810 



(! LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



BEES, BERRIES, AND POULTRY. 



SOMETHING KKOM ONE OF OUK SUBSCKIBEUS WHO 

 MANAGES ALL THUEE TOGETHER. 



N Gleanings, Oct. 1, Dr. C. C. Miller thinks bee- 

 keeping and g-rowingr small fruits won't work 

 together. If he could visit my place he would 

 change his opinion, for my bees have a very 

 happy time on fruit-blossoms. We have now 

 some three acres of red raspberries among other 

 fruit; and from the middle of May to nearly the 

 niiddie of July the bees swarm on the blossoms 

 from morning till night; and in wet weather, when 

 they can't work on other plants they arc always 

 busy on raspberries; and our blackberries are a 

 splendid plant for them also. After a fair trial I 

 think bee-keeping and growing fruit is a success 

 with me; and after eight years' experience I also 

 say, for the next business to pass away idle mo- 

 ments, give me poultry. I raise three or four hun- 

 dred chicks every year; and don't they have a nice 

 time running among the bashes? Not many worms 

 or bugs escape their eyes. They are always healthy 

 and sharp; no hawks can catch them under the 

 bushes. I can tend all three, and yet have time to 

 play and not make as many mistakes as I have in 

 writing this. A. J. Pehkins. 



Johnstown, N. Y.,Oct. 5, 18CT. 



After receiving the jibove we wrote friend 

 P. for furtlier pjirticiilars, and he replies as 

 follows: 



HOW AND WHY BEES AND I'OULTRV DO NOT CON- 

 FLICT. 



My time is so fully occupied that I can hardly 

 spend time to write as I should like. At any rate, I 

 will take the last of my te.\t first, and commence 

 with poultry. 



Our poultry year commences by the first of Sep- 

 tember. At thistlme we usually sort our Hocks, and 

 ))ut from twelve to twenty of our nicest pullets in 

 each flock. We generally winter eight Hocks, or 

 from 100 to 1.50 fowls (the cocks are not allowed to 

 .run with the hens, but are kept in pens by them- 

 selves until breeding time, and then put with the 

 hens about two days each week). We keep only 

 pure-bred fowls. We have at this time Light Brah- 

 ma, Plymouth Rocks. Brown Leghorns, and Silver- 

 spangled Hamburgs. Our chicks hatched in April 

 or May will commence to lay in September or Octo- 

 ber. About September first, when we sort our 

 flocks, we keep our best pullets and cockerels, sell- 

 ing the culls. During the fall and winter we try, by 

 extra feed and good care, to get the selected stock 

 to lay all they will when eggs bring a large price. 



We feed wheat, corn, oats, buckwheat (mixed, 

 one-fourth of each), as soon as it is light in the 

 morning, and the last thing just before dark. At 

 noon we give them some warm feed, such as pota- 

 toes, turnips, apples, or vegetables of any kind, 

 boiled and mixed with meal or shorts. Wo also 

 put in sometimes a little linseed meal and fine bone 

 flour. This will give them a glossy plumage, and 

 keep them in nice condition. Cracked hone and 

 oyster-shells are always before them, and they are 

 given meat of some kind twice each week. For 

 green food, cabbage is best. A little clover hay is 

 good now and then. This I cut 'n the straw-cutter, 

 and find it works well. Fresh water is gi\ en dailj-. 



Four or five days before we want to sa\'e eggs for 

 hatching, we put the cocks with the hens. We com- 

 mence to set in March, and usually set from thirty 



to forty hens. At first we give each hen eleven 

 eggs; as the season gets warmer we give more, un- 

 til the last hens sometimes have as many as twenty 

 eggs. Ten chicks is a fair hatch for each hen. I 

 have had as many as nineteen. When the chicks 

 are hatched we i)ut about twenty with a hen in a 

 coop, some distance from the house, near our ber- 

 ries, in the orchard. In the orchard or in the garden 

 they will pick bugs and worms from morning \intil 

 night; and if you give them all they will eat they 

 will not trouble your fruit or vegetables. In giving 

 twenty chicks to each hen we have to take some 

 from another hen just hatching. This hen we set 

 again, and sometimes for the third time. 



Now, this is all done by May first, l)efore it is time 

 in our section to work with bees. We have spent 

 with the fowls about two hours each day in winter, 

 thus leaving plenty of time to do other work, fixing 

 bee-hives. Last winter I made 44 ehatt' hives be- 

 sides doing a great deal of other work. After our 

 chicks are in coops in the bushes, our trouble is 

 over. We feed them at first five times a day. Aft- 

 er they are five or six weeks old we feed them three 

 times a day. We take the hen away when they are 

 about four weeks old. The young cocks we sell to 

 the market when they weigh from a pound and a 

 half to three |)ounds. During the summer we sell 

 our old stock, and in September we sort our stock 

 and commence again on another year. Of course, 

 I don't expect to get rich keeping fowls, but they 

 helji; and after an experience of eight years I am 

 satisfied that they are profitable, and in connection 

 with bee-keeping certainly are with me a success. 



Here is my account with fowls last season, ending 

 Sept. I. 



Debit. Credit. 



$15 54 $16 44 



9 08 11 49 



8 61 6 03 

 4 30 fi 02 

 4 10 22 35 

 .') 10 18 04 



11 0« 24 1!) 



6 06 20 82 



6 35 31 22 



10 67 20 03 



9 33 3.T '78 

 10 53 19 2T 



Sept., 



Oct., 



Nov., 



Dec, 



Jan., 



Feb., 



Mar., 



Apr., 



.May, 



June, 



July, 



Aug., 



*100 83 $231 68 



Profit after paying for all feed used. $130 8,") 

 I think the manure, and eggs and poultry used in 

 my family more than pay for the care I gave them. 

 My credit to them is only for fowls and eggs sold, 

 and charge them for all feed at market price. 

 Johnstown, N. V., Oct. 19, 1887. A. J. PEKKiNS. 



Why, friend P., you have almost got 

 " Stocidard''s Egg-Farm '' in practical work- 

 ing order on a small scale. If this were a 

 poultry-journal instead of a bee-journal, 1 

 should ask you a multitude of ([uestions. 1 

 am going to risk a couple, any way. How 

 do you keep eight docks separate without 

 fences V and how much ground does it need 

 for 1-50 fowls as you keep them V In other 

 words, iiow far ji'part are tiie eight flocks V 

 May be you keep tliem fenced up ; but if so, 

 I don't see just how tliey could rini among 

 your berries. Your little story liasmademe 

 feel this morning as if I siiould like to take 

 the first train and payyou a visit. .Just one 

 month in a year the feed cost more than the 

 eggs came to, and that moutli is November. 

 Can't you get enough extra pullets to keep 

 up the credit side, even in November V 



