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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Poultry Department 



THE POULTRY BUSINESS — A COMMON-SENSE 



BIRDSEYE VIEW FROM THE DEPARTMENT 



OF AGRICULTURE. 



From a farmers' bulletin entitled " The 

 Agricultural Outlook," under the head of 

 " Meat Shortage," I clip the following: 



Most of the poultry products of this country are 

 produced on farms under conditions that render th» 

 cost of production nominal. Most of the food con- 

 sists of waste grains, insects, etc., which cost nothing. 

 Most of the labor required is done at times that 

 would not otherwise be profitably employed, or by 

 members of the household who would otherwise be 

 earning nothing. The farm price of poultry products 

 is largely fixed by this nominal cost of production. 

 Under such conditions, it is only the exceptional 

 individual who can make poultry profitable as a 

 major enterprise. There is, therefore, no prospect of 

 increase in products of this class in greater ratio 

 than the increase in population. 



Now, a great lot of you, or perhaps I 

 should say a great lot of us, need to take 

 note that it is " only the exceptional indi- 

 vidual who can make poultry pay, as a 

 major enterprise." If you can get gre^t 

 big prices for your chickens, that may make 

 a difference ; but by the " egg contest " now 

 going on, people are beginning to decide 

 that " handsome is that handsome does." 

 If you can breed a strain of great egg-lay- 

 ers, and demonstrate that you have such 

 birds, you can get good prices for them. But 

 it must be the outcome of genuine, hard 

 work. People are tired of being humbug- 

 ged. 



Below is something I have clipped from a 

 periodical called Profitable Poultry. For 

 a long time I have been worried in regard 

 to this matter. Read it and see what you 

 think about it. 



There is one thing which the writer believes almost 

 impossible to accomplish, and that is, to raise chick- 

 ens that will win, both in a show room and in an 

 egg-laying contest. Beauty or egg production must 

 be sacrificed to a certain extent, in order to increase 

 the standard of one or the other. 



Right here is something more along this 

 line, from the Industrious Hen. I clip it 

 from an article in regard to the Sicilian 

 Buttercui^s : 



It is urged that they do not breed true to feather ; 

 and fanciers who think more of a feather than they 

 do of an egg will think this is a serious objection. 

 Right at this point is a chance for discussion. Shall 

 we sacrifice laying qualities to fancy ? In their na- 

 tive island. Buttercups are kept solely for eggs and 

 meat, with no thought as to feather markings ; so 

 that, when rightly interpreted, the criticism that they 

 do not breed true to color becomes really a tribute 

 to their worth. 



The above is true. A great many are 

 disappointed to find very few of the Sicil- 

 ian Buttercups having a dot on a yellow 

 cream-colored background ; and I feared the 

 tendency was going to be to pick out these 



handsome hens for breeders, with little or 

 no attention to their egg-record. I say, 

 give us egg-s, first and foremost; and if the 

 hens happen to be handsome, golden-span- 

 gled, etc., all right ; but do not, I beg of 

 you, make fancy feathers first and fore- 

 most. 



POULTRY AND BEES BOTH^ ETC. 

 A POWDER TO KILL LICE ON POULTRY. 



Take 5 lbs. plaster Paris ; % pint crude carbolic 

 acid; 1^ pint of gasoline. Mix all together thorough- 

 ly, screen through fine wire cloth like window- 

 screen; dry in the sun two hours, and store in a 

 tight vessel till used. Be careful of fire. 



A MACHINE TO DUST HENS WITHOUT CATCHING 

 THEM ; FOR LEGHORN SIZE. 



Make a drum of reasonably stiff sheet iron 12 

 inches in diameter and 4 ft. long, and fit a round 

 head or end in both ends, and cut a hole 6x8 inches 

 iu each, and fit a slide door of sheet iron over both 

 holes in the ends. Bore a 5-16-inch hole in one of 

 the wooden ends, and put a bolt from the inside to 

 stick out for a crank ; then bore a hole through a 

 stick for a handle, and screw the burr on. 



For the stand for the drum to revolve upon, make 

 a box without top or bottom with two end boards in 

 each end, 3 in. apart, 2% ft. long, 21 in. wide, and 

 10 or 11 in. high; then cut out of the center from 

 the top of the four end boards a half-circle 12% in. 

 long, and 6 in. deep; then adjust four rollers be- 

 tween each of the two end boards equally spaced. 

 Where the half-circle is cut out, have the rollers stick 

 above the boards so the drum will rest on the rollers. 

 To use, adjust the opening in the drum in the end 

 without the crank to an opening in the lien-house 

 that the hens have been using to go through, and put 

 a screen over the hole in the end where the crank 

 is, so the hens can see through. Put in the insect 

 powder and drive ten hens in and close the slide 

 doors in both ends of the drum, and revolve the 

 drum twice each way ; then open the slide doori 

 quick. 



I will tell you a little about my bees. They gave 

 me 2000 lbs. of honey, and I have 53 colonies in 

 winter quarters. I winter them in the cellar, but I 

 make two sizes of hives to take Langstroth frames. 

 The small size holds ten frames, and the large one 

 is 2 ft. long and holds 15 or 16 frames. In early 

 spring and late in the fall I put the large size on 

 the small one or around it, and turn the bottom- 

 board over so there will be an air-space on all sides 

 and on top — that is, I use the large size for an 

 outer case, and in warm weather they are single- 

 wall h^ves. 



Moscow, Pa., Jan. 14. George E. Rozelle. _ 



The suggestion given above in regard to 

 dusting the hens without catching them, and 

 doing ten at one clip, is quite ingenious, 

 and I think it might be a great saving of 

 labor where vermin get to be very bad; 

 also making a double-walled liive for winter 

 of the same hive that is used as single-wall- 

 ed in the summer time might prove to be 

 quite a convenience. The long hive holding 

 15 to 16 Langstroth frames is what was 

 called years ago the Long Idea liive; and i 

 if I am correct our good friend 0. 0. Pop- 

 pleton down in Florida is still making use 

 of these same long hives. 



