108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



NOTES or TRAVH 



< BY A. I. ROOT . 



Some of you will remember that in Novem- 

 ber, 1897, I gave a picture of a hen and chick- 

 ens, entitled "The Youthful Mother," the 

 White Leghorn pullet that commenced laying 

 when she was 4 months and 16 days old, and 

 in 5 months and 21 days she was the mother 

 of a brood of chickens. I said then I should 

 like an oil painting of the hen and chick- 

 ens to hang up where I could see it every day. 

 A lady who reads GIvEanings volunteered to 

 make the picture. It is in our dining-room, 

 where I see it and feel happy several times a 

 day. Well, this youthful mother belonged to 

 O. W. Mapes, of Middletown, N. Y., the 

 " electric hen-man." Ever since reading this 

 story I have had a great desire to visit the 

 electric hen-farm. After I had promised to 

 attend the Utter trial it occurred to me this 

 egg-farm might be somewhere in that part of 

 York State. Sure enough, Middletown is in 

 Orange Co., the same one where the unbroth- 

 erly brothers live, just one station away from 

 Goshen. So I started off a day or two ahead 

 of the time for the trial, and, finding we had a 

 beekeeper in Middletown, I proceeded to look 

 him up. Somehow I had several streaks of 

 good luck during that visit. Mr. C. Belding 

 is not only a bee-keeper, but a gardener and 

 florist, and has been all his life. Just now his 

 boys (like mine) are taking charge of the 

 greenhouse and other business, and letting 

 him take things easy. Friend B. knew all 

 about the electric egg-farm, and kindly volun- 

 teered to take me there with his horse and 

 buggy. 



Although Orange Co. is one of the richest 

 ones in the State of New York, it contains 

 some stony and hilly ground that is almost 

 unfit for any thing imless it is an egg-farm. 

 All around among these stones and hills Mr. 

 Mapes several years ago started his egg-farm. 

 Little houses to the number of 50 or more are 

 scattered all through among the rocks and 

 hills. For three or four years he had com- 

 munication with each house by means of elec- 

 tricity. As many of the little buildings are so 

 far away from home, and out among the 

 wilds, it becomes quite necessary to shut the 

 pullets up nights on account of wild " var- 

 mints " as they used to express it in olden 

 times. Electric wires open the houses all at 

 once, every morning, and shut the doors every 

 night after the last straggler has got inside. 

 These same wires open the feed-boxes and 

 close them. Now, I do not exactly under- 

 stand whether it is the same wire or an extra 

 one that does this. 



Stoddard and many other good authorities 

 claim, you know, that fowls, to do their best, 

 must have just what they need in the way of 

 food, and not all that they will eat if they can 

 get it all day long. More than one poultryman, 

 however, has found out that it is a big job to 

 give several thousand chickens just so much 

 and no more. After working the machinery 



for three or four years, Mr. Mapes has drop- 

 ped it ; and now as he goes around to the 

 houses every morning to carry feed and wa- 

 ter, he lets the chickens out and then makes 

 another trip every night to gather the eggs 

 and shut the hens up. He is satisfied that as 

 good results are secured by giving the chick- 

 ens all they will eat all day long — that is, cer- 

 tain kinds of food, and food that is just right. 

 Perhaps the expense of the apparatus, and 

 keeping it up, has something to do with it. 

 He has made a great many exhaustive experi- 

 ments — among others, one in regard to the 

 matter of exercise, the point on which Stod- 

 dard lays so much stress. He confined a hen 

 under a peach basket where she could have 

 no exercise at all except to turn around, and 

 she laid 84 eggs, if I remember correctly, 

 without missing many days. Of course, he 

 gave her the best kind of rations, and supplied 

 every thing as well as he could except exer- 

 cise. I believe, however, he places a value on 

 a reasonable amount of exercise, for his fowl- 

 houses are something like 6 or 8 rods apart all 

 over the farm. With this arrangement all the 

 chickens go "home" to roost. I forgot to 

 ask if he did not have a few gossipy hens that 

 went gadding all over town, stirring up muss- 

 es and jealousies. Oh ! by the way, roosters 

 never quarrel when there are no hens around. 

 In fact, he had thirty or forty in one pen, and 

 they were as brotherly as could be. The hens 

 stir up jealousy and hatred. Come to think 

 of it, I do not think this is true of boys and 

 girls. How is it, young people ? Thank God, 

 we are a notch or two higher up in the scale 

 than chickens. 



Mr. Mapes keeps almost entirely White Leg- 

 horns, like the picture of the pullet I gave 

 you. He gets from 5 to 8 cts. a dozen more 

 for his eggs because the purchaser knows ex- 

 actly what day they were laid. Every case is 

 sent to New York city, with a certificate that 

 the eggs were laid on such a day, and conse- 

 quently there are never any bad ones or stale 

 ones. Very likely j('0« can not do it unless, 

 indeed, you have as good a reputation for 

 truthfulness as Mr. Mapes has. 



Although it was a cold freezing day, as our 

 trip was taken along toward noon, when the 

 sun was warmest, the brooder-houses where 

 the young pullets were kept were opened, and 

 they were allowed to jump, run, and fly over 

 the fields, up hill and down. The brooder 

 buildings were closer together than those for 

 laying hens. I should think that perhaps a 

 hundred half-grown chicks were in each build- 

 ing. A lamp with an ingenious hot-water 

 brooder kept the chickens warm. I expressed 

 a fear they would take cold by going out into 

 the frosty air after being around the hot-water 

 pipes ; but the way they cut up and ran there 

 did not seem to be much danger ; besides, they 

 had lived in that way till they were fully 

 feathered out, and were as handsome as white 

 doves, and about the same size. You see, if a 

 chick felt cold or tired it could go back into 

 the brooder whenever it felt so disposed. As 

 a rule, each chick goes back into its own home 

 like a bee out of its hive. But their owner 

 said if they got mixed up somewhat it did not 



