The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-27
THINK ON SETTING HENS
AND KNOW WHAT A MYSTERY OF
MYSTERIES THEY ARE
When the Hen Will She Will, and
When She Won't That Settles 1t
The Impatient Minorca
Peaceful Mans BroiIers-ScttIe-
ment of q Delicate Question.

cnlckenS-anQ the early chicken Is the
only one that will lay eggs next win
ter when they are 80 cents a dozen.
The chicken that is born on or before
the first day CT March is worth dozens
born in May or June, when alls the
hens want to set. The trouble is to
find the hen who is inclined to incuba-
ton in the month of February Gen
orally speaking, she must be a March
chicken herself; therefore, to have
March chickens. 1t is like the great
economic proposition: To make money
you must have money to make it with.
However, 1t Is not necessary to in
herit March pullets; they can be ac-
quired at reasonable rates; and every
practical hen keeper-aside from those
wholesale gentlemen who can devote
all their time and attention to the mon
umental task of making incubators in
cubate, and who are consequently in
dependent of the natural means of in
cubation-will tell you that the early
born pullet who is under a sort Of
natural compulsion to lay early her.
self, is. even when of no breed at ALL
or more value than the high bred fowl
VINO declines to lay any eggs until the
balmy spring time has come. and eggs
can be bought for Is cents dozen.
The eccentricities of the setting hen
are beyond all account No power on
earth or heaven can prevent certain
mems 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 By
actual experiment a certain Plymouth
Rock (of whose breed one of the many
noble qualities is broodiness) persisted
In sitting for six weeks running, though
she was given no eggs at all and was
treated with the greatest contumely,
being moved from pillar to post, and
afflicted with sharp cobblestones, and
daily driven away with violence from
her pathetic attempt to convert these
1bnominious rocks into the noble ones
OF Plymouth. At the end of six weeks
she did give up further setting, but she
appeared to entertain no grudge on ac-
count Of her treatment, and would on
occasion come and eat out of the hands
of her late tormentors. It was in the
autumn when she made this quixOtic
attempt, and she had already in this
same year brought off two fine broods
Of chickens-one in early March and
the other in June.
Other hens will never sit at all. The
white Minorcas-those hens with great
combs, which look exactly like roost-
ers and are called Galatians" by the
Spanish-will lay perhaps more eggs
in year than any other sort of hen,
but they will not lay them in cold
weather, and it is unlikely that any
one Of them was ever known to hatch
a brood of chickens. The Minorcas
WILL indeed, sometimes begin to set,
but they seem to be under the impress
sion that three days ought to be, in
all conscience, 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
Hutter and much denunciatory oratory
If they are fastened down on the nest
with a board placed over 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 any
human being, male or female. wicked
or pious. Christian or pagan, ever got
through without profanity an attempt
to make a Minorac hen set. There ire
other breeds of non-setters, which are
not merely too numerous but also too
contemplate to mention. The Plym-
outh Rock will not lay so many eggs
in year as the Minorac. but she will
lay what she does lay when you want
them, and she will perpetuate her kind
Strange to say, another kind of hen that
makes a coed mother is the game hen She
seems to be engaged in an attempt to prove
tnat certain amount of AmaZonianisu is
H tso inconsistent with proper regard for
uhe duties OF motherhood. A very peaceful
gentleman, not unccnnected with the work
or the Humane society maved into the coun-
Try three or four yearsc ago. Having occasion
TO purchase two three settings of eggs
ne bought one of a good working woman
VINO lived on the outskirts of the town. and
VINO happened to have male relatives of sport
ing procl1vities, though the gentleman did NOT
know that, and would hardly have cared If
he had known. The sporting procivities 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 were SO
pretty that they were admired above all others
on the place. They grew apace, and before
long their owner discovered that they were
engaged in warfare most of the time, either
with one another or with other little chick
ems Redoubtable fighters they We're too,
and while one of them would easily whip
any chicken of any other brood, when they
light to the death. The peaceable gentle
man deprecated these contests very much
but he was powerless to prevent them
What could make them fight so?
By and by a village tradesman who hap.
pened to be at the place one day noticed the
chickens looked at the gentleman who owned
tnem psm wRke6 hroad ind remarked
humane gentleman. why, game fowls re-
turned the other. Game fowls? What can
yoa De TALKING about? said the gen.lema7
of such thing!' well, them's game chic
ems, just the same said the tradesman A
light daWned on the humane gentleman's
mind; The provlivities of the men of the
household from which he had purchased the
sitting eggs had indeed led them to a par
TALLY for game fow.s. and by innocentlY buy
81 h1kprS n fba
OF the house and setting them under hen
he had unconsciously embarked in the bust
ness of keeping fighting cocks! He sacrificed
the brood as soon as they were big enough
to broil, and found them most excellent eat
ing; but 1t is doubtful if he will ever be
able to get. up a reputation In that town
as preventer of cruelty to animals.
The following true story is sent by lady:
Out in quiet corner of the garden, in two
barrels lying on their side=, sat two expectant
hens patiently awaiting the happy day when
the joys OF freedom so dear to their hearts
should be enhanced through sharing it with
a nesting, peeping brood of downy darlngs
all their own. What lover of hens has not
seen, during these periods of peaceful! a t CT
patton, the tender CLEAN of the eve akin to
that Of the human dreamer, and the express
coming responsibility and trust which steals
over the habitually immo5ile countenance of
the much-maiiened hen?
The hours of the long, bright spring DAYS
slowly ran their course, and half Of the al
lotted time of waiting had been uncomplan-
ingly endured by one of the pair, while her
neighbor had just entered upon her term of
enforced sec.usion, when one night 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 fastened to the spot. pre-
pared to find utter ruin and dismay, instead
of which, to our great surprise, we found
the frail habtations still standing More
over, they we're still tenanted, al hough there
we're unmis.akable signs of hardship and SUI
fering having been heroicaliy met by those
two stout hearts closar ovop,ino+;o-,