Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-04-15
THE SITTING HEN.
DID YOU EVER THINK WHAT A Mys-
Terry CT MYSTERIES sH1 IS?

'ttN ~ :.
terry CT MYSTERIES SEl IS?
When She Will She Will. and When She
Won't That Settles It The Impatient
Minorca and Other Nonsitters-A Peace.
full Mans Broilcrs.
Tho chicken that is born on or before the
let day of March is worth dozens born in
May or June, when all the hens want to
sit. The trouble is to find the hen who is
inclined to incubation in the month of
February. Generally speaking, she must
DO Q March chicken herself. Therefore to
have March chickens YOU must first have
March chickens. 1t is like the great Geo.
nomic propositions: To make money you
must have money 70 maks it with. How
ever, 1t is not necessary 20 inherit March
pullets. They can he acquired ut reason
ablo rates, and every practical hon keeper
aside from those wholesale gentlemen
who can devote all their time and atton-
ton to the monumental tGsk of making
incubntors incubatc, and who are consc-
quently independent Of the natural means
Of incubation-will tell you that the carly
born pullot, who is under Il sort of natural
compulsion to lay carly herself, is, even
when of no breed at all, of moro valuo
than the high bred fowl who declines to
lay any eggs until the balmy %springtimo
has come and eggs can DO bought for Is
cents a dozen.
The ecccntricitics Of the sitting hen arc
beyond all account. No power on earth or
heaven can prevent certain hons from sit
ting half their lives. They will sit or good
eggs, OH bad eggs, on china eggs, on
stones, on sticks, ON nothing at all. Turned
out of n place, they will sit in any 9TH
or. BY actual experiment a certain P]ym-
outh Rock (of whose breed one of the
many noble qualities is b%roodiness) per-
sisted In sitting for six weeks running,
though she was givon no eggs at all and
was treated with tho greatest contumely,
being moved from pillar to post and afflict-
Pd with sharp cornorcd cobblestoncs and
daily driven away with violence from her
pathetic attompt to convert these igno-
minous rocks into tho noble ones of Plym-
outh. At tho end of tho six weeks sine
did give up further sitting. but she APP
peared to entertain no grudgo OH account
of her treatment and would on occasion
como and cat out of tho hands of her lato
tormoutors. 1t was in tho autumn when
sho mado this quixotic attempt, and she
had already in this same year brought OFF
two fine brcods of chickens-ono in early
March and tho other in juno.
Other hens will mover sit at all. Tho
white Minorcas-thoso hens with great
combs, which look exactly like ROSTERS
and arc called "CatuIans'' by tho Spanish
will lay perhaps more eggs in u year
than any other SORT OF hen, but they will
r3nA lew thc,,, ir ,oo1 v1,,,tI,, ,,>1 - =, ,,,,
likely that any 'hlo of them was ever
known to hatch q brood of chickens. Tho
Minorcas will, indeed, sometimes begin to
sit, but they seem to be undor the impress
sion that three days ought to be, in all
conscience, q long enough timo in which
to hatch out IN egg, and at tho expiration
of about that time thoy will abandon tho
attempt with q great 1luttcr and much de-
mandatory oratory. II they are fastened
down Oh tho nest with a board placed
above their backs, they will stand up as
high as they can under tho board and let
the cold dir aldle thcir eggs. 1t is doubt.
full If ever any human being, malo or fe-
malo, wicked or pious, Christian or pagan,
ever got through without profanity an at
tempt to make a Niinorca hen sit. There
are other breeds of nonsitters, which are
not merely too numerous but also too con-
temptible to mention. The Plymouth
Rock will NOS lay so many eggs in a year
as tho Minorca, but she will lny what she
does lay when you want them, and she
will perpetuato her kind.
Strange to say, another kind of hen that
makes O good mother is the game hen.
She seems to DO engaged in an attempt to
provo that q certain amount of amaZO-
nianisln is not inconsistent with q proper
regard for tho duties of motherhood. A
very peaceful gentleman, not unconnected
with tho work of the Humane society,
moved into tho country three or four years
ago. Having occasion to purchase two or
three settings of eggs, re bought ono of Il
good working woman, who lived on the
outskirts Of the town, and who happened
to have male relatives of sporting p%roclivi-
ties, though tho gentleman did not know
that, and would hardly have cared if he
had known. Tho sporting proclivities OF
those persons could hardly affect the hens
eggs raised on tho 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. Tho
chickens were SO pretty that they were ad.
mired above all others on the place. They
grew apace, and before long their owner
discovered that they were engaged in war
fare most of the time, either with one an.
other or with other little chickens. Re-
doubtable fighters they were, too, and
while any n of them would easily whir
any chicken of any other brood, when they
fought with n another it seemed to be o
fight 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 them, winked broadly and remark
ed, ''Raisin games, eh?'' 'Raising whatp''
asked tho humane gentleman. ''Why,
game FOWLS" returned the other. "Game
fowlsP What can you be talking about9''
said the gentleman, getting a little net.
tied. "Why. I never thought of such q
i kh3rn1p StVo11 tho~,So -, nls,1.a-,