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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 1 



" always with us " with roup, sorehead, pip, snakes, 

 hawks, owls, possums, skunks, cats, rats, boys, and 

 darkies thrown in to make things spicy and enter- 

 taining:, and to give variety. Smith lays this down 

 as a foundation fact never to be lost sight of for a 

 minute — keep your chickens from under shedn. stabler, 

 or a shelter of any kind; and, next in importance, do 

 not let them scratch In their droppings — the two 

 things he considers absolutely essential. 



His methods may interest you. In a month now 

 he will set. say, half a dozen hens. When they 

 hatch he will put coops along the timber adjoining 

 the creek, and on the back of each little chicken's 

 head will be a spot of syrup with crystals of strych- 

 nine crushed and mixed in the syrup. If there is 

 not much rain this syrup will be there for a month. 

 If the chicks are out in the wet grass, then it will 

 have to be renewed. Whenever a hawk gets one of 

 these chickens it means a dead hawk, sure. This is 

 preparatory to setting the incubators going, say 

 Jan. 1; and if a possum or polecat gets one of these 

 little fellows, it means one less to prey on the main 

 crop of chickens. When the chickens come by the 

 hundreds they are put in brooders, and sheltered 

 in movable pens, so as to be on fresh ground every 

 few days; then, wheat, oats, rye, rape, and such 

 crops are kept coming all the time so as to have an 

 abundance of green feed. When they are feathered 

 out, the cockerels, except those reserved for breed- 

 ers, are separated, and pushed for all they are worth, 

 and sold as broilers it Tampa mainly. 



The pullets are put in coops about 6x10, boarded 6 

 ft. high on the north and west to break the cold 

 winds: wire netting on the east and south io give 

 the early sun, and ventilation; and a wire netting 

 for a roof. The only I'eason for this is that owls and 

 the colored brother are not so likely to have fried 

 chicken. Say 25 pullets are put to each of these 

 colony houses, shut up for a week; after that they 

 will always go to their own house. An opening is 

 left on the north, say 6x12 inches, on a level with 

 the roosts, and a board projects, say, 18 inches. If 

 a possum comes along he does not see why he can 

 not get through the wire netting, walks around the 

 house, but never sees the opening above his head. 

 In the afternoon a board long enough to make an 

 easy incline is placed, one end on the ground, the 

 other on this projecting board, and the chickens go 

 to bed without any further attention except to 

 throw the incline down so the possums can't use it, 

 and in the morning they need no attention, for they 

 simply come out on this projecting board and goto 

 the grove and feed. 



Two roosts are in each house with 24-inch wire 

 netting on the inside, and the same right under the 

 roosts. The droppings fall through, and are collect- 

 ed every few -days; and the houses are not so heav.v 

 but they can be handled and moved if desirable. 

 They are placed in the orange-grove, and in feeding 

 he manages so thf droppings are scattered, and the 

 fertilizer question is solved for him. 



The grove is allowed to grow up in weeds, and 

 the trees and weeds furnish shelter from the sun, 

 rains, and hawks. As he said, a White Leghorn 

 in a hard rain will stand under an orange-tree, and 

 It will straighten itself till ii is not much thicker 

 than a shingle, and the rain does not hurt it. 



For nests, he has them placed side by side, about 

 50 of them, say 3 ft. from the ground, with a shed 

 I'oof over them, say 3 ft. wide, highest in front, to 

 shelter the hens from the sun. and to keep a shower 

 from staining the eggs. Porcelain nest-eggs are 

 used, and eggs gathered every day packed in 12-doz. 

 cases, and shipped to Tampa. His In.structions to 

 the man who handles his eggs at Tampa are: " If a 

 man comes in and claims he found a stale egg In 

 one of my cases, give him the case and the eggs; 

 don't take a cent for them; but never, under any 

 circumstances, sell that man another egg, for he has 

 lied, and I don't want to deal with that kind of a 

 man." 



I said, "Suppose a hen steals a nest." 



"Those eggs always go to the kitchen; and we set- 

 tle right here whether they are siale or not, so I ab- 

 solutely know that every egg that goes into a case 

 has been laid that day." 



He says if he were physically able he would grow 

 all his own feed — corn, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, 

 Kafir corn, rice, etc.; but he does not want to keep 

 a hired hand, has no boys of his own. and he and 

 the wife do the work. The nests are made of pine 

 straw and tobacco-stems. The pine straw is renew- 

 ed every week; the old straw is buried. 



Well, as to results, last spring he hatched 1500 



chickens; has now between 600 and 700 hens begin- 

 ning to l.ay, and has not had a sick chicken. 



He feeds once a day all they will eat that day, and 

 keeps dry mash before them in hoppers. I said, 

 " What Is the result financially ? " 



His reply was. "Mr. Keck, my hens are the best- 

 paying investment I have." 



So I had to draw my own conclusions; but an in- 

 valid who, in a dozen years, can clean up $25,000 has 

 soHje things that are making money. Now as you 

 have said, it is the man. Others will tell you, 

 "Chickens eat their heads ofT," and right on this 

 place he had a renter, before he sold his other grove, 

 who kept chickens and had to buy eggs and chick- 

 ens for his own tible; and the place was "seeded 

 down " to all sorts of vermin, but they surely are 

 not there now. 



I hope I have not wearied you; but this is the work 

 of a practical man who started in a small way and 

 has gradually grown to a good paying profitable 

 business; and if, through you. It will be helpful to 

 others trying Florida conditions I will have been 

 repaid. 



Mrs K. and I had hoped to meet you and the good 

 wife last winter, but did not see how we could both 

 leave at once. 



I have read Terry's health-book with great interest. 

 I loaned it to a lady friend who was in a desperate 

 condition. I told her if she was willing to pay the 

 price in self-denial I believed there was help for her. 

 She read and reread, again and again, and said she 

 was willing, and she is now the marvel of her 

 friends. I have been looking for you to get astride 

 the"Baccali Bulgaricus" and apply whip and spur. 

 I am sure you have ridden less worthy hobbies. It 

 is the germ that prevents auto Intoxication. The 

 Battle Creek people offer It under the trade name 

 of "yougart." I believe you would find it of great 

 help to you. It surely has done wonders for me. It 

 is Mlcknekofl's lactic-acid ferment, and it pre ents 

 the formation of ptomaln poisons In the colon :and 

 from what I know of your case, there is the founda- 

 tion of .your troubles. 



Bowling Green, Fla., Sept. 30. Irving Keck. 



Friend Keck, we are greatly rejoiced to 

 know that "brother Smith" has succeeded 

 in fighting off the great white plague; but 

 the question may be asked whether it was 

 the genial Florida climate or the "chicken " 

 business. Perhaps it was a combination of 

 the two. There is a good moral to it, any 

 way. The i)lan for applying strychnine is 

 indeed a novel one; but I think I should 

 prefer a fence with one-inch netting, for 

 the lower two feet, to strychnine. Perhaps 

 both would be a good thing. His plan of 

 letting the chickens get out of and into the 

 poultry-house without permitting night 

 l^rowlers to get in is also ingenious. Since 

 you mention it, I am ashamed to say I never 

 tliought of it before. We have always per- 

 mitted our chickens to scratch over their 

 own droppings. In fact, I supposed that 

 was a shrewd invention of mine, and with 

 very small chicks, and plenty of chaff or 

 shredded alfalfa for litter, I hardly think 

 the droppings can do any harm. But I will 

 proceed to test your suggestion. The fact 

 that he and liis wife do all the work with- 

 out any hired help is an item of great im- 

 portance just now when labor is so high. I 

 have felt sure all along that chickens could 

 be so managed, even in Florida, that you 

 need not have, as you state it, "a sick 

 chicken." Amen to your remarks in regard 

 to self-denial in connection, with Terry's 

 teachings. 



I 



I like your paper very much. It Is the first paper 

 I have seen that would go lor all the humbugs and 

 systems. I have tried the most of them. 



Ashtabula, Ohio, .lune 27. Richard Ostrom. 



