The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-05-06

DID you EVER THINK WHAT A MYs-
Terry OF MYSTERIES SHE 1877


When she WIN she whL and Whom She
Won't That Settles 1t = The Impatient
Ainorca and Other Nsnsitters-A Peace
fui Mans Broiiers.
The chicken that Is born on or before the
LIST day Of March Ia 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 March chicken herself. Therefore to
nave March chickens you must first have
March chickens. 1t Ia like the great Geo.
nomic proposition: To make money you
must have money to make 1t with. How
ever, 1t Is not necessary to inherit March
pullets They can be acquired at reason
sbie rates, and every practical hen keeper
aside from those wholesale gentlemen
who can devote all their time and atten-
tion to the monumental task of making
incubators incubate, and who are conse-
quently independent of the natural means
OF incubation-will tell you that the early
born pullet, who is under a sort of natural
compulsion to lay early herself is, even
when Of no breed at all of more value
than the high bred fowl who declines to
lay any eggs until the balmy springtime
has come and eggs can be bought for 10
cents dozen.
The eccentricites of the sitting hen are
beyond all account. No power on earth or
heaven can prevent certain hens from sit
ting half their lives. They will sit on good
eggs, on bad eggs, on china eggs, on
stones, on sticks, on nothing at all. Turned
/ 49, IL. IA xAl
or. BY actual experiment certain Plym-
outh Rock (of whose breed one of the
many noble qualities is broodiness) per-
sisted 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 aflliot-
ed with sharp cornered cobblestones and
daily driven away with violence from her
pathetic attempt to convert these igno-
minous rocks into the noble ones of Plym-
outh. At the end of the six weeks she
did give up further sitting, but she ap-
peared to entertain no grudge on account
of her treatment and would on occasion
como and eat out of the hands of her late
tormentors 1t was in the autumn when
she made this quixotio attempt, and she
had already in this same year brought off
March and tho other in June.
Other hens will never sit at all. Tho
white MiDorcas-those hens with great
combs, which look exactly like ROSTERS
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 1t Is un-
likely that any one of them was ever
known to hatch a brood of chickens. The
Minorcas will, indeed, sometimes begin to
sit, but they seem to be under the impress
sion that three days ought to be, in all
conscience, long enough time in which
to hatch out an egg, and at the expiration
of about that time they will abandon the
attempt with great flutter and much de-
mandatory oratory. If they are fastened
down on the nest with 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 doubt
full IL ever any human being, male or fe-
male, wicked or pious, Christian or pagan,
ever got through without profanity an at
tempt to make Minorca 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 not lay so many eggs in year
as tho Minorca, 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 good mother is the game hen.
She seems to be engaged in an attempt to
provo that certain amount of amazo-
nianism is not inconsistent with proper
regard for tho duties of motherhood. A
very peaceful gentleman, not unconnected
with tho work of the Humane society,
moved into the country three or four years
ago. Having occasion to purchase two or
three settings of eggs, he bought one OF
good working woman, who lived on the
outskirts of the town, and who happened
to havo male relatives of sporting proclivi-
ties, though the gentleman did not know
that, and would hardly have cared IL BIO
had known. The 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. The
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 one of them would easily whip
any chicken of any other brood, when they
fought with one another 1t seemed to be Il
fQht to the death. The peaceable gentle
man deprecated these contests very much,
but he was powerless to prevent them.
What could make them fight SOP
BY and by 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
cd, "Raisin games, eh?" Raising whatY'
asked the humane gentleman. why
game fowls" returned the other. "Gamt
towlsS What can you be talking aboutY'
said the gentleman, getting little net
lied. "Why, never thought Of such
thingr "Well, them's game chickens
lust the same" said the tradesman. A
; light dawned on the humane gentleman Z
, mind. The proclivities of the men OF TIT
household from which he had purchased
, the sitting of eggs had indeed led them to
. partially for game fowls, and by limo
gently buying bakers dozen of eggs from
the woman of the house and putting then