HENS AND THEIR WAYS

Otago Witness, Issue 3806, 22 February 1927, Page 77

HENS AND THEIR WAYS

A !: ! t f y By A. H. (For thb Witness.) When you take a hen from sitting fruitlessly on a spot of bare ground under your dwelling-house, and establish her on a .lot of eggs in a comfortable strawlined box —this box ip a sheltered place, guarded with wire netting from prying fellow-hens and other animals may you not expect her, for sheer satisfaction and ■ gratitude, to settle ,down at once to the task of providing you with some early chicks ? Well, we dealt in just that liberal fashion with one of our hens early in the past spring, removing her to the box after nightfall so that she might be a little accustomed to the new nest by the time she could see about her again. But did she show her appreciation in the manner I have indicated 1 Not she 1 (It’s only fair to say here that she may have been a little soured by having her own plans for a family thwarted a few weeks before, when we found her sitting on a fine collection of eggs under the house, and took them from her because we found that others of the hens, well meaning but stupid, were contributing to the hoard, thus, of course, preparing derangement, if not disaster, for the hatching). Tn any case she got out somehow, and next day was found wasting her time as-before under the house. About dark we grovelled along to where she sat, and transported her again to the scene of her new job. Again she escaped, and returned under the house seemingly infatuated with the barren spot there.

We persevered, and a third night she was placed on the eggs. This time she stayed, and to her credit, be it said, reared 12 chicks.

Our second one gave less trouble, and hatched 14 chicks from 14 eggs, but our self-gratulation over this excellent result received a little check when an inquisitive lamb, one of twins belonging to a pet sheep, disturbed the hen that day ajjd caused the death of one of her brood. Fortunately the hen, wiser than we who had turned her and her family out in the morning, returned to the hatching-pen, and there we kept her till the chicks were stronger and more active. The advantage of this seclusion was very apparent at feeding-time. All we had to do was to put down the food and leave them to eat it. whereas out in the open it was necessary to guard the chicks from the greedy grown-ups, which would hurry from unsuspected lurkingplaces to join in the feast —oatmeal and other chicken-food being a dainty much prized by all of them. One would never think of the plain,

practical motner nens as creatures tnat would try to impress people with a sense of their importance. But I’ve seen them dj it, while standing by watching the chicks feeding. The whole family of little downy fellows would be busy helping themselves to what was put down for them, when suddenly the mother would land a stupid officious foot among them, and with a backward drag scatter the food in all directions, obviously for no purpose but to “show off’’— at least it seemed so to me. And the cunning with which they evade our search for eggs. Lately, after quite a shortage of fresh eggs, we found two of the hens sitting on a perfect heap in some long grass in the orchard. I counted 26, all useless for culinary purposes by the time we found them. We did not want any more chickens, so threw the eggs into the creek. I suppose this was waste from the hens’ point of view. Poor little things ! They had sat steadfastly through days of rain, and their bedraggled feathers and evident hunger stirred in me a feeling of admiration for their endurance. With hens the meal-time habit is very

strong. I suppose 'they are a good deal like ns humans in this respect. Our fowlrun is at present in a state of disrepair so that we cannot shut them in, and bright and early these summer mornings they come to remind us of their breakfast. Also, at about four in the afternoon they refuse to be shaken off. If one goes out of doors they literally throng one’s steps till they are fed. Well, they have a right to care and protection from those who have dominion over them, and, moreover, it pavs to give it.