1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



Yes, the speckled hen herself is knocked out 

 too. You see I have been visiting poultry- 

 keepers lately ; and if you are a poultry-man, 

 may be I .shall hunt you up when I get around 

 on my bicycle. Instead of speckled hens now- 

 adays the whole flock must be clear white, 

 buff, black, or barred, like the Plymouth 

 Rocks. But there nmst not be any sport in 

 the wiy of feathers of a different color. I 

 have just purchased two pullets and a rooster 

 — White Plymouth Rocks. I got the rooster 

 for !?2.00. He has a few cream-colored feath- 

 ers or else he would have been worth S5.00. 

 His father was sold for $30.00 ; but he had all 

 the points, and every feather was up to the 

 •mark. Now, I do not care a cent about the 

 feathers ; but I do want a hen that lays an egg 

 every day in the year, or as near to it as possi- 

 ble. I would hardly insist that she lay three 

 eggs on Sunday ; but if she would lay just one 

 ^gg early in the morning it seems to me she 

 would not be any the less orthodox on that ac- 

 count. At present I am getting two eggs a 

 day, from one old hen and three pullets. I 

 have not any particular need of a trap nest, 

 because I know the egg that each hen lays ; 

 and yet I am curious about that trap- nest busi- 

 ness ; but when I scan the poultry-papers to 

 see where I can buy one, I feel like objecting 

 to the way the poultry people do things. Per- 

 haps if I am going to mix in with their crowd 

 I had better take things as I find them, and 

 not go to crowding in my notions. What I 

 object to is that nobody has a trap nest to sell; 

 but most of them sell you directions how to 

 make them, all the way from 15 cents up to 

 $2.00. Each man has a plan that sends all the 

 other inventions in this line away out of 

 sight ; but he would not even give you a pic- 

 ture of it unless you plank down the money. 

 I do not know whether you have to sign a con- 

 tract not to divulge the wonderful secret to 

 your neighbors around or not. I sent fifteen 

 cents to one fellow. His nest is something 

 like a basket hung on a nail. When the hen 

 steps on the edge of the basket to get into the 

 nest, a lid flops down that holds her in. When 

 she gets " through " she is expected to cackle, 

 and her owner comes and lets her out and 

 gives her credit. Now, why do not these en- 

 terprising poultry-journals send these invent- 

 ors the two dollars, or a smaller sum, and 

 then give the invention to all the world ? One 

 of the best poultry-journals, called the Feath- 

 er, has indeed illustrated, with excellent cuts, 

 a very nice sort of trap nest ; but I had to have 

 a good laugh when I was reading it over. For 

 instance, he says you must not make the nest 

 in sucli a way that the folding doors will bump 

 the biddy when she is getting on the nest, or 

 she might take offense and refuse to " trade at 

 that store. " Again, " when the doors close 

 they must not pinch her tail." The editor 

 says she objects to that sort of treatment also. 

 One thing 1 like about the trap nest is that the 

 hens must be tamed so you can give them an 

 encouraging pat on the back at any time. My 

 two white pullets are already so tame they 

 rather expect an encouraging word or a dainty 

 morsel every time one goes near them. My 

 white rooster, however, does not seem to fan- 



cy too much " taffy" of that sort. When he 

 thinks >ou have said enough he shows fight ; 

 and it does not make any difference who it is, 

 even the boss of the ranch. When I was ab- 

 sent in York State he and Mrs Rout had sev- 

 eral pitched battles. He decided to drive her 

 out of the poultry-house, when she went near 

 the nest to get the eggs, and I think he came 

 pretty near doing it. When she brought them 

 a dainty mash prepared by her own hands he 

 knocked the dish out of her hands, and she 

 was absolutely obliged to get a club in order 

 to teach him to be respectful to his mistress. 

 Do you begin to suspect that poultry is going 

 to be my next hobby ? Well, is it not a pretty 

 good one, anyhow ? The Rural New - Yorker 

 says the eggs and meat produced each year in 

 the United States in the poultry business are 

 worth as much as the entire crop of wheat. 



But let us now get back to this trap nest. I 

 should not wonder if some good man or wo- 

 man has been saying, " Well, I suppose there 

 are some people who have nothing to do but 

 to watch hens and take them off the nest, and 

 count the eggs ; but you do not catch me go- 

 ing into any such small business as that." 

 But, just hold on, my friend. These hens that 

 have a big record back of them are the ones 

 we want for breeders. If they do not sit at all 

 it does not matter, because the incubator as 

 now made is a success. Yes, I know there 

 has been lots of money wasted on incubators, 

 and lots of people have been disappointed. 

 But one of the girls in the office, right close to 

 where I am sitting, uses an incubator that cost 

 only $5.00, and she makes a success of it. The 

 fowls I have been speaking about were just 

 purchased from her flock. Get a pullet with 

 a good egg-record, and her chickens are likely 

 to produce layers like their mother. These 

 choice pullets, with a record by means of the 

 trap nest, are worth anywhere from $2.00 up. 

 May be some of the poultry-keepers who know 

 more about this than I do can tell how much 

 some pullets are worth. At the Willow Crest 

 poultry -yards at Goshen, N. Y., three or four 

 days ago, I saw several hens valued at $25.00 

 each ; and I also examined a White Wyandotte 

 rooster for which the firm recently paid $125. 

 Do you say "stuff and nonsense"? Why, 

 look here, my friend. They have already got 

 a lot of orders for eggs at $5.00 a dozen. 

 These eggs are to be from choice pullets fa- 

 thered by this high-priced male bird. If you 

 are going into the poultry business you can 

 grow high-priced layers just as easily — in fact, 

 easier — than to grow worthless stock. It costs 

 a little more to start with. I can very well re- 

 member when the Light Brahmas were intro- 

 duced somewhere down east, just a few years 

 after we had had the long-legged Shanghais. 

 The first Light Brahma eggs were sold at a 

 dollar apiece. The orders were so far ahead 

 that people came long distances, and boarded 

 at the hotel until the egg was laid. The min- 

 ute biddy dropped the choice egg, the owner 

 handed over his dollar and started off home a 

 happy man, and well he might be. In a few 

 short weeks — perhaps I had better say months 

 —he could have a flock of Light Brahmas of 

 his own ; and while he might not get a dollar 



