The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1908-01-23
WHO TOLD THE HEN.

How is 1t that the old hen knows
howl Who told herr
A person who has watched the
big biddy playing the chicken game
on top of thirteen unripe eggs has
seen her sit constantly for four
DAYS, being off only a few minutes
at a time TO get bite to eat, and
sometimes not coming off at all for
three days. The third day he has
seen her turn the eggs with her
bill and there after every morning
up to the eighteenth day. She will
rush out after the morning sun has
gotten things warm, and eat SPLEEN
did long breakfast on the morning
of tie fifth day. The amateur seeing
this for the first time wiil get anx-
ious, fearing the eggs will cool off.
OF course they will. She knows it
is all right.
The hen will stay off ten minutes
and be exceedingly busy. She will
eat, drink ana take sun and dust
bath She will cool the eggs and
then turn them every morning un-
Ill the eighteenth day and on the
morning of the eighteenth day she
will not seem 10 need anything to
eat, but will hurry off after it is
very warm, eat bit, drink hurried
ly, rush back to the nest and get
upon the eggs carefully, as if they
might be SO many soap bubbles.
On the eighteenth day the embyro
chick prepares to take a knock al
the eggshell, and rights himself so
he can pick upward. If his head is
down, he turns in his she'll If the
hen should chance to turn the egg
in getting on her nest on the eigh-
tenth morning she will carefully
turn the egg back as quickly as
possible.
Wouldn't YOU freely give 80 to
know the thought in the hen S mind
that accompanies this simple act?
If the chick in the she'll DE thru
cd down after getting ready to pick
he may not make the extra exer-
tion of righting himself tho a !
strong chick will do SO. II he I
cracks the underside of the she'll.
the moisture of the shell will run |
to il, and run out thru the hole {
and stop the hole After the chick {
has once breathed the raw air, he S
will stifle or be drowned in his own /
moisture il he does not pick the S
shell at all. The mother hen keeps @
the shells all right side up and can i
tell by the rappings in the shells I
after the chickens begin to rap Il
The mind of the hen is nightly k
OF else it is all instinct. t
And what is the instinct but spon- .
mind2 .
When the mother hen hears that
rapping on the inside of the shells. I
a mighty mother instinct ronses in .
her and she is ready to fight any =
thing. i-cluding the rooster, at the +
drop OF hat Her feathers get -
crinky with excitement and she is :,
full Of smothered clucks aud mother Il
love. This is where the chickens
have the advantage over their incu-
bator brothers. The incubator does c,
not mother them. +,
If you were going to be chick
en-, which would Won choose for
mother an incubator or a hen? The is
incubator may be safer and surer Il
aud does not step on you. More pi
chickens good. bad and indifferent II
grow to henhood and roosterhood a
inder the incubator plan, but the S,
Incubator does not cluck at you and p'
ing, Hush. my babe, at even eI
ide. and you cannot hurry under pl
IS wings when danger is nigh. s.
live us the hen every time.
1t is strange thing that the hen
.nows how She has never taken d,
course in domestic economy, " b;
lor attended mothers club. She p