Henrietta, the science hen
Doing science is a lot of fun. Being a scientist is even better. They can walk around in shite lab coats and use glass veils for all sorts of experiments. Then they drink coffee and tea, eat worms and have a good laugh. Ah, the hight life of science.
Wait? What was that? Eat worms? Scientists?
Oh, you’re right. that is a bit weird. But then again, we are talking about Henrietta the hen. No really, that is her name. Henrietta is the odd one of this flock of hens on this farm. I guess every farm has one of those hens. She is a bit of an outsider. All the other hens are looking down at her all the time. That bothers Henrietta. After all, she wants to be a scientist. The best there is. There is only one problem. The isn’t as big as the other hens and she only lays an egg every two days. That is less than any of the other hens on the farm.
Henrietta is hell bent to produce better eggs. Because she is an aspiring scientist and science is her strong field, she starts testing. Over and over. Henrietta thinks that she lays more eggs if she eats the right food. But which food is that?
Chocolate of course! Chocolate and ice cream, biscuits and lollies. For a whole week she sneaks into the kitchen and steals some of the sweets. At the end of the week she runs the numbers. She counts the eggs: Two! Henrietta is confused. All that delicious food and she only got two eggs?
That can’t be right. She tries something different. Cabbage and prune juice. Not a bad combination she thinks. However, after three days an egg explodes as she is laying it. That caused a bit of a stir in the hen house. And she also is in need of regrowing some feathers around the belly. Cabbage and prune juice isn’t the answer.
Brussel sprouts and cauliflower make the eggs float away. Figs and Bananas make them rock hard. Celery and spinach turn them green. Alcohol and bread was no use. Her headache lasted for a whole week and no eggs were laid. Henrietta started to become frustrated. She tried a lot of different combinations. Nothing worked.
So, Henrietta gives it a break. She has been working around the clock to lay more eggs. That is quite tiring. For the first time she sleeps all day.
The next day, there is a normal looking egg. It’s white and feels like an egg. No explosions and no signs of discolourations. Well, she thinks, it is a fluke.
And the very next day, after yet another day of rest, there is another normal egg. Two in a row. Not bad for Henrietta. And the following day the same. Another normal egg. Henrietta is confused. It turned out that all that is needed for good eggs is rest and normal chicken foraging. digging for worms and eat grains. The other hens aren’t surprised. After all they do that every day and they lay an egg a day.
Henrietta is still doing science stuff. Every now and she lacks some belly feathers.
The end
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