1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



167 



good way to feed chickens. The pan is made by using 

 a ten-cent basin. Take four pieces of narrow board 

 and punch a hole through the edge of the pan and 

 drive a nail in. letting the legs flare out a little ; then 

 put a cross-piece from one leg to the other, and you 

 will have a feed-pan that the chickens will not tip over 

 nor muss in, and they can scratch all around and un- 

 der it, and it really takes up no room. Well, hash is 

 the morning meal. After this is all eaten, a pint of 

 bran, oats, and wheat mixed is placed in this pan for 

 them to eat at any time. When this is gone another is 

 given, but not over two a day, making one quart. 

 Along in the afternoon I give them two ears of corn 

 scattered in the straw. I wish to say that I have beef- 

 scraps on hand all the time, so when there is not much 

 meat or bone in the table-scraps I put about a gill of 

 beef-scraps into the hash-hopper. The water is heat- 

 ed in a coffee-pot and taken to them once or twice a 

 day. Cold days it is boiling hot when taken out, and 

 it will be three hours before it begins to freeze. The 

 hens will not drink it until it gets to the right temper- 

 ature, of course. They seem to use judgment in re- 

 gard to this. When this water becomes cold, and ice 

 is in it, another pot of hot water is poured in, when 

 the ice soon disappears. At night the water-Hish is 

 emptied. This water-dish is m-'de like the feed-dish, 

 with the exception that four light pieces of wood are 

 run up to a peak above the water so that the fowls can 

 not hop up oa the edge of this pan and get wet. 



Now figure what it costs to feed these hens. I figure 

 that the eggs they have laid cost less than one cent 

 apiece, or that I am keeping these fowls at a cost of 

 three cents a day, paying market price for every thing 

 they eat except the table-scraps and the little time ta- 

 ken to c ire for them. You will notice that I have no 

 feed-hoppers, so that the fowls can eat all the time. I 

 do not think it the right way to feed. These eleven 

 hens have laid eggs continually, I was told, since ten 

 months ago, not stopping during the moulting seison. 

 The lady of whom I bought them told me she fed them 

 about as I have, although she did not have the conven- 

 iences I have in the shape of tools, brooder, etc. She 

 said they did not lay last winter, as they were then too 

 young. 



Now, Mr. Root, this way of feeding is a practical 

 one, and is not forced. It is not a twohundred-egg 

 yield per hen, but it is a winter yield when no liens to 

 speak of are laying. The number is 238 eggs from 

 Nov. 15 to date— 58 days, or a little better than four 

 eggs a day. 



Aurora, 111., Jan. 13. V. W. Clough. 



I believe it is pretty generally agreed that 

 artificial heat for laying hens is not a suc- 

 cess; but economizing the heat of the fowls, 

 as above, is all right. It amoun s to the 

 same as giving horses and cattle good warm 

 stables; and these fowls, it will be under- 

 stood, can at any time put their heads out at 

 the door and get cool fresh air. Perhaps I 

 should explain that this brooder that accom- 

 modated the eleven laying hens is 2)4 feet 

 square, and perhaps a foot high inside, with 

 "woolens" overhead to keep them warm. 



The whole experiment as given above is 

 really in line with the Philo system of keep- 

 ing fowls successfully in a small space. 



SPROUTED OATS OVER A FOOT LONG FOR 

 CHICKENS. 



Somewhere I think Edgar Briggs has said 

 that chickens will eat oats when the oats 

 have grown six inches high; but I could 

 never get ours to swallow them when a good 

 deal smaller, and I was uncharitable enough 

 to think the statement an exaggeration; but, 

 listen. Just before my brood of 70 (the ones 

 the possums got into) were hatched, I clear- 

 ed up a strip of wo idland near their brood- 

 er, about 10 v40 feet, and sowed it to oats so 

 as to have them ready when the chicks were 

 old enough to take them; and after the demise 

 of the chicks the oats were left growing. As 

 it was new land where one seldom gets much 

 if any thing the lirst year, we cleaned out a 



poultry house and worked in the whole con- 

 tents on this strip. On this light sandy soil 

 we have only to work under the roosts with 

 hoe and rake every morning to have a nice 

 sweet-smtlling poultry- house all the time. 



I think this house (of, say, 25 fowls) had 

 been treated this way for six or eight weeks, 

 when two wheelbarrow loads were put on 

 that 10x40 strip. Well, for a week or two 

 past, people have been stopping to inquire 

 what grain or grass it was that gave such a 

 beautiful rich dark green 1 supposed it 

 was altogether too tall to feed chickens, and 

 was figuring on what I should do with it. 

 Wesley gave some to the laying hens; but 

 he said they didn't seem to want it. Finally 

 I pulled up some from some verj^ rich spots, 

 and, shaking all the dirt off, carried it out to 

 the "biddies." Now, these particular bid- 

 dies have a sort of notion that / usually 

 have some choice tidbit for them, and so 

 they came up and began to examine and 

 sample the luxuriant oats. I first pulled the 

 rank stalks to pieces so they could swallow 

 them, and by a little training I taught them 

 the trick of swallowing oats not <.nlyafoot 

 tall, but some actually 15 inches from tip of 

 blade to the root. It is rtally comical to see 

 them commence at the tallest blade or leaf 

 and gobble it down until they come to the 

 great bushy root, and then, after swallowing 

 that too, and smacking their lips (or bills) to 

 express the satisfaction it gives, they go for 

 another. Smce the fowls in that particular 

 flock have learned the trick they will "get 

 away with" a bucketiul in a very short time; 

 and my biggest egg-yield of the season fol- 

 io a ed right after this heavy feeding with 

 green oats. Don't you see I have noi only 

 made another wonderful di-covery, but I 

 have made two of them? First, ke^p your 

 chicken-coop clean and sweet all the time; 

 and, secondly, use it as I have described in 

 providing the most wholesome food for your 

 fowls at even less than " 15 cts. a bushel." 



THE "BUTTERCUPS" UP TO DATE, FEB. 10. 



The pullets are small, but quite handsome, 

 though not laying yet. The cockerels, how- 

 ever, have manifested such evidences of 

 precocity that I have placed three Leghorn 

 hens in the Buttercup pen; and if we can't 

 have full-blood Buttercups just yet we can 

 have a few half-breeds just for the fun of it. 

 I think the Buttercups are now about 4>^ 

 months old. 



SOME OF OUR POULTRY LITERATURE FOR 

 1910. 



In my hands is a book for which I have 

 just paid $1.00, entitled "The Kellerstrass 

 Way of Raising Poultry." Just below the 

 title on the cover we read: 



You can read this book in 35 minutes; but it took me 

 thirty-six years to write it. Eknest Kellerstrass. 



I suppose most of you know that Keller- 

 strass is the man who owns the $10,000 pul- 

 let, and the poultry-journals are now telling 

 us that he has sold during the past season 

 1024 eggs for $2048-that is $2.00 for each 

 egg, or $30,00 for a setting of 15 eggs. These 

 eggs didn't come from 'Peggy" either, but 



