SETTING HENS/BABY CHICKS!

They say that you never get too old to learn. Well, today that is true. My sister told me that our mother would "set hens" to raise baby chicks. What I can remember, was getting these baby chicks in boxes in the spring and placing them in an incubator to keep them warm until they were old enough to fetch on their own. These chicks came in the mail and upon arrival, we would get them immediately. This was a really a "fun" experience to see approximately 200 chicks that was just hatched. I believe that after we got electricity in the home, is when we had an incubator and ordered baby chicks.

She had my curiosity aroused and I looked up on the internet on Google. There it was (setting hens). Here are a few things that you need to watch for, so that you knew when the hen was just right to "set". The internet called them "broody hens" (hens ready to set). One has to have a keen eye and watch for the signs. The hen would start molting on the breast area so that they can keep the eggs at an even temp. This occurs in the spring. They will sit all day on about 11 eggs and turn their eggs to rotate them. They would only get off once a day to eat, drink, & poop. Another thing to watch the hens to see if they are ready to set, is that they go around clucking to themself.

Our mother would "set" a lot of hens. My sister told me a story about a particular hen. Here is what she said--"A hen started brooding too early (February) and she had eggs that she would have to leave to eat, & drink. Our mother knew that the eggs would not be any good for hatching if she left them a half hour in February. Mom told my sister that that hen was hers if she hatched the chickens. My sister knew that they would get too cold and she sat lightly on the eggs so that the eggs would stay warm while the hen ate. The chickens hatched. Her chore was to help feed the chickens each day". This was about when my sister was about 5 years old. I couldn't hardly fathom this, but she did and sat on them very lightly. Amazing!!!

We don't know how many chickens each year she brooded, but we think it was about 20 hens. This would be about 200 chicks if they all had 11 per hen. It was really a sight to see a mother hen and her little chicks following her around until they were able to fetch for themselves.

A lot of work went into raising chickens from hatching, feeding, gathering eggs, cleaning the hen house out, as well as preparing them for the table as fried chicken.

Today's Wisdom--We shape tomorrow's world by what we teach our children today. Hard work is always in vogue.