1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



on her I grabbed her up and put her in for a sort 

 of " helpmeet " and companion en route. By the 

 way, everybody seems to admire these Buff Or- 

 pington pullets. Although they cost only 10 

 cts. each when they were " day-old-chicks," I was 

 offered a dollar apiece for them when four months 

 old. This one was laying at four and a half 

 months, and at five months she was just determin- 

 ed to sit. Unlike the Leghorns, she was always 

 so docile I could pick her up any time and any- 

 where. When I "' chucked " her in with that 

 $5 00 rooster I said, " Look here, my lady, I'll 

 take you down to Florida; and if you want to sit 

 down there I'll let you run in opposition to my 

 Cyphers incubator." She is so big and heavy, 

 and has such a great mass of downy feathers all 

 over her, that I thought she could cover a big nest 

 full of eggs. Well, she has been laying ever since 

 we came, until to-day, Jan. 29, when I found her 

 on the nest and not disposed to be deposed. 



" How many eggs did you give her.?" asked 

 Mrs. Root. 



"Twenty-five." 



" Tn.venty-fi--ve'. why, who ever heard of giving 

 a hen t-iventy-Ji-x'e eggsf"' 



"Well, you know one of my Leghorns hatch- 

 ed eighteen chickens out of twenty-one eggs; and 

 why shouldn't this great fluffy pullet manage 

 twentv-five.?" 



"Well, you'll see." 



" And you will see too. " 



Now a word about that crate for shipping, of 

 which I have given a view on p. 138. 1 have had 

 valuable chickens several times from poultry es- 

 tablishments that advertise big; but so far none 

 ever came in what I call a decent shipping-coop. 

 One man sent a $25.00 trio in a great heavy rough 

 box that, from its useless weight, largely increas- 

 ed the express charge, and one pullet got her head 

 between the slats and was killed besides. He re- 

 placed her, but used another great awkward un- 

 gainly box. Our case, as you will notice, is 

 made both light and strong, with cloth netting 

 (one-inch mesh), and thin basswood slats. The 

 sides are frames of /s light pine; all the rest is 

 thin slats and netting. One of the upright end 

 slats is fastened at the top with a screw. This 

 gives an opening to put in the fowls and take 

 them out. We put cloth part way up, as you 

 see, inside the netting to prevent ruffing their 

 plumage against the wires. As a result they made 

 their long trip, and came through looking about 

 as well as when they started. The floor is coarse 

 burlap, supported by thin strips of wood. This 

 burlap, or sacking, is much better than a wood 

 floor, because the fowls don't slip about on it; 

 and when covered with chaff it absorbs the drop- 

 pings. Their feed was corn and wheat scattered 

 in the chaff. For water, a wide-mouthed jar was 

 securely wired in one corner. They were about 

 four days on the way. 



Well, after this long preamble I am ready for 

 the point of my story about " nothing to do but 

 gather the eggs." 



The Leghorns are so wild ( or, rather, ^tvere so 

 wild) I didn't get very near any of them; but 

 this Orpington I picked up and petted every lit- 

 tle while. One day I thought she looked queer 

 about the eyes, and, sure enough, there ivas 

 something the matter. Some little black insects 

 were clustered on her comb and wattles, as close 



as beads on a cushion, and some of them were 

 shining like beads, with a suspicious ruddy look. 

 They wouldn't rub off, and couldn't be pulled 

 off. I turned in alarm to my Leghorns. There 

 were a few on them, but not nearly as many. 

 This one Orpington the enemy recognized as a 

 "tenderfoot," and accordingly all pounced upon 

 her. Do you remember what I said about the 

 " red bugs " a year ago? While they trouble old 

 residents comparatively little, they are surpris 

 ingly ready to pounce upon a new comer. About 

 this time Mrs. Root found every Monday, after 

 hanging out her wash, that she was pestered by a 

 queer kind of flea. He couldn't be pulled off or 

 squeezed with the thumb and finger so but that 

 he could hop as lively as any flea; but he had to 

 be mashed with the thumb nail to make him "go 

 dead." I went for Crenshaw's catalog (Tampa, 

 Fla. ), and found the following advertisement: 



conkey's flea-salve. 

 For stick-tights that fasten themselves on the comb and wattles 

 of the birds, multiply rapidly, and frequently cause bird to starve, 

 as they shut out eyesight. 



As soon as I found them I recalled that grease 

 or oil is death to any sort of insect pest, and my 

 pet pullet was soon cured; but how about the 70 

 up in that pine-tree.? I rushed for my sitting hen 

 (see p. 69) and found her head fully as badly "in- 

 fested" as the Orpington. Let me stop to remark 

 here that she later hatched sixteen nice chickens 

 from her 15 eggs, and they are all alive now. 

 (Some other hen squeezed into her nest and laid 

 an egg or two.) 



Well, as soon as these 16 were a few days old 

 their little heads were literally " peppered " with 

 these same "stick-tight fleas." I have " anoint- 

 ed " their poor little heads twice, and now they 

 are practically free. At first I thought I would 

 have to climb that pine-tree and catch every one 

 of the 70 after dark; but my old (and tried) friend 

 Shumard helped me out. If he was that sort of 

 man he might write a five-cent book and charge 

 a dollar or more for the secret of his wonderful 

 invention. Here it is for you all: Teach your 

 fowls to drink out of some kind of tub, not too 

 high up. When they get used to it, and all 

 drink at this one place, nail short pieces of lath 

 clear around the tub, put far enough apart so they 

 can get their heads through. Put a cover over 

 the top so they must all push their heads between 

 the pickets, and then wait a little until they all 

 are used to getting their drink in that way. Now 

 put your salve on the lath and on the edge of the 

 tub. This latter is especially important, for a 

 favorite place for the flea is under the chin. May 

 be you never knew chickens had "chins;" but 

 they do. Very likely plain vaseline will do about 

 as well as any of the salves advertised. Fred 

 Grundy, in his new book, recommends carbolat- 

 ed vaseline. This would surely do the business. 

 I believe these fleas are what is called " chiggers" 

 around here; and 1 wish some one would tell me 

 if they are the same thing as the " sand fleas " of 

 California. Most people around here say chick- 

 ens must be yarded some distance from the house, 

 and we have been obliged to fence ours off from 

 our dooryard. Mr. Rood has about as many as 

 we have; but his dooryard and all about his place 

 is covered with a dense growth of Bermuda grass. 

 As our place was all recently dug over in grad- 

 ing, there is much loose sand all around the 



