GS4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 1 



my limited experience I can hardly agree 

 with you about fall chickens, especially those 

 tliat are hatched in December down in Flori- 

 da. I think that down there they consider 

 December one of the very best months in the 

 year to start an incubator; and yet I do not 

 see why Florida should be very much differ- 

 ent from California. I am aware that crosses 

 will frequently lay more eggs than either 

 strain kept pure; but where shall we "be 

 at," if we all go into this sort of business? 

 The average tanner has "crosses" enough 

 alrea'dy, and, I think, often to his detriment. 

 I expect to keep my Buttercups and White 

 Leghorns in separate yards; and if Butter- 

 cups do not do any better in Florida than the 

 White Leghorns side by side they will be 

 promptly reported. 



THE "BUTTERCUPS" UP TO DATE. 



They are now (Oct. 23) about four weeks 

 old. They look to me more like quails or 

 partridges than chickens; in fact, they so 

 much resemble the partridges up in my 

 woods in Northern Michigan that I am prej- 

 udiced in their favor on that account. They 

 feather out rather ahead of the White Leg- 

 horns of the same age, and I think they get 

 around a little more lively also, even though 

 the Leghorns are celebrated for their agility. 

 Their wings are longer than those of the 

 Leghorns, and they fly like a hawk. This is 

 all I can say for them at present I had 

 ({uite a little correspondence with Mrs. Du- 

 maresq, and she admits she never yet had 

 fully 300 eggs in a year; but they did have a 

 hen that went up to 290. She also says it 

 may have been a mistake about a pullet lay- 

 ing when three and a half rhonths old. 

 Their circular was printed last December. 

 Her husband died in January; and she says 

 he said shortly before he died that there was 

 a mistake in that Buttercup circular that 

 would have to be corrected. She thinks he 

 alluded to this matter about a pullet laying 

 so early, and that it should have been four 

 and a half months. This would not be re- 

 markable, for I have a Brown Leghorn now 

 that laid at the age of four and a half 

 months. I propose to take the Buttercups 

 to Florida, and will keep you posted further 

 in regard to them. 



GETTING A START IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS. 



What is your opinion as to the best way to get a 

 start? Would you advise buying a pair, trio, or pen ol' 

 Sfood stock of some of the breeders that are advertising 

 so-called bargains now, or wait until spring and buy 

 mature stock then? Or would it be bet-ter and cheaper 

 to buy 50 or 100 day-old chicks in the breeding season? 

 Do you think it possible to get good stock from chicks 

 of this kind? 



I have a few mongrel hens. Would you advise buy- 

 ing eggs and starting that way? I should also like to 

 know if, in your opinion, hens will lay as well or any 

 better if confined at all times in Philo winter colony 

 coops than those having range. R. L. Bundy. 



Mason, Ohio, Oct. 14. 



My good friend, without knowing more 

 about your circumstances, finances, etc., if I 

 were you I would stick to your mongrels. 

 Use them to practice on, and get right at it. 

 Hut have a good male. I paid $5.00 for a 

 young cockerel; and with the one good male 

 I would have about three full-blooded pul- 



lets; but if your three pullets do not lay eggs 

 sufficiently different from your mongrels, I 

 would have some way of marking them; then 

 as soon as a hen wants to sit 1 would give 

 her some eggs and then set to work to learn 

 how to hatch chickens (even in winter) and 

 not let them die. You can do it if you go 

 about it. If you do not have as many chicK- 

 ens as you want in the spring, from your 

 three full-blood hens and mongrels, also buy 

 some baby chicks. I succeeded in getting 

 some excellent fowls from some I purchased 

 in April at only 7 cts. each. By no means 

 think of keeping your chickens confined un- 

 less you are in a town where you are obliged 

 to keep them shut up. I think Philo recom- 

 mends giving fowls more or less range as 

 circumstances permit. If you are obliged to 

 keep a large number on a small piece of 

 ground, as Philo is, of course you will have 

 to shut them up. I know that there are 

 some who claim that hens lay better when 

 confined than when they have free range; 

 but if they do, the time required to care for 

 them is much greater, and I believe it is also 

 rather the exception than the rule. 



THE "CHICKEN-HOUSE" THAT PRODUCED THE EGGS. 



Dear Mr. /?oo^— Perhaps you will be interested in 

 the enclosed picture of a hen-house that cost only one 

 dollar. This was made in the first place for a brooder- 

 house; but when we tore down our hen-house, with 

 the intention of building another in a different loca- 

 tion, we put roosts in this and put the hens in it, as we 

 thought, temporarily. They did so well, however, thai 

 we have left them there permanently, and have no in- 

 tention of returning to the old idea of large houses. 



A POULTKY-HOUSE FOR 18 LAYING HENS, THAT COST 

 "ONLY A DOLLAR." 



Our hens remained in this all last winter, and laid 

 right along, with the exception of about one week dur- 

 ing a bad spell when we thought that we would be 

 good to them and let them stay in the barn. They at 

 once stopped laying, and we sent them back to the 

 coop again, and soon they were laying as well as ever. 

 This coop is made of matched lumber procured in the 

 shape of boxes at the clothing-store, and is about six 

 feet long by three feet wide, and three feet high in 

 front. The roof is covered with ruberoid, or some- 

 thing of that nature, and was a remnant left from cov- 

 ering some other building. The total cost of the build- 

 ing was not more than a dollar. We keep about a doz- 

 en and a half of our White Wyandottes in this small 

 house, winter and summer, and the result in eggs is 



