Gleanings in Bee Culture 



BEES AND POULTRY ON A BACK LOT IN A 

 CITY. 



BY L. J. GRIFFEN. 



My experience in bee-keeping and chick- 

 ens is more of a "has been '' than a "pres- 

 ent" experience; but for a number of years 

 I took off about 400 pounds of "fancy " hon- 

 ey and raised about 300 fancy chickens 

 (White Wyandottes) on a city lot one hun- 

 dred feet square. 



My occupation is that of customs exam- 

 iner' (deputy collector and inspector), and 

 the last four years my work has increased 

 so much that I have had to give up most of 

 my bees and chickens, and I miss the mon- 

 er that they used to bring in. 



I have always been very fond of honey, 

 and was seldom able to get any that was 

 especially good; so about ten years ago I be- 

 gan to study bees. After six months I 

 dreamed of bees every time I went to sleep; 

 then I bought two colonies in Danzenbaker 

 hives from a friend who was planning to 

 leave town. They were hybrids. I sent to 

 two different queen-breeders for a queen 

 from each, and divided the two hybrid colo- 

 nies, making four. One queen was excel- 

 lent, and soon had her hive full of brood. 

 The other was no good — could barely fill five 

 frames, and later I killed her. The first year 

 I secured about 140 pounds of honey, of 

 which two-thirds was fancy. 



The same year I commenced to study 

 chickens; and before spring arrived I was 

 dreaming of chickens. I bought an incu- 

 bator and two brooders, and 220 White Wy- 

 andotte eggs (I was the pioneer ^\'hite Wy- 

 andotte chicken-man in Bridgeport or vicin- 

 ity). 



I had excellent luck (?) , and hatched 153 

 chickens. When they were about three 

 weeks old they suddenly commenced to die 

 off. I finally found that the trouble was 

 moldy chick-feed, tiny particles of green 

 mold being mixed with the fine grains. I 

 threw the rest away and got some that was 

 fresh. I seldom buy chick-feed now, for sev- 

 eral reasons— first, it is almost impossible.to 

 buy fresh chick-feed early in the season; 

 and old chick-feed of the previous year is 

 very likely to cause bowel trouble: second, 

 if scattered on the ground, all particles that 

 become covered will turn moldy, and then 

 when uncovered will be eaten, resulting in 

 a dead chicken a week or two later; third, 

 little chickens three days old will eat wheat 

 and thrive on it. 



I figured out that a mash composed of 

 corn meal three parts, bran one part, mid- 

 dlings one part, and beef scrap one part, 

 woukl be about right. I think so yet, after 

 nearly ten years' trial, although when I find 

 it hard to get good middlings I use corn 

 nical two parts, bran two parts, and beef 

 sera]) one part, substituting one of bran for 

 the middlings, and dropping one of corn 

 meal. 



Out of my hatch of 153 I raised IIG. I sav- 

 ed the best for breeders, and killed the cull 

 l)u11ets for broilers, and the cull cockerels 



were made into capons, which I learned to 

 do by following directions in the book that 

 came with the caponizing set. 



In performing the operation at first one 

 bled to death, which we ate as a broiler, and 

 I cut the lung of one a trifle, and he had 

 wind puff. On tapping him with a pen- 

 knife he recovered. I made one change. 

 The directions said, use carbolic acid in the 

 water; but I used bichloride of mercury, one 

 to one thousand — 7 grains to 1 pt. of water. 

 Those capons made my reputation for deli- 

 cious chickens. 



About three or four weeks before killing 

 I would shut four in a coop with slatted 

 front and bottom two feet high, two feet 

 long, and eighteen inches deep. I had four 

 of the coops in a row about the nests. There 

 was a dropping-board below the coops so 

 that it could be taken out and cleaned, and 

 a shelf in front to hold the feed and water. 

 They were fed mash entirely. When there 

 are four in a pen, one seeing another eating, 

 he thinks he must eat also. The second day 

 before killing I gave some charcoal, and the 

 last day nothing at all. My pullets that 

 were hatched about April 20, commenced to 

 lay about Oct. 7. 



The same year I had four colonies of bees. 

 The previous fall I had killed the poor queen, 

 and had given them a frame of bees from 

 my best queen from which they had raised 

 a good queen. I fed in March and April 

 about two dollars' worth of sugar and got 

 about fifteen to twenty sections from each 

 colony of apple-blossom honey with a little 

 dandelion mixed with it. We have very 

 few dandelions in this section. 



During the summer flow my two hybrid 

 colonies put up a solid super of chestnut 

 honey, and my two Italian colo^^ies a solid 

 super of sumac honey, both flows occurring 

 at the same time. Chestnut honey is green- 

 ish yellow, rather dark, and of poor flavor. 

 Since then the chestnut-trees have all been 

 cut down, for which I am thankful. 



Before leaving on my vacation in Septem- 

 ber I looked at the bees and found very lit- 

 tle honey. On my return there was a sour 

 smell, and I immediately concluded the 

 bees were dead, and the nectar and brood 

 soured; so I opened the hives and was sur- 

 prised to find each super crammed with hon- 

 ey — mixed goldenrod and wild aster. 1 put 

 another super on each colony, and they al- 

 so were filled with honey. One season the 

 bees stored wild-aster honey in the super as 

 late as November 7. 



The following spring I started early with 

 my incubator, hatching on Washington's 

 birthday. I placed one of the brooders in 

 the cellar, put a glass top on the two com- 

 partments, and kept the chickens in the 

 cellar for three weeks. By that time they 

 needed damp ground (the cellar has a ce- 

 ment floor). I made jjens 6x12 feet across 

 the front of the lot next door, 50X100 ft. (it 

 was poor sandy soil on which I could make 

 nothing grow) . The top of the pens was 

 made so that it could be rolled back for the 

 purpose of digging the soil. First rye, then 



