1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



95 



as the top would have saved me several dol- 

 lars' worth of agony. 



Let me digress a little. Of late years I 

 find myself getting more and more forgetful. 

 Several times I have gone to the postoffice 

 with important mail and forgot to mail it. I 

 took all the mail out of my box, of course; 

 but again and again I forgot all about the 

 letters tucked away in my inside coat pock- 

 et. Finally, one day after I had forgotten to 

 mail some of Mrs. Root's letters I stood up 

 straight, threw back my shoulders, and made 

 a " declaration " (or "declamation") some- 

 thing as follows: "Look here, Sue. This 

 business of forgetting to mail letters has got 

 to be stopped. We positively will not have 

 anymore of it." 1 think I smiled when I 

 "spoke my piece;" but I was mightily in 

 earnest, and I haven't once omitted to put all 

 my mail in the office since. You can, my 

 friend, remember important things if you 

 care enough about it. If you are undertaking 

 too many things for an old man or woman, 

 then have fewer cares and worries, or carry 

 a memorandum. 



Let us get back to the chickens. 1 for one 

 am done getting chickens up to two weeks old 

 and then letting «ome animal undo all my 

 work in just a few minutes. Poultry-netting 

 is cheap, and it takes only a little time to 

 make the little pets absolutely safe. You 

 ought to be ashamed of yourself; and I for 

 one am heartily ashamed of myself. I think 

 I know now that "varmints," at least some- 

 times, "dig under." 



As I write, Wesley is now going clear 

 around our whole two acres, making the 

 inch netting tight down into the ground, and 

 then banking up along the fence besides. 

 We are going to make frequent examinations 

 to see if any prowler has even tried to get 

 in; and, besides this, the chicks are going to 

 be well "barricaded" nights, you may be 

 sure. Wesley thinks we must have fenced 

 in some animal when we enclosed the new 

 acre, and it became so famished was why it 

 killed twenty or thirty chickens when it 

 couldn't eat more than three or four. 



One day later. — We set a steel trap and 

 caught him, but he dragged it into the door 

 of the brooder and pulled himself out. He 

 was probably a possum. He not only sorted 

 out the largest and oldest, but, as nearly as 

 I can make out, frightened a lot more to 

 death, for I could discover no injury to their 

 bodies. I say "frightened," because Wes- 

 ley can't run the new lawn-mower anywhere 

 near the chicks because they go almost crazy 

 with fright. We have founathis morning 

 where the animal "dug under" the wire- 

 netting fence also, and got into our enclo- 

 sure, but we are still on his trail. 



MORE TROUBLE. 



After the loss, the remnant were put back 

 into their old basket; but a shower coming 

 up they were carried in. As we can't well 

 feed them in the basket, when it let up a lit- 

 tle I carried them out to the brooder again; 

 and as it began to rain more I hastily dump- 

 ed them into the yard before the entrance, 

 the way we hive a swarm of bees, for in- 



stance; but the sight of the place (and the 

 memory of the night before) seemed to 

 frighten them so much they scattered in ev- 

 ery direction out in the rain. Just at this 

 crisis the rain became a regular downpour. 

 Did you ever try catching chickens while 

 holding an umbrella? I got them in the best 

 I could; but both chicks and myself got a reg- 

 ular soaking, and then the wind swung 

 round to the north and gave us a whiff of 

 your Ohio zero weather just after Christmas. 

 Well, we have 23 sad-looking chicks left 

 out of our beautiful flock of over 60. It al- 

 most makes me think a brooder-house would 

 sometimes be a good thing, even down here 

 in Southern Florida. I have raised chickens, 

 however, down here all winter long for the 

 past three winters, and have had almost no 

 losses at all until just now. Had I stuck to 

 my basket brooder, making another just like 

 the first, when they became too crowded I 

 might have had every chicken even yet. It 

 seems they have got on to pretty nearly the 

 same thing away out in California. Read the 

 following from L. E. Keyser, in the Petaluma 

 Weekly of Dec. 15: 



During severe weather I kept these brooders in a 

 hen-house having an open front, and in mild weather 

 set them out in the yard during the day and carried 

 them back into the house at night. This was a good 

 deal of hard work— a thing we are trying to avoid. 

 These brooders were light, being made out of cracker- 

 boxes, and had handles for carrying them by. I never 

 had chicks do better. 



This is another striking illustration of how 

 "great minds run in parallel channels;" but 

 why in the world, brother, didn't you take 

 light baskets instead of " cracker-boxes " ? 



By the way, my experience so far is in 

 favor of a simple burlap sheet over the chicks 

 instead of the ungainly and expensive hovers 

 of woolen "carpet rags " hanging down over 

 the chicks. Philo and Curtiss Bros, both 

 seem to have adopted the burlap sheet. If 

 the weather is very cold it is an easy matter 

 to drop a piece of flannel over the frame 

 holding the burlap. With the 60 in one bas- 

 ket they got too warm, if any thing, what- 

 ever was laid over the burlap sheet, even 

 nights when it was down to 40. 



I said in a former article the grain for 85 

 full-grown fowls cost only about 20 cts. a 

 day. Since they are laying more heavily it 

 comes to nearer 30 cts. per day; so we must 

 have at least 9 eggs each day to pay the 

 grain bill. Eggs are still 40 cts. per dozen. 



MORE "TROUBLES." 



Our efforts to trap the possum resulted in 

 catching him twice; but he pulled out of the 

 best steel trap that could be found in the 

 neighborhood. The last time, he left in the 

 jaws of the trap a piece of his hide, fur and 

 all, almost as big as a half-dollar. Since then 

 he kept away. Wesley suggests that he is 

 finally "convinced." Well, after the pos- 

 sum's visit and the rainstorm's final effects 

 were all over I had 15 chickens left that were 

 getting so strong and well they were explor- 

 ing again all over the premises. I told Mrs. 

 Root last evening they were now all right, 

 and even the weakest ones wouldn't need 

 any more "hot brick," etc. Their basket 



