The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-06
THINK OF THE SETTING HEN.
AND KNOW WHAT A MYSTERY OF
MYSTERIES SHE is.
When She viii She VIII, and When
She Won't That settles 1.-THE
Impatient Minorca-Peaceful Mans
BrOiIers-AmicabIe settlement of
a Delicate Question


From the Boston Evening Transcript.
Now is the time to set hen for early
chickens-and the early chicken is the
only one that will lay eggs next winter
when they are 50 cents a dozen. The
chicken that is born on or before the
first day of March is worth dozen 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
economic proposition. To make money
you must have money to make it with.
However, it is not necessary to inherit
March pullets; they can be acquired at
reasonable rates; and every practical hen
keeper-aside from those wholesale gentle
men who can devote all their time and
attention to the monumental task of max
ing incubators incubate, and who are con-
sequently 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 her
self, 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 Is cents dozen.
| The eccentricihes 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 r>.ce, they will set in
any other. By actual experiment a GER
! tain Plymouth 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 contumely,
being removed from pillar to post and at
| hicted with sharp-cornered cobblestones,
| and daily driven away with violence from
| her pathetic attempt to convert these ig-
| nominious rocks into the noble ones of Ply
mouth. At the end of six weeks she did
give up further setting, but she appeared
to entertain no grudge on account of her
| treatment, and would on occasion come
and eat out of the hands of her late tor
mentors. 1t 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 Minocras-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 unlikely
that any one of them was ever known to
| hatch brood of chickens. The Minorcas
will, indeed, sometimes begin to set, but
! they seem to be under the impression 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 fiutter and much denunciatory or
atory. If they are fastened 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. It is doubtful if ever any
| human being male or female wicked or
plous, Christian or pagan, ever got
through without profanity an attempt to
make Minorca hen set. There are 9TH
| err breeds of non-setters, which are not
merely too numerous but also too con-
tempuble to mention. The Plymouth Rock
win not lay so many eggs in year as the
Minorca, but she will lay what she does
| lay when you want them, and she will per-
! petuate her kind.
Strange to say, another kind of hen
| that makes a good mother is the game
hen She seems to be engaged in an at
tempt to prove that a certain amount of
| Amazonianisn is not inconsistent with a
proper regard for the duties of mother
hood. very peaceful gentlemen, not I'M
connected with the work of the Humane
Society, moved into the country three or
four years ago. Having occasion to pur-
chase two or three settings of eggs, he
bought one of a good working woman,
who lived on the outskirts of the town,
I and who happened to have male relatives
of sporting proclivities. though the gem
tleman did not know that, and would
| hardly have cared if he had known. The
sporting proclivities 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 exqui-
site little red chickens were running about
with the old gray hen who had been their
| foster-mother. The chickens were so pref
| ty that they were admired above all others
on the place. They grew apace and be-
| fore long their owner discovered that
they were engaged in warfare most of
| the time, either with one another or with
other little chickens. Redoubtable light
| ers 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 seemd to be a fight to the
death. The peaceable gentleman depreca-
ted 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 re-
marked, "Raisin' games, eh?" "Raising
what?" asked the humane gentleman.
''Why, game fowls returned the other.
! "Game fowls? What can you be talk
ing about?' said The gentleman, getting
a little nettled; why, I never thought of
such thing!" "Well, thems game chick
ers, just the same said the tradesman.
A light dawned on the humane gentieman's
mind. The procllvifes of the men OF the
household from which he had purchased
the setting eggs had indeed led them 20
a Partially for game fowls, and by inno-
Gently buying a bakers dozen of eggs
from the woman of the house and setting
them under a hen he had unconsciously
embarked in the business OF keeping fight
ing cocksi He sacrificed the brood as soon
as they were big enough to broil, ana
found them most excellent eating; but it
is doubtful if he viii ever be able TO get