Spanish Fork Press | 1909-07-22 | Page 4 | His Chickens Get Drunk

HIS CHICKENS GET DRUNK i New Jersey Farmer Discovers a Barnyard Barn-yard Blind Tiger Which Made Hens Groggy Livingston N JJncob Foos a farmer of this place Is seeking a gold cure for his chickens Thirty Plymouth Ply-mouth Rocks In his barnyard have become be-come Inebriates nnd Foos feels It his duty to reform them A few weeks ago Foos placed an old whisky barrel with nn end knocked out In an open space near tho henhouse hen-house as a shelter for a hen with a brood of little chicks that had been hatched ot early When the sun became be-came hot the hen retired to the barrel bar-rel with her brood After a few days Foos observed that every chicken In his barnyard seemed to be in a half stunor oven tho young chicks The roosters went about the yard crowing in hlccoughy way and tho hens clucked In hoarse guttural tones Foos was puzzled nnd ho called law la-W F Merrill n veterinarian who Inspected In-spected the coops and found nothing wrong Then he examined the barrel Ono sniff at the air of tho Interior enlightened i en-lightened him The chickens are drunk Merrill Mer-rill said Then ho explained to Foos that tho whisky barrel which had been In a damp cellar all winter I bad been affected by the sun which brought tho alcohol out of the wood The hen that pecked at tho wood first must have communicated the secret to the other fowls and all became visitors to tho barnyard speakeasy