March, 1914. 



that of investing too much in unneces- 

 sarily expensive and cumbersome 

 buildings in which to house sma 

 tlocks of birds. The interest and profits 

 on the investment cannot be obtained 

 from the building and the equipment, 

 but must come from the poultry kept. 

 Instead of putting $:!() to $50 in a poul- 

 try house, and $10 or $20 in chickens, I 

 should reverse these figures, and invest 

 in more and better poultry, and keep 

 them in simple and cheaply constructed 

 but serviceable houses. Especially ap 

 plicable is this to the South. 



ITRE-BRED POULTRY BEST. 



Another mistake frequently made is 

 that of trying to get good results with 

 "scrub chickens." I do not believe in 

 mongrels, especially in poultry. Take 

 a look at a lot of chickens of all co' 

 ors, some "spotted," "brindle," and 

 "striped" ones, a few yellow, red, 

 black, and white birds. Then place these 

 besides a Hock of pure-bred fowls and 

 notice the difference. Nothing appeals 

 to me more than such a flock on a rich 

 green lawn or a green range espe- 

 cially provided. The owner of such 

 not only takes greater pride in them, 

 but gives them more care and attention 

 and gets better results. The advan- 

 tages of keeping pure-bred stock and 

 being able to obtain larger profits for 

 eggs and stock are so much greater 

 that it is a wonder mongrel chickens 

 are tolerated. 



.■VDD FRUIT ALSO. 



The combination is hardly complete 

 unless fruit growing is included. The 

 small beekeeper who cannot engage in 

 extensive beekeeping should so locate 

 that a combination of these three, bees, 

 poultry, and fruit may be kept profit- 

 ably. 



POULTRY IN THE ORCHARD. 



The scratching hen is the laying hen 

 as a rule, and such a one is of untold 

 value in the orchard. Thousands of 

 destructive insect pests can be de- 

 stroyed by keeping fowls in the or- 

 chard. Besides, hen-house fertilizers 

 are exceedingly valuable. They are 

 scattered throughout the orchard while 

 the birds have the range of the ground, 

 and it is very little trouble to spread 

 the hen-house cleanings in a proper 

 manner also. 



When arranging the orchard and the 

 poultry houses and runs, these should 

 be so provided that the fowls may be 

 excluded during the ripening of fruit. 



It is not wise to crowd too many 

 birds into one house, and better re- 

 sults may be obtained by having smaller 

 colony houses located throughout the 

 orchard, so that the entire number of 

 fowls kept may be divided into small 

 flocks. It is not really necessary to 

 separate the flocks by fences, although 

 it is better. Besides giving better re- 

 sults this affords a better distribution 

 of the birds over the orchard, and pre- 

 vents the spreading of contagious dis- 

 eases among all the fowls if an out- 

 break should occur in any one of the 

 flocks. 



In amedium-sized orchard the houses 

 may be arranged close together near 

 tlie center, with the poultry runs 

 diverging from the central location. 

 With the feed house in the center very 



Horsemiiit and wild bloom made the desert beautiful last summer, 

 rain than was common. 



We had more 



little time is required to attend to the 

 fowls properly. 



THEY DO NOT INTERFERE. 



The fact that poultry can be attended 

 to early in the morning and in the 

 evening with the proper equipment, 

 and that the orchard requires attention 



only at certain times, leaves plenty of 

 time to give the bees the best attention. 

 When the beekeeper goes out to de- 

 liver honey, he can take along some 

 eggs and poultry, or fruit of some kind, 

 and return home with just that much 

 more cash "to jingle" and feel merry 

 over. 



Conducted by J. L. Byer. Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



A Hard Cold Spell 



Up to Feb. :', this winter was milder 

 than the average here, but since then 

 we have had weather direct from the 

 Xorth Pole. Monday, Feb. 8, it was 

 zero; Tuesday, 8 degrees below; 

 Wednesday, Hi below; Thursday, 25 be- 

 low; Friday, 10 below; and this morn- 

 ing, Saturday, 14th, zero. Every day 

 we have a stiff wind besides. It is the 

 coldest week I have ever experienced. 

 These are the days that go hard with 

 bees out-of-doors, especially if the 



"winter nest" is as large as some 

 would have it. With a narrow rim of 

 honey over the bees, stores become 

 exhausted, the bees are unable to 

 move the cluster, and they either die 

 outright or gorge themselves with pol- 

 len and die with dysentery later. 



There is very little snow around the 

 hives, and I have been wishing they 

 were covered entirely. The snow we 

 have is covered with a hard crust; I 

 could not shovel it around the hives or 

 I would have done so. However, bees 



