1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



185 



Poultry 

 Department 



CONDLCTED BY A. 1. RoOT. 



INniAN RUNNER DUCKS. 



The original home of these was in India: but they are now ex- 

 tensively grown in England, and were introduced into the Unit- 

 ed States about fifteen years ago, where they have won for them- 

 selves a high position in the Eastern markets. These birds are 

 very quick-motioned, and it is poisible for ihem to move very 

 rapidly. Their legs are very strong, and ate set well back, so 

 that the carriage is nearly erect. There is no suggestion of the 

 awkward waddle of the common duck, hence iheii name, " Indi- 

 an Runner." 



In color they are gray and white, and fawn and white. The 

 drake has darker cheek-markings, presenting a most attractive 

 appearance. Their standard weights are, drake, 4j4 lbs.; duck, 

 ■< lbs. These weights ate not as great as those of the Pekins; 

 but by good feeding they can be made to weigh 9 and 8 lbs. 



The question is asked, "Will ducks disturb bees?" My 

 ducks do not have free access to the hives; but the ducks are in 

 the white-clover lots where the bees are ihick, and I have never 

 noticed any damage done to the ducks nor to the bee. 



The Indian runners mature very rapidly, reaching market size 

 io nine weeks. They require no swimming-water, but plenty 

 for drinking purposes. They are great foragers, and find no 

 small part of their food in the form of grubs and worms, which 

 they delight in hunting in the grass and weeds. 



As Mr. Root mentioned in his short article last year, the Indi- 

 an Runners are very interesting liitle creatures to watch grow 

 from the time taat they are hatched until they are matured. 



.\It. Gilead, O. Kent Jknninos. 



In regard to bees and ducks, while ours were 

 raised almost rifjht in our apiary, the ducics never 

 meddled with the bees nor the bees with the 

 ducks; but others have c^mphinpd that (like 

 chickens) they sometimes accjuire the ha'' it of 

 "gobbling up" bees loaded wi h honey, and, if 

 I am correct, we have had rt ports of bees sting- 

 ing voung dut ks that got too inquisitive. I do 

 not know that I ever got much more enjoymenf 

 out of a like investment than that setting of eggs 

 gave me. While they were young the "neigh- 

 boys" all liked to see them come around; but 

 when grown up they made themselves so much 

 "at home" everywhere we were obliged to dis- 

 pose of them. They do not seem to bear con- 

 finement very well. 



1 ha e just learned from Mr. Jennings that he 

 expects to issue soon a leaflet on the breeding, 

 feeding, and raising of Indian Runner ducks 



PARTRIDOES IN DOMESTICATION, ETC. 



I am so crippled up with rheumatism that I can only roll around 

 on a little three-wheeled wagon; and in the fall of 1906, in order 

 to get out in the open air more, and to diversify my rather monot- 

 onous life, I took a notion to see what I could do toward feeding 

 and gentling a bunch or two of partridges that were ranging in a 

 lot a few hundred yards from the house. I got some hominy and 

 lorghum seed, and scattered a few handfuls in the brush where the 

 partridges were ranging, and in a few days the bunch of blue 

 "top-knots " (there were just 20 in the bunch) found the feed, 

 and from that time on through the winter until late in the spring 

 the birds were always close around and ready for their feed. I 

 had been feeding them but a short time when several bunches of 

 " Bob White " partridges took to the feed also; so I went to feed- 

 ing ihem in two places about 200 yards apart, so as not to have 

 too many in one place; and all winter until late in the spring 

 there were about 100 partridges feeding at the two places, and in 

 a »hon time they all got so gentle that they would come up and 

 eat while I was scanning out the feed. I always whistled like 

 the Bob White panridge when I got near the feeding-places, and 

 they soon caught on to the whistle and would come as fast as 

 they coold run from four or five different directions a? soon as they 

 heard the whistle, and some of them would fly and come if they 

 were quite a way off when they heard the whistle. 



Now, Mr. Root, you see you don't have to find partridge nests 

 and then rob them of their eggs and then hatch them in your in- 

 cubator to go into the partridge business, when it is so much bet- 

 ter and easier to control them with feed; and, besides, whenever 

 TOO fo to robbing their nesls and holding tlie young birds in con- 



finement, right then one is violating the game law in this pan 

 of the world, and is subject to a fine. 



Before I close this letter let me tell you what became of the 

 birds, Well, 1 thought too much of my pet birds to let any one 

 shoot them, and it is against the law to trap them at any time; so 

 ill the spring the bunches broke up into pairs and scattered off to 

 build their nests to rear their young. The following fall six of 

 the blue top-knot birds failed to raise any young, and came back 

 for feed. Of course, 1 fed them some, and they were around the 

 lots and feed-pens all winter. The top-knot variety finally all 

 drifted off to the low hills; but at the present writing there are 

 hundreds of the Bob Whites close around, and their center of at- 

 traction is a ten-acre sorghum-patch that has gone to seed, which 

 never fails to hold them around. 



Mr. Root, you ought to get some eggs of the tingneck English 

 pheasant, and get them started aiound your " cabin in the woods." 

 They are surely a pretty bird. The males have all the colors of 

 the rainbow, and many more besides. I tried them here at my 

 ranch several years ago, but none of them would locate in this 

 part of the country. I believe they would locate in your section of 

 the country. I set the eggs under a medium-sized hen, and let 

 her raise them. The little birds soon get tame, and will mn 

 after any one who feeds them, and will eat out of their hands. 

 I got my eggs from J. A. Durrell, of Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. He 

 used to raise them by the hundreds in wire-netting inclosures. 

 The young of the pheasant are great insect-eaters; and my expe- 

 rience is that they will nearly all die if kept in an inclo'ure 

 where they can not get plenty of insects to eat. 



D'Hanis, Texas. Dan Polk. 



Friend P., I am very glad to know that some- 

 body has succeeded so well in keeping partridges 

 in domestication; but I am surprised to hear you 

 speak of " Bob White " as if it were a variety of 

 partridges. We have them here and also in Flor- 

 ida. 1 prtsume it is the same bird that calls out 

 before a rain, " More wet, more wet. " We have 

 also quails in Florida, but they are rather smaller 

 than those here in Ohio; but the partridges of 

 Northern Michigan are a much larger bird than 

 those here. In fact, one of the males when he 

 comes strutting around their drinking-place comes 

 pretty near being as large as a Brown Leghorn 

 hen, especially when he makes his feathers stand 

 up and shows fight if you do not go away. A 

 neighbor near our home here in Medina had a 

 flock of quail that he fed all one winter; but it 

 kept him busy putting up notices warning hunt- 

 ers that those quail.were his property just as much 

 as the chickens around his barn. In fact, the 

 quails came up and ate with the chickens all win- 

 ter long when there were no strangers around to 

 drive them away. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ENEMY WE ARE FIGHT- 

 ING. 



A few days ago a daily paper in the neighbor- 

 ing city of Akron, O., gave a clipping purport- 

 ing to come from the Birmingham, Ala., Daily 

 Nenus. It told about the awful suffering that 

 had been caused by wiping out the saloons. The 

 statement was so astounding that one of our peo- 

 ple sent the clipping to the Birmingham paper, 

 asking for an explanation. A reply came at once 

 from the editor, declaring that no such thing had 

 ever appeared in his paper — that it was a string of 

 falsehoods from beginning to end. When this 

 report was presented to the Akron editor he very 

 coolly replied that he kne^v it was a lie when he 

 published it; but he said he was paid for putting 

 it in just as it appears. It was an advertisement, 

 even though it did appear in the reading-columns. 

 Now, I do not know how many such editors there 

 are in this land of ours; but may God speed the 

 day when they shall be wiped off the face of the 

 earth by another wave of public indignation like 

 the wave that is just now drivingout the saloons. 



