roosts at one go.
鸡蛋节省着吃，吃到后来母鸡要孵卵的时候，那是她更操心的时候了，孵卵的母鸡每隔一天要飞出窝来摄取一次饮食，她要先替它预备好；又要时常留心着不使母鸡在窝里下粪，因为这样容易使孵卵腐败。
We consume our eggs sparingly.
My wife has to go to a lot more trouble when a hen is sitting.
As the brooding hen will fly out of its roost to seek food once every other day, she has to get the feed ready for it beforehand.
And she has to be careful not to let the hen leave its droppings in the roost for fear that it should cause the eggs to rot.
还有被孵抱着的鸡卵她也要常常把微温的盐水去试验，在水上可以浮起的便是腐败了的，她便要取出，沉下去的便仍使母鸡孵抱。
She puts all the eggs that a hen is sitting on in lukewarm salty water by way of a test.
Those that float are judged rotten and must be thrown away; those that sink are kept for the hen to continue to brood.
像这样足足要操心三个礼拜，等到鸡卵里面可以听出啾啾的叫声了，那时候她有两三天是快乐得不能安定的。
She will thus busy herself with all that for as long as three weeks until the yeeping sound comes out of the eggs.
Then she will be left in a state of great excitement for two or three days.
我们养鸡养过五六年，鸡雏也不知道孵化过好几次了。
We have been raising chickens for five or six years, and broods upon broods of chicks have been hatched.
但是孵化了的鸡雏不是被猫鼠衔去，便是吃米过多得脚气病死了。
But the baby chicks were either carried off by cats or rats, or died of beriberi caused by eating too much polished rice.
自己孵化出的鸡雏从不曾长大过一次。
None of the chicks hatched by ourselves lived until they were full-grown.
我们又是四处飘流的人，遇着要远徙他方的时候，我们的鸡不能带着同走。
We are a family constantly on the move.
When we travel to a faraway place, we can't take our chickens with us.
在那时我们的鸡不是送人，便是卖给鸡贩子去了。
All we do is give them away or sell them to chicken vendors because we don't have the heart to slaughter the chickens raised by ourselves.
自己养过的鸡怎么也不忍屠杀。
All we do is give them away or sell them to chicken vendors because we don't have the heart to slaughter the chickens raised by ourselves.
所以我们养鸡养了五六年，自己所养的鸡从不曾吃过一次。
We ate none of our own chickens during the five or six years.
所养的鸡也并不多，至多不过四五只；我们除把些残菜剩饭给它们外，平常只听它们去自行渔食罢了。
We raised only a small number of chickens, four or five at most.
Apart from feeding them with the leftovers of the table, we let them out to seek food by themselves.
养了五六年的鸡，关于鸡的心理，我也留下了不少的幽凉的记忆。
Five or six years of chicken raising has left me with a deep impression of how chickens behave.
鸡的生活中我觉得很有和人相类似的爱的生活存在。
Like humans, chickens also live a life characterized by love.
假如有一群鸡在园子里放着的时候，请把一些食物向鸡群里洒去罢。
Take for example a flock of chickens, among them a rooster, put out to feed in a courtyard.
If you sprinkle some food onto the ground, you'll invariably find the rooster start clacking to call all the hens to help themselves.
The rooster himself will not eat first.
这鸡群里面假使有一只雄鸡，你可以看出它定要咯咯地呼唤起来，让母鸡去摄取那食物，它自己是决不肯先吃的。
Take for example a flock of chickens, among them a rooster, put out to feed in a courtyard.
If you sprinkle some food onto the ground, you'll invariably find the rooster start clacking to call all the hens to help themselves.
The rooster himself will not eat first.
这样本是一个很平常的现象，但这个很平常的现象不就有点像欧洲中世纪的游吟诗人（troubadour）的崇拜女性吗？
This is no uncommon occurrence among chickens, but doesn't it border on woman-worship as expressed by the medieval troubadours in their amorous lyrics?
有一次我们养过三只牝鸡，两只雄鸡。
Once we had three hens and two roosters.
这两只雄鸡中只有一只得势，把那三只母鸡都占有了。
One rooster, however, held sway and monopolized all the three hens.
那不得势的一只，真是孤苦得可怜。
The other got the worst of it and looked crestfallen.
得势的一只雄鸡不消说要欺负它，便连那些娥皇女英们也不把它看在眼里。
Not only was he bullied by the stronger opponent, he was also snubbed by the three females.