1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



457 



to the partition just above the roosts. I 

 very m-uch prefer having the barrels up 

 about three feet from the ground, because it 

 renders unnecessary so much stooping over 

 to get the eggs; and when you, my friends, 

 get to be seventy years old you will be glad 

 to have things so arranged that you can 

 avoid stooping. One nest-barrel will ac- 

 commodate twelve or fifteen hens. If you 

 have more than that number you get two 

 barrels, one above the other. 



I have before explained that we keep the 

 premises sweet and clean by raking over the 

 droppings as soon as the fowls are out in the 

 morning. 



All feeding is done in galvanized tubs 

 hung by wires just high enough so rats can 

 not gain access. There is another thing I 

 like about these tubs. When you purchase 

 a quantity of grain or any poultry feed, 

 throw in a certain quantity, and after the 

 chickens have picked out all they want you 

 can readily see how much refuse or waste 

 your feed contains. One of these compart- 

 ments, 7X8 feet, will accommodate fifteen or 

 twenty laying hens very nicely, or forty to 

 fifty half-grown chickens. Each building 

 is in the center of a yard containing from 

 one-eighth to one-fourth of an acre. 



The shingles, as you will notice, are set 

 about two inches apart. They shed rain 

 just as well this way, and I think they last 

 longer, because they dry out so much quick- 

 er, besides saving expense. The building 

 in the cut was not quite finished when the 

 picture was taken. I afterward found some 

 of my enterprising pullets would get up in 

 the gable to roost. Another thing, when I 

 wanted to catch certain fowls, unless the 

 gable opening was closed with netting or 

 otherwise they would get away through the 

 opening. And I must not omit telling you 

 I placed some poultry-netting around those 

 nest-barrels to keep the chickens from roost- 

 ing on them;* and if you do not look out 

 your chickens will be going into the barrel 

 to roost, soiling the nest-eggs and nesting 

 material. To prevent this we have a gate 

 made of poultry-netting to close the open 

 end of the barrel. When you open the doors 

 in the morning, be sure to open the barrels 

 so as to let in the laying hens. When you 

 gather the eggs at night, close all the bar- 

 rels. You can let the sitting hens hatch 

 chickens in one of these barrels, but a very 



* Right here let me remark that, If you want your 

 poultry-house to be always neat and tidy, and a 

 place where you can Invite your lady friends if you 

 choose, you must have the whole inside so arranged 

 that the fowls can not possibly let their droppings 

 fall anywhere except on the soft sandy floor. To do 

 this, every bit of furniture inside, except the roof, 

 must be so that no hen can possibly find a stand- 

 ing-place on top of it. My nest-barrels soon got to 

 be very untidy-looking until I took some cheap 

 netting and ran it from the barrel up to the roof or 

 nearly there. Sometimes, of course, there will oc- 

 casionally be a few droppings on the roost-poles; 

 but the one who rakes over the sand early in the 

 morning can very quickly cleanse all such places 

 with a handful of the dry sand. My Impression Is 

 that stick-tight fleas can be kept out of this dry 

 sand on the floor by occasionally spraying with 

 carbollneura or some similar substance. My broth- 

 er is now making experiments along this line. 



much better way is to have a similar build- 

 ing for sitting hens and nothing else. If 

 you use barrels and nothing else for nests 

 you can take a hen out of one barrel and 

 put her into another (even from another 

 building) , and she will be very likely to set- 

 tle down contentedly. 



Now, if you do not like my Florida house 

 I shall be very glad to have you send me 

 some criticisms. Of course, such buildings 

 will be all right for the summer time, here 

 in the North; and I think they will be ever 

 so much nicer and healthier than some al- 

 ready in use. Do you suggest there is too 

 much draft? Well, I am satisfied that what 

 draft there is in such a building in Florida, 

 either for people or chickens, will never do 

 any harm. When there happens to be a 

 cold wind, so severe that chickens evidently 

 wish to be sheltered from it, they find such 

 shelter under the roosts; and that is why I 

 boarded up the north side and a part of the 

 east and west sides. This boarding-up is 

 done with cull flooring which, as I have be- 

 fore explained, we get for only $12.00 per 

 1000 feet. I do not know just what such a 

 structure costs. It depends on what you 

 have to pay for the lumber, poultry-netting, 

 and carpenter work. 



Perhaps I may tell you the building in 

 the picture was built almost entirely by my 

 colored man Wesley, and I paid him only 

 $1.50 a day. I helped him to build two or 

 three, gave him some instructions in regard 

 to the use of carpenter tools, etc., and after 

 that he built, almost entirely alone, the one 

 you see in the picture. 



LARGE VERSUS SMALL HIVE-ENTRANCES. 



The Large Entrances Mean Greater Quantity 

 and Better Quality of Honey in the South. 



BY J. J. WILDER. 



The appearance, body, flavor, and quan- 

 tity of honey are affected to some extent by 

 the ventilation it receives. Watery or 

 greasy capped honey and thin honey, which 

 soon ferments, generally come from the 

 most populous colonies M'ith small shallow 

 entrances, especially in locations where the 

 honey-flow comes in mid-summer or in set- 

 tled weather with a high temjierature. At 

 least this has been my experience, and I 

 have adopted an entrance \}i inches across 

 the front of the hives and \% across the 

 back so as to give a current under the 

 frames. 



This is done by placing l^-inch strips the 

 length of the hives under them on the regu- 

 lar bottoms as soon as the main honey-flow 

 is on, leaving them under until winter. Bees 

 will store more honey above such bottoms, 

 and it is of much better quality. Also the 

 comb is drier, and the honey retains its 

 whiteness much longer. 



If comb honey is set where the tempera- 

 ture is high, and where there is no current 

 of air, the capping will soon appear brown- 

 ish; and if the honey is the least thin it 



