Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-05-07
A H0MILy ON HENS
City Versus Country Kept Chickens
By An Old Contributor

| "Sayin word tor long time tilhe
have 1? If l don't get busy on some
thing all my friends up there Will tor
get me, and my enemies Wilt l
have any, they will remember me
probably. Enemies generally do
But what shall write about? have
it! | left with my friend Bert Law
yer of the City Drug store when |
came away four old hens and roos-
ter. That's nearly. two years ago.
Those hens werd fully two years old
when Mrs. Libby bought them.
didn't look at their teeth, but ! did
at their legs. Mrs. Libby and Mrs.
Taylor Dragged that they had got
more than their moneys worth out
of those hens before they sold them
to Mr.. Lawyer; and since then Mrs.
LAWYER and Mrs. Taylor have been
necessarily boasting about those
hens. | saw by the Enterprise that
Mr.. Lawyer had been elected an OF
flee holder in the Otero Co. Poultry
Association, and | concluded it was
ON the strength of his ownership OF
those four old hens, which they claim
have been laying an average OF eggs
day for several months past. II
the claim can be verified would ad-
wise every poultry raiser in Otero Co.
to get Matching of those eggs, no
matter what they cost. They must
be kind that never moult, never set;
and never go on strike. There is
poultry fancier here over on Point
Iona who has hens that cost him $50
each, andI one rooster he showed me
that cost him $500. Needless to men
ton perhaps that he is a millionaire,
and that his specific hobby is hens
Plymouth Rocks. The land on which
they run is worth at least $1,000 an
acre. | enquired the price of his eggs
and he said 50 apiece, if obtained
from certain coops he pointed out.
incidentally let me remark that this
is great country fos chickens. Ev-
erybody keeps some-and few peo-
pie make their chickens keep them.
But that is only incidentally too. The
trouble with city hen-keepers Gf |
may be permitted to be criticaD
always goes in for thoroughbred
stock. No common pullets for the
city man. He may not have more
than four hens and a rooster. but
they must trace their lineage back
through two hundred years or more
of aristocratic hcnnery. They must
have come over q mean their ances-
tors. of coursc) U have eaten in
some cafeterias that might have come
over in the Mayflower. Then these
city hens must have a strictly up-to-
the minute hen house. In fact the
character of these so-called Califor-
mia bungalows makes it often diff
cult to tell which is the hen house
and which is the residence of the
-lren- owner. Hot and cold running
water. self feeders. in fact every mod
crn convenience-for the hen. | un
dcrstand that some of the more en-
thusiastic poultry lobbyists have
been known to put in gramaphone
and subscribe for a copy OF Life.
| This is probably done under the spell
OF that kind of teaching set forth in
modern hen literature, and other lit
erature too, which says that every
animal, including man. should be kept
in a cheerful frameI of mind in order
to do their best work. No educated
hen grower, male or female. will ever
"shoo" hen nowadays. They just
sit in the back window OF their domi-
cile and talk gently to any recalciter-
ant hen who gets nervous and threat
ems to- fly the COOP. AT least that's
what the hen-books say, and also
what my wife writes me Mrs. Law
yer does with just those four COM
mon old hens that | left behind me
in Colorado. And who am | that ]
should venture to dispute with a
book-or with my wife.
Now it may be that | am getting
a little prolix on this subject oil hens,
and I'll try to come to the point at
once. The point is one OF difference
between these thoroughbred city
hens and the hens | left behind me
in Rocky Ford. 1t is only when a
city hen forgets herself for a mo-
ment that she lays an egg. | suppose
the social exigencieS OF city life are
such that there is no time to lay eggs.
Still there are rare instances, ! al
low, when they do, and even a few
times when they have been known to
raise a chicken, or even as much as
two or three chickens. But families
OF this questionable size are not
compatible with their city surround
ings. City life in fact would seem
to be deteriorating to most every
thing that comes in contact with it,
We all know how iniInical to virtue
in the human species city life is. And
suppose it has the same effect on
the feathercd species. At all events
my friend Mrs. Dye, who as we all
know is a keenly observant woman,
tells me that few months ago a
nice young rooster was transplantcd
from farm somewhere in the back
country here to a coop in the back
yard OF neighbor across the fence.
At first she says, that rooster went
to bed early like respectable coun-
try bird and she got some sleep; tho
he walked her at an unconscienable
hour in the morning. But it wasn't
long before that bird showed the
pernicious influence of urban life. He
got to staying up all night, it seemed
to her, and growing at the electric
lights. and keeping the hens up and
running them around the coop. Ev-
cry time an automobile whizzed by