1885 



GLEAKIKGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



87 



POULTRY FOR BOYS. 



A SHORT TALK ON THE HEN BUSINESS, FOB THE 

 BENEFIT OF THE JUVENILES. 



@NE of the pictures tliat are in our ten- 

 cent poultry-book pleases me so much 

 that I have borrowed the electrotype 

 to show it to you here in Gleaxings. 

 You see,boys, this house is tobeputin 

 one corner of the dooryard. 1 suppose the 

 northwest corner would be the best place, if 

 you have such a ojie available. This will 

 allow the sun to shine in at that window on 

 the south side, and the entrance for the hens 

 is also on the soutli side, while the door is 

 on the east side, where we have fewest cold 

 storms and winds ; and when you open the 

 door to go in. there is not so much danger of 

 letting a cold blast strike some old biddy 

 with a setting of eggs. 1 think if I were 

 you I would have a tight board fence on the 

 west side, unless there is a barn or some sort 



A UOYS I'OL'LTKV-HOUSE. 



of building to keep the wind off. Or if it 

 should be handy for you to put it wliere tlie 

 manure from the horse-slables can be 

 banked up on the nortli and west sides, all 

 the better. If the pile get so high in Jan- 

 uary and Februarv that a part of it goes on 

 the roof, still belter. On the north side of 

 the building iilacc the roosts, and under 

 them have a long box, to be kept always full 

 of ashes. Bury some corn in this box of 

 ashes for a day or two, and the hens will get 

 such a habit of scratching in it that they 

 will scrape the manure all over every day. so 

 that it will be so inotfensive you can handle 

 it witliout finding it in any way disagreeable. 

 Once in a while you can shovel it out and 

 put it in a barrel, and then put in some fresh 

 ashes. Underneath this ash-box you can 

 have your nests. The l)est thing that I 

 know of for a lien"s-nest is a lloiu'-barrel with 

 a hole cut in one side, big enough for a hen 

 to crawl in. Set this barrel under the ash- 

 box behind the door, and your old biddies 

 won't feel as though tlieir preference for 

 privileged privacy were violated every time 

 somebody opens the door. When the weath- 

 er is w^arm, the door can be left open all the 

 while. The size of this house should be 4 x 

 fi feet, and (i feet high on the side where the 

 door is. In the summer time, take out the 

 w^indow and slide it under a couple of cleats 

 put up undLT t'.je roof, where none of the 



glass will get broken before it is wanted 

 again next winter. Some coarse wire net- 

 ting may be put over the window when it is 

 taken out in the summer time. Any boy, 

 twelve or fourteen years of age, should be 

 able to build this house well himself. The 

 sash he can buy. or get one from some old 

 building. 



Now^ a word in regard to the contents of 

 that ash-box under the roost. One spring 

 when my father was planting corn I told 

 him I would plant half of his field myself, if 

 he would give me all the corn my half pro- 

 duced more than liis half, and 1 told nim 

 that he might have his choice of the two 

 halves. lie took me up right on the spot. 

 Do you ask how I knew my half would beat 

 his? Why, I knew it would because I was 

 going to put a handful of ashes and poidtry 

 manure under every hill on my side, and I 

 knew he wouldn't fuss to do tliat with his 

 side. Well, my side did beat ; and although 

 /K I can not remember how much more 

 I corn I got tiian he did. 1 remember 

 1 there was enough, or nearly enough, 

 !| to keep my chickens through the 

 7 winter ; and we can set it down, that 

 if tiie manure is properly applied, 

 in the way I have suggested, it will 

 pay for tlie food the fowls eat, and 

 yoii will have your eggs and chick- 

 ens clear gain, or pay for your labor. 

 May be somebody will say such ar- 

 ^ tides as tins have no business in a 

 bee-paper ; to which I reply, that if 

 — you look in Gleanings you will see 

 tliat '' peace on earth,' good will 

 toward men." comes before a word 

 ^"X.^. is said about bee-keeping. I am get- 

 — - ting tlie children interested in rural 

 pursuits, which goes a very great 

 wav toward the fulfillment of the 

 above little" text. 



^ ■ ^— 



MICHIGAN STATE CONVENTION. 



WHAT 1 SAW AND LEAKNEI). — NO. 3. 



JMKNTIOXED in my last, that the 

 sense of the convention seemed to be 

 that wide frames for holding separators 

 were to be discarded. They are to be 

 used only in a crate placed over the 

 honey-board, "as described last month. The 

 favorite way of supporting the sections 

 seems to be one used a good many years ago, 

 and illustrated in (J leanings as long ago as 

 l.S7(i, .lanuarv issue. The crate is what 

 might be called a half-story, placed over the 

 honey-board. The sections are put in in the 

 same way as they are in our crate, illus- 

 trated onpage 19 of our price list, only that 

 a division-board made of thin lumber sepa- 

 rates each row of sections. The sections 

 are held from falling through by means of a 

 strip of tin or liussia iron nailed to the 

 lower edge of this division-board. This 

 leaves the bottom-bars of sections just t 

 of an inch from the honev-board, and there 

 is nothing to prevent the bees from walking 

 over the outside of the section ; that is, the 

 bottom-piece of the section. I have always 

 obiected to this, and I think yet that I do 

 not want ii bee to ever look at, much less 



