The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-04-03
Our Chickens.

How beautiful is q little chicken just from
his marble person! Arose is also very pretty
icate leaves there is no promise to give new
pleasure on the morrow. Not so with chick
en-. There is wrapped up In him the possibility.
to afford substantial delight to his owner on
some future day. On account Of this great
advantage have always leaned TO chickens
instead Of roses. I have never written any
thing about fried chicken In my life and do
snow na bn ana
hope It will never be exhausted.
This exquisite Introduction, which II has
taken me long time to write. has been called
forth By the fact that ny ma Is now oustn the
ter three weeks of patience, has just finished
Matching fourteen chickens.
Old blue is naturally very energetic and she
egsss egg to Which my ma ma added two Two more @ thatahe
borrowed from less industrious hen, and old
blue Is the mother OF fourteen chickens; thir-
teen or fourteen OF which will be dead by the
end Of the month, and the noble old hen will
be laying again. She can lay and hatch, but
when she comes to the rest Of the job, she is
dead failure. And for that matter, in this
particular, all the rest Of our hens, are Just
has been about zero as far back as can recol.
lect, but she can raise mites without any diff
dculty, and then they raise me.
the big majority OF whom died In their infan.
cy before they had laid aside their swadiing
garments, and most of the rest were either
eaten by the hogs. or carried away by the col
ohaeS oas Of Na that hs SsSs rsaeSed o on
table as near rs Jim and I can make IL out,
about twelve, but my ma and Morandy and
Samanthy, all say that we have made 1t ont
wrong, and whenever Morandy rises up set
down.
My ma says she would have more chickens
If 1t wasn't for the fact that the everlasting
niggers steal them all Just time they are big
ahead of the niggers by frying them the day
before hand. chicken one day too young Is
better than none at all. But the truth Is
ems, we can't gether to xiii any. She saves ali
the pullets to raise from next year, and all
the roosters because they are such fine ones.
Nearly all our hens are very busy now lay.
ing, and we get from one to thirteen eggs
day, according to the way the hens feel. But
notice, and so would you, II you were at our
house, that none OF these eggsare ever cooked:
this present writing, we have four hens set
ting, or as Morandy would say, sitting. ut Is
sitting hen, and not setting hen." verify
believe that In the next world, Morandy will
the early fathers, If they will let her.
Old broke-tail, and old duck leg and the
two brown hens, are the four. We did have
five. but the other, after she had::"sat" about about
and didn't blame her. I would not mind
''sitting" six or seven hours day to rest . Lit:
tie, but when 1t comes to STEADY pull OF
three weeks, simply would not do IL for
thousand chickens.
We have got great many excellent chick
ems but they are not full blooded in any par
ticular except to cackle and crow and scratch
up everything that's planted In halfa mile OF
the house.
We also have some guineas that lay three
miles from the house and that sing all night
long In tree near my window. guess
will swap them off for some dumb guineas as
soon as can. Little Jim has taken terrible
fancy to poultry and has come to the conclus-
lon to try her hand on raising ducks, but as
yet hasn't had any luck on eggs either. But
am not surprised as the only duck she's got Is
q drake.
If you don't know how to raise chickens,
you had better come over to our house and
learn, as my ma knows all about 1t,
True. she never raises any, but that ainrher
fault, its al owing to the pigs and hawks,
and niggers. She has been terribly worried
for the last five or six days, because the old
gray rooster and her best black hen and two
more Of uncertain color, have all died. My
ma thinks It's from cholera, but its my private
opinion that they died from old age. Cousin
Elizabeth, who knows as much about chick
ems as my ma, told her to give them turpen-
time and kerosene. and calomel and whiskey,
and since then four more have died and
three are sick. told my ma yesterday that
II was about time to change the treatment.
have no doubt the medicine Is a good thing,
but think its rather too powerful.