Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-04-03
THINK OF The SETTING Hen
AND KNOW WHAT A MYSTERY OF
MYSTERIES SHE IS.
When h VIII h Will, and When
She Won't That Settles 1.-THE linz
patient Minorcn-A Peace
full Mans BrOilers.
From the Boston Evening Transcript,

patent AltnOEcu-A feAce
full Mans BrOiIers.
From the Boston Evening Transcript.
Now is the time to set a hen for early
chickens-and the early chicken is the only
one that will lay eggs next winter when
they are worth 50 cents a dozen. The
chicken that is born on or before the first
day of March is worth dozens born in
May or June. when all the hens want to
set. The trouble is to find the hen who
is inclined to incubation in the month of
February. Generally speaking. she must
be a March chicken herself: therefore to
have March chickens. you must first have
March chickens. 1t is like the great eco
nomic propositions: To make money you
must nave money to make it with. How
ever. it Is not necessary to inherit March
pu!lets; they can be acquired at reasonable
rates; and every practical hen keeper-aside
from those wholesale gentlemen who can
devote all their time and attention to the
monumental task Of making incubators in
cubate, and who are consequently indie
pendent OF the natural means of incuba-
iion-will tell you that the early-born pull
let: who is under a sort of natural com
pulsion to lay early herself. is, even when
of no breed at all, of more value than the
fowl who declines to lay any
eggs until the balmy springtime has come
and eggs can be bought for 10 cents "a
dozen.
The eccentricities of the setting hen are
beyond all account. No power on earth
or heaven can prevent certain hens from
setting half their lives. They will set on
good eggs, on bad eggs. on china eggs. on
stones, on sticks. on nothing at all. Turned
out of one place. they will set in any other.
Rock (of whose breed one of the many
noble qualities is broodiness) persisted in
setting for six weeks running, though she
was given no eggs at all and was treated
with the greatest COntufnnly- hcinp moved
from pillar to post and afflicted with sharp
cornered cobblestones. and daily. driven
tempt to convert these ignominious rocks
into the noble ones of Plymouth. At the
end of the six weeks she did give up
further setting. but she appeared to enter
tain no grudge on account of her treat
ment. and would on occasion come out and
eat out of the hands of her late tor
made this Quixotic attempt. and she had
already in this same year brought off two
fire broodS of chickens-one in early March
and the other in June.
Hens That Will Not Set.
Other hens will never set at all. The
white Minorcas-those hens with great
combs. which look exactly like ROSTERS
and are called Galatians by the Spanish
will lay perhaps more eggs in a year
than any other sort of hen. and it is I'M
likely that any one of them was ever known
to hatch a brood of chickens. The Minor
cas- will. indeed. sometimes begin TO set.
but they seem to be under the impression
that three days ought to be, in all con-
science, a long enough time in which to
hatch out an egg. and at the expiration
of about that time they will abandon the
attempt with a great futter and much de-
down on the nest with a board placed above
their backs, they will stand up as high
as they can under the board and let the
cold air addle their eggs. 1t is doubtful
If ever any human being. male or female.
wicked or pious. Christian or pagan. ever
got through without profanity an attempt
to make a Minorca hen set. There are
other breeds of non-setters. which are not
merely too numerous but also too contempt
ible to mention. The Plymouth Rock will
Minorca, but she will lay what She does
lay when you want them, and she will per-
petuate her kind.
Strange to say, another kin of hen tina
makes a good mother is the game hen.
She seems to be engaged in an attempt to
prove that a certain amount Of Amazon
regard for the duties OF motherhood. A
very peaceful gentleman. not unconnected
moved into the country three or four years
ago. Having occasion to purchase two or
three settings of eggs. he bought one of a
good working woman, who lived on the
outskirts of the town. and who happened
to nave male relatives Of sporting procliv-
tiles. though the gentleman did not know
had known.. The sporting procliyities of
those persons could hardly affect the hens
eggs raised on the PLACE The setting of
eggs turned out beautifully, and in due
time some exquisite little red chickens were
running about with the old gray hen who
had been their foster mother. The chickens
above all others on the place. They grew
apace. and before long their owner dis
most OF the time, either with one another
or with other little chickens Redoubtable
fighters they were. too. and while any one
any other brood. when they fought with
one another it seemed to be a fight to the
death. The peaceable gentleman .depre-
was powerless to prevent them. What could
make them fight so?
BY and by a village ,tradesman who hap
the chickens. looked at the gentleman who
owned them. winked broadly and remarked:
a5 ks'ii the f humane ssentlema aais! HWhy x game
fowls" returned the other. Game fowls?
What can you be talking about?' said the
f + nsksr shoa sssi'n of s s. li,'i s t naraisa; We'll:
them's game chickens. just the same said
the tradesman. A light dawned on the hui
of the men of the household from which he
had purchased the setting of eggs had in
deed led them to a Partially for game fowls.
of eggs from the woman of the house and
setting them under a hen he had uncon-
sciously embarked in the business of keep
ing fighting cocks! He sacrificed the brood
as soon as they were big enough to broil.
and found them most excellent eating: but
1t is doubtful If he will ever be able to
get up a reputation in that town as a
p%reventer of cruelty to animals.
Story of n Hen and Her Chicks.
The following true story is sent by a
lady: Out in a quiet corner of the gar
den. in two big barrels lying or their sides.
sat two expectant hens patiently awaiting
the happy day when the joys of freedom.
so dear to their hearts. should be en-
HANGED through sharing it with a
nesting. peeping brood of downy darlings
all their own. What lover of hens has not
~ticipation. the tender CLEAN OF the eye.
akin to that of the human dreamer. and
the expression of gravity, revealing a lat
ent sense of coming responsibility and trust
which steals over the habitually immoble
countenance of the much maligned heny
slowly ran their course. and half Of the
allotted time of waiting had been uncom-
plainirgly endured by one Of the pair.
while her neighbor had Just entered upon
her term of enforced seclusion, when one
night 4 fierce tempest swept down upon
those two humble dwellings. The wind and
rain came with such terrific force that it
seemed nothing short OF a mountain could
Withstand it, The next morning we hast
ened to the spot. prepared to find utter
great surprise. we found the frail habita-
tons still standing. Moreover. they were
still tenanted, although there were unmis-
taxable signs of hardship and suffering
having been heroically met by those two
stout hearts. On closer examination, how
happened. During the confusion, the panic
caused by the storm. the two had lost their
heads-not literally. as We had at first
~feared-and had mistaken their. own nests: