242 



making very sIoav progress in breaking out 

 of the shell in this last hatch, I struck on 

 a plan that I believe will be found to be 

 one of the best, if not the best, for chickens 

 that do not succeed in getting out at the 

 time the others do. I simply crush the 

 shells with my fingers in such a way as to 

 crack the outer shell pretty thoroughly. In 

 the course of a few hours I had the pleas- 

 ure of seeing those chickens out of the shell 

 and on their feet. Some one may suggest 

 that getting chickens hatched and bringing 

 them to maturity is a different thing. Bui 

 I want to tell you that I haven't lost a chick 

 that I know of this winter, except sis that 

 were carried off by hawks before I found 

 out exactly where my chickens were going. 

 The hawk has been fenced out by covering 

 my two small yards for the smallest chick- 

 ens with three-inch poultry netting, as T 

 have explained. Since then not a chicken 

 has been lost. Every chick that is hatched 

 goes right along without a break. 



COUNTING CHICKENS " AFTER " THEY ARE 

 HATCHED. 



A good deal has been said about counting 

 your chickens before they are hatched ; but, 

 so far as I know, not very much about 

 counting them after they are hatched. Some 

 of our readers, and perhaps not a few of 

 them, have had some tiding experience in 

 trying to count them after they are hatched, 

 and having the count hold out. When I 

 started our convergent poultry-yard I 

 thought I was going to have a " dead open 

 and shut " on keeping my chicks, especiallj 

 in keeping tliem free of loss from rats, 

 skunks, coons, etc. I have told you some- 

 thing about the poor fertility of our egg-s 

 when I first moved them over to our home. 

 There were two troubles about the fertility. 

 First, most of the hens are just out of the 

 moult, and the rooster himself was going 

 around destitute of tail feathei-s. Secondly, 

 he had toward fifty hens in his care. One 

 of these hatches at this time gave only six- 

 teen chickens in a fifty-egg incubator. Now, 

 there would not have been even sixteen had 

 I not helped two of them out of the shells. 

 These two were such dilapidated-looking 

 specimens that I had very little hope they 

 would live. I put them back in the incuba- 

 tor (mostly because I hated to kill the poor 

 little things), and kept them there twentj-- 

 four hours. Then when I put them in the 

 tireless brooder, and they moped around 

 about twenty-four hours more, I felt sure 

 they were going to die. However, gTeatly 

 to my surprise, on the third day they began 

 to pick up, and in less than a week I could 

 not tell which were the ones 7 hatched from 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUT^TURE 



the others. With these new poultry-yards 

 so well protected with inch-mesh netting I 

 felt sure no rats nor skunks could in any 

 manner interfere with my chickens; and 

 this little brood got on very well until they 

 were about two weeks old, when one day I 

 was obliged to admit that there were only 

 fifteen instead of sixteen. Next day there 

 were only fourteen, and so on, until a chick- 

 en a day was going somewhere. They 

 counted all right at night, and they count- 

 ed all right next morning; but when night 

 came there would be a chicken missing. 

 Wesley suggested it was a hawk; but I 

 hadn't seen any hawks around, and I was 

 very much puzzled and worried about it. 

 Finally, Wesley caught a hawk right in the 

 act, and made him let the chicken drop. 

 The poor fellow, however, was so badly 

 scared he died a few hours afterward. I 

 fin all}' declared I was going to do some- 

 thing to have a " dead open and shut " on 

 a hawk as well as a dead open and shut on 

 the I'ats and skunks. The question was, 

 how to do it. Neighbor Abbott said he got 

 rid of the hawks bj' shooting them with a 

 gun. Now, this was a lot of trouble, and I 

 don't like to use guns any way; and, be- 

 sides that, you must keep on shooting day 

 after day, and j-ear after j-ear. You never 

 can tell when you have got all of the hawks. 

 Two or three years ago, when the hawks 

 started I invested in some three-inch-mesh 

 poultry-neting, declaring that I was going 

 to have covered yards for my small chick- 

 ens, at least until they were old enough to 

 keep out of the way of the hawks. Now, 

 I don't like penning up chickens in small 

 yards. Let me explain a little. 



From the next hatch from my fifty-egg 

 incubator, after the one I have mentioned, 

 I secured thirty-six live chicks from fifty 

 egg's. Well, these got along all right until 

 they were about ten days old. Then there 

 was one little bunty chicken that went 

 around, or stood around, with its wings 

 hanging down. You probably have seen 

 them under like circumstances. I tried giv- 

 ing such chicks extra care, bread and milk, 

 etc. ; but so far it has been mostly a failure. 

 Now, these thirtj^-six had been kept inside 

 the brood-house until they were ten days 

 old, because I feared the hawks that had 

 been making such havoc with my other 

 flock. Finally we got to work and covered 

 two little yards overhead with three-inch 

 netting. I think these little yards are about 

 40 feet square. In this yard that was cov- 

 ered overhead to keep out the hawks I 

 opened the door and let my thirty-six chicks 

 loose. This one with its wing-s drooping 

 didn't seem inclined to go outdoors. Feel- 



