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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



A BEE-ESCAPE FOR CHICKENS. 



I take the following from the Farm and Home 

 for Feb. 1, H08: 



I find it very convenient to arrange a gate that the henj can 

 open for themselves going one way, but through which they can 

 not return. In most farm poultry-yards hens escape frequently 

 one way and another, but are soon glad to get back with the oth- 

 ers if there is a chance to le-enter the coop. A small gate is set 

 inside of a large one, as shown in the cut. The slats may be 



made either of heavy wire or of wooden rods fastened between 

 two strips of board at the top, and hinged on a piece of wire. 

 When the hens are inside tie gate they can not get out unless 

 the large gate is open; but when they are outside they can enter 

 by pushing their heads between the slats of the small gate, 

 which rises, allowing them to pass through, and then falls back. 

 The hens learn very quickly to push their heads between the 

 slats to get back into the yard. — I. A. Fiske. 



I have been holding the above now for nearly a 

 year in order to make some experiments in the 

 matter before putting it in print, and I have gone 

 far enough to decide there is very great need of 

 some simple apparatus — something that can be 

 sent by mail, if possible — that will enable chick- 

 ens to get into the yard but not to get out of it. 

 I have made several arrangements that worked 

 fairly well, except that the chickens, sooner or 

 later, contrive in some way to get out through 

 the escape as well as get in. They are wonder- 

 fully sharp and ingenious; in fact, I have some- 

 times thought one might almost teach a chicken 

 to read and write if he were to exercise patience 

 and pains enough. Now, I wish some of our 

 bright inventors would set to work and get up a 

 successful device that could be furnished for a 

 few cents, and sent by mail. I will advertise any 

 such successful arrangement free of charge. As 

 mentioned in ihe clipping, chickens will get out 

 of almost any yard now and then; and it is also 

 true that they are very glad to get back inside 

 again if there can be openings at hand; but this 

 opening must not let others get out while the 

 others are getting in. A gate that can be opened 

 and closed again by pulling a long string does 

 the business nicely, but we want something that 

 is automatic. Whatever it is, it should be lo- 

 cated in some corner where you can drive the 

 chickens where they will see it readily. We are 

 selling, year after year, hundreds of dollars' 

 worth of bee-escapes that permit the bees to pass 

 out but not in. Why should we not have a sim- 

 ilar arrangement for chickens? 



And, by the way, there ought to be not only 

 different sizes for different breeds of chickens, but 

 I feel sure many times it would be convenient 

 to have something of the sort for quite small 

 chickens; and these small ones could surely be 

 sent by mail. 



SIX EGGS A DAY WITH ONLY SIX HENS; ONLY 25 TO 40 WITH 



100 HENS; ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT PARTRIDGES 



AND QUAILS. 



Dear Mr. Root: — Some time ago when you gave your experi- 

 ence in keeping a " hennery " I wis sorely tempted to write you 

 of my success, but did not; but now since you have invited cor- 

 respondence in reference to pheasants (rufled grouse) I will 

 give you some of my experience with both. 



Last fall, when we were about to leave for Florida we had 

 about 100 chickens — possibly 90 nens and 10 roosters. We were 

 getting from 25 to 40 eggs per day, and thought we were doing 

 fairly well. We sold off all but six pullets, which we left in the 

 care of my nephew. When we came home in April we got our 

 pullets. I purposed getting a male bird, but neglected it. But 

 meantime the six pullets gave us just six eggs per day, and sel- 

 dom during the past month have they failed to give us the half 

 dozen. I make no comments. I didn't get a male bird after all. 



As to the partridges, I have had a good deal to do with thesi 

 ever since a boy. In my younger days they were very plentiful. 

 1 was an expert with a rifle, and many a " topknot " I cut off 

 while the birds were " budding " in the spring. I considered a 

 roast partridge about the choicest dish in all the menu. I have 

 tried to domesticate them, but never succeeded in raising one till 

 it was half gown. I put the eggs under a hen; but as soon as 

 they were hatched the little birds would skulk off into the grass 

 and die. Not so with quails. I have had them run with a hen 

 till they were grown, and would seem as tame as the common 

 chickens; but in the following spring they usually would mate 

 and go off to the fields, no more to return. 



I think it has been beneficial to me having spent the cold 

 weather in the South. W. C. Gault. 



Savannah, Ohio, Aug. 6. 



Your report corroborates the princip-l point 

 in rhe Philo system. Six hens kept by them- 

 selves will lay ever so many more eggs in pro- 

 portion than 60 or 100; but so far as my expe- 

 rience goes your plant will cost ever so much 

 more to have a little house, to say nothing of a 

 dooryard for every six hens; and after getting it, 

 it is a big lot of work to manipulate the doors, 

 stairways, etc. 



PLANTING BASSWOODS IN THE FALL; SOMETHING 

 ABOUT BASSWOODS AND RABBITS. 



Dear Sirs: — A year ago this fall I got some basswood-trees of 

 you. They nearly all grew well this year; but my difficulty is 

 during the winter. The rabbits gnaw off the buds. Do you 

 know of any preventive — something not injurious that could be 

 brushed on? Piotecting a large number of small trees by means 

 of paper, etc., is rather laborious and expensive. I have carbolin- 

 eum, and I notice it is applied to trunks of trees to keep away 

 mice; but 1 should be afraid of injury if applied to buds or upper 

 parts of small trees. J. R. Coleman. 



Birr, Ont., Nov. 4. 



Friend C, we are very glad to know that you 

 succeeded so well with fall planting. We had 

 trouble with rabbits just one spring. They ate 

 off all the buds as high as they could reach, and 

 even stood on their hind feet to get the highest 

 ones. I know of no remedy except putting a 

 two-foot fence around your nursery, made of the 

 cheapest kind of wire netting. I did this in 

 Florida, and the rabbits never got over it. By 

 setting a steel trap close to the fence on the out- 

 side we got quite a number that ran clear around 

 the inclosure trying to get in. I can not tell 

 you whether the carbolineum would hurt the 

 young bees or not. Can some of our experiment 

 stations inform us? 



A. I. BOOT IN HIS FLORIDA HOME. 



Please, friends, do not send orders for goods to me here in Flor- 

 ida. I have nothing here whatever to jf//. Of course, I can send 

 your letter on to Medina, but that makes delay and possible con 

 fusion. The only thing 1 have to " give away " is advice, and 

 that is always freely and gladly given if you inclose an addressed 

 postal. The mtst of you can write your address so your own post- 

 master can read it. I am very busy down here, but I can always 

 stop long enough to grasp a pencil and fill a postal card providing 

 I don't have any worry about getting the address correct; and you 

 know 1 am now husbanding my energies so as to hold out for that 

 one hundred years. 



