The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1908-01-11
Who Told the Hen How.

\ person who has watched the big
biddy playing the chicken game on
top of thirteen unr.pe eggs has seen
her sit constantly for four days, be-
ing Off only 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 |
eat a splendid long breakfast on the |
morning up to the eighteenth day. |
She will rush out after the morning |
sun has gotten things warm, and |
| ca ia splendid long breakfast on the |
morning of the fifth day. The anna
eur seeing this for the first time
will get anxious, 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 and take a sun and dust
bath. She will cool the eggs and
then turn them every morning until
the eighteenth day and on the morn
ing of the eighteenth day she will
not seem to need anything to eat, but
will hurry off after it Is very warm,
eat bit. drink hurriedly, rush back
to the nest and get upon the eggs
carefully, as if they might be so
many soap bubbles. On the eigh-
teenth day the embyro chick pre-
pares to take knock at the egg
shell, and rights himself so he can
pick upward. If his head Is down,
he turns in the shell. If the hen
should chance to turn the egg in get
ting on her nest on the eighteenth
morning, she will carefully turn the
egg back as quickly as possible.
wouldn't you freely give IS to
know the thought in the hens mind
that accompanies this simple act?
If the chick in the shell be turned
down after getting ready to pick he
may not make the extra eXertion of
righting himself tho a strong chick
| will do so. If he cracks the under
, | side of the shell, the moisture of the
thru the hole and stop the hole.
After the chick has once breathed
the raw air, he will sti1e or be
g drowned in his own moisture If the
hole be stopped. He will drown in
7 his own moisture If he does not pick
4 the shell at all The mother hen
n keeps the shells all right side up,
g and can tell by the rappings in the
shells after the chickens begin to
;, rap. The mind of the hen Is nightly
apparent or else it Is all instinct
And what is instinct but spontaneous
\ mind?
+, When the mother hen hears that
:, rapping on the inside of the shells
mighty mother instinct rouses in
= Their and she Is ready to fight any
thing, including the rooster, at the
:. drop of a hat Her feathers gel
all crinky with excitement and she
is full of smothered clucks and
ID mother love- This is where the
IS chickens have the advantage over
lie their incubator brothers. The incu
lg bator does not mother them.
* If you were going to be chicken
n VIII CHI would you choose for mother
re an incubator or a hen. The incu
or bator may be safer and surer ant
etc Mnra chick
It. good, bad and Indifferent grow t
rk henhood and roosterhood under tn
err incubator plan, but the incubato
lis does not cluck at you and sin
IL Hush, my babe" at eyentide, an
you cannot hurry under its wing
when danger is nigh Give us tn
:, hen every time.
:. 1t Is a strange thing that the he
80 knows how. She has never taken
. course in domestic economy. nc
:. attended mothers club. She neve
:, read a paper on Switzerland befor
the Hens Federation but she has I'll
:. science of chickens down prett
go, fine.
~, There Is spontaneity of though
about II that gives you confidence
A.. the general framework of things. Pc
haps II Is all right after all, and
80 needn't be so concerned and worrit
but that the universe will take ca
TO of itself somehow II We don't tink
iho and upset II.
.er. On the whole, we are glad to ha
wn met the Indianapolis Journel
Ing mel The ben.-Minneapol Journal
t
the
ted EXCURSIONS TO DENVER.
the
'em January 18th and 18th.