HEN STRUCK!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 7

HEN STRUCK!

I A TYRANT " YOLK." i i \ WHY EGGS ARE « SHORT." j MARMAEUKE TEI*LS AUL. I j (By K.K.0.) | "So I said 1 woul.l have some L.«vuii i and cugs. for I'm terribly, terribly j British,"" monologues Ronald Frankau — ; but what would have happened if he had I • j been talkni' to a waitress m a city i j restaurant .' "Eggs':"' -ho woul.l say, with' a tos.-, * of the head, and a "Cumr, come, sir,'" I look in her eye. and then, recovering, woul.l throw into the conversation a provocative "Cue or two';" Ronald would then probabU bo informed that eggs were worth 3d each, and that, what with employment taxes and super taxes and whatnot, lie would have to pay so much extra. That is getting down to tin-tacks. \\ it'n no pun intended in either case. This egg business i- serious, and it I seems that something must be done about it. We must have our eggs, but in that the hen i~ the ruler our destiny. Every morning the next-door neighbour goes down to the run and talks to them about it. lie clucks to them i soothingly. sets tempting mixtures of steaming pollard, throws handfuls of ! wheat, adds titbits of grit and says "give"' engagingly. But what do the hens do about h': They gather in mass meetings of three, duck hoarsely, and do nothing. So Henry, the neighbour, must needs dig once more into a slender pocket and buy the breakfast egg from the grocer. Relying on Pullets. Something had to be done about it. so the big butter and egg man was interviewed. Kg.us. he s;ibl informatively, were not coming forward, in big quantities, and at the present time the wholesale suppliers were relying entirely nil the big poultry farmers. In turn the farmers were relying t>n the pullets, which '"they had brought forward in March."' It seem* that ii you go through the complicated business of bringing pullets forward they lay right through the year —while the old hens sit back in discomfort and concentrate on moulting, waiting for tha spring to come before they start proilin ing rga'rii. '"Backyarders,"' he -aid (and that includes Henry'. didn*( bother to bring their pullets forward, and a- a result, when the old hens betray their trust,. the •■backyarders." "u- have to buy. With that the «ur:-15' r his the combination of a short supply an' an increased demand. Hence the 3/ a dozen, newlaid, cash down. Back aga'n to Henry's run. and the selection of a likely looking pullet (they're the ones who still have j feathers). "Come forward." she was uiged. but she shook her head surlily. 'No can do.'" said the pullet. "It's too late. Why didn't you bring me for? ward in March 5" The Pullet's Plaint. Didn't think of it. she was told, and that brought results. That was just the trouble, clucked she and all the other pullets; the old-timers got everything! While (hey were Living nobody thought of the pullet trying her darndest to get under way. Then when the moulting started, everybody expected the pullets to come to licrht with double-yolkers every day. It wasn't fair. It was at that stag? that old Manna? duke, the boss" pet, winked knowingly and strutted his moulting eoat to the corner of the run. With rapid clutter h« '"spilt the beans." ''We've ;;ot a couple of toujrb ten* minute eggs in this run."' he said, "and they've been agitating all the summer through. They have formed a branch here of the National Amalgamated Union of Egg Workers and just now they have got a strike on ... a stay-in strike. Tell Mr. Armstrong about it! "They reckon they are not going to go on producing just for you capitalists to feed on their young. What do they get out of it? A handful of bran and a pinch of grit! They lose their feathers in the unequal struggle for existence, and then you have the cheek to call them tough when thev are served at the table as 'chicken.' Mind yon I am not with them and Tve got a scheme . . ." He was going to say more, but then the others got on to him. Poor old Marmaduke is the very hen-pecked husband of the run. and it looks as though a more favourable time will have to be awaited to find out how to break I that strike. He was a good egg, but he I didn't get enough grit.