364 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



.Ittne 1 



blooded Utittorcui) csgs would not sit. 1 changed 

 her for another, and she bothered for a day or two 

 and finally Kot settled down. The day for her to 

 hatch i)assed. and not a chick. I was going to 

 break her \ip: but my wife .said. " I^et her make up 

 the lost time and she will get some chicks, any 

 way." So 1 left her, and this evening I saw four 

 nice little ones. 

 Mradentown. Kla. .T. II. Root. 



The above letter gives us a glimi)se of two 

 l)0ssible leaks in the ])oultry business — yes, 

 and they may be bad ones too; but after 

 scanning our jioultry- journals, thirty or 

 forty of them, for a year or two, I have scarce- 

 ly seen the thing mentioned. How many 

 eggs do you suppose are lost in this way, 

 especially when the proprietor does not get 

 around in the morning before the chickens 

 liave got down from their roosts? It does 

 not belong jiarticularly to Florida, because 

 I have seen the same thing here in the 

 North. 



As there are two points at issue right here, 

 let us discuss first the shelless eggs. When 

 my brother mentioned the matter I wrote 

 him to give them plenty of lime in different 

 shapes, and also to give them plenty of wheat 

 bran besides a variety of grains. Very like- 

 ly the matter of shelless eggs can be correct- 

 ed. I told him to get also some fresh bones 

 at the butcher's, if he could, and grind them 

 up in a bone-mill. This ought to correct 

 the trouble in two ways. It not only gives 

 the chickens plenty of lime, biit it gives 

 them an abun(lance of animal food. I had 

 trouble with shelless eggs here in Ohio a few 

 weeks ago. I now find some eggs where 

 there seems to be a surplus of lime in the 

 shells — little lumps of it toward the small 

 end. Now, then, for the other troitble — 



DROPPING EGGS AT NIGHT WHILE ON THE 

 ROOST. 



My brother has told you of finding five 

 eggs one morning under (he roost, and I 

 have had more or less of this kind of work 

 ever since I can remember. In order to ]ire- 

 vent the eggs breaking, I try to have ])lenty 

 of soft clean litter under the roosts every 

 niglit. Down in Florida the light sandy 

 soil is raked over every morning till the sur- 

 face is so soft that an egg is seldom broken 

 if it drops during the night. Of course, the 

 roosts should be low down. Ours are only 

 20 inches, with the soft sand underneath. 

 Unless such precautions are taken, great 

 numbers of eggs may be lost entirely. If 

 you have many fowls it will pay you to get 

 around early to gather up the shelless eggs 

 or broken ones, and ha\e them for break- 

 fast. I liardly need to suggest that careless- 

 ness and indifference in this matter will 

 teach your fowls to eat tlieir eggs; in fact, I 

 liave liad ours learn to eat eggs in this way, 

 and I have broken them of the bad habit 

 by taking more pains to get around so as to 

 get a glimi)se under the roost before a single 

 chicken had gotten down from her i)erch. 

 Prevention in this case is certainly Vietter 

 than cure. Whenever you have reason to 

 suspect that any hen in thetiock is learning 

 to eat eggs, it will pay you to gather the 

 eggs several times during the day. I think 

 fi lot of egg-eating hens can he cured — at 



least where they have not got to be too bad 

 — by simply watching under the roosts and 

 gathering the eggs several times during the 

 day, and at the same time, of course, hav- 

 ing plenty of nests, and having eacli one of 

 those nests in the dark so the hens can not 

 very well see how to break the eggs. Hav- 

 ing the nest just large enough so the hen 

 has not very much room to kick the eggs 

 about is another wise precaution. Re care- 

 ful, also, about giving a hen any nesting 

 material that contains grain or weed seeds, 

 or any thing else that might induce a med- 

 dlesome or in(iuisitive half-grown chicken 

 to scratch around in the nest. 8uch troubles 

 as I have mentioned are more apt to develop 

 where a good many laying hens are kept in 

 one yard. My experience is that it is much 

 easier to keep things of this kind in check 

 where not more than fifteen or twenty are 

 kept in a yard. 



As several have inquired about poultry in 

 the summer time down in Florida, I propose 

 to have my brotlier keep us posted. .lust 

 now he writes that the different yards are 

 giving just about enough eggs to ])ay for the 

 feed. Now, this does not look very encour- 

 aging unless we consider there are only a))Out 

 70 laying hens, and toward 200 half-grown 

 chicks, some of them almost old enough to 

 ))egin to lay, or at least we would consider 

 them so in "the North. If the 70 hens fur- 

 nish eggs enough to feed the whole flock, 

 little and big (at this season), I think they 

 are doing fairly well, especially as he is all 

 the time raising chickens more or less. 



\KRMIN ON CHICKENS PREVENTED BY GROWING EU- 

 CALYPTUS-TREES; A "dollar secret" 

 THAT COSTS NOTHING. 



Mr. A. I. Root:—\ have just been reading in your 

 department how to keep down lice and mites in the 

 chicken-coop. I wish to tell you a secret of my own 

 that I accidentally discovered. We used to spray 

 our coops with several kinds of solutions recom- 

 mended for that purpose. We sprayed two and 

 three times a month, and oftener in warm weather, 

 until I planted some blue-gums, or eucalyptus- 

 trees, around the coops. The trees were grown to 

 make fence-posts and wood when large enough. 

 After they were about six months old I noticed the 

 insects were not so plentiful in the coops, and quit 

 spraying. That was seven years ago, and we now 

 do not bother in the least about the insects, and 

 they do not bother the chickens in our yard: but 

 our neighbors who have not the trees complain with 

 all their spraying, while those who have planted 

 trees around their chicken-yards say it works like 

 a charm. That secret is worth a dollar, but I don't 

 charge any thing for it. 



Escondido. Cal., M.ay 8. .Tas. A. NELSON. 



Friend N., I hope you are right about it; 

 but if you sprayed your jiremises faithfully 

 for some time it would l)e nothing strange 

 if the vermin should disai)iiear and stay 

 away, and it might, therefore, be that the 

 euciilypt US-trees had nothing to do with it. 

 If, h()wever, your neighbors are still trou- 

 bled where (Jiey have none of these trees, 

 and their neighljors where tliey have the 

 trees are not troubled, it would seem to be 

 (piitc conclusive that you are right about it. 

 And, by the way. so "far as I can find out, 

 the eucalyjitus has never been made to 

 grow in Florida. I think I have heard, 

 liowever, that a new variety has been dis- 



