256 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



it is to get them to go into their house when 

 a storm is coming up or you want to get 

 them in for the night. By the way, I might 

 mention that the only safe way, so far as my 

 experience goes, for either ducks or chickens, 

 is to shut them up every night at the ap- 

 proach of dusk and let them out again every 

 morning, and I really enjoy doing this. 

 The happiest time in the whole twenty-four 

 hours is in the morning just at daylight, or 

 a little before daylight, when I let my fowls 

 loose and see them happy and rejoicing. 

 In the morning is the time when domestic 

 animals, after their own particular fashion, 

 "praise God from whom all blessings How," 

 and I think we ought to follow them in this 

 respect. Xow to get back to our subject. 



Many of you have found how difficult it 

 is to get ducks or chickens into the coop at 

 night, especially when the coop is in the 

 middle of the yard. It is particularly so 

 when you want to give them a little larger 

 domicile because of their growth. If your 

 brooder or your duck-house is in the middle 

 of the yard you will find it a big job indeed 

 to get them to go in, especially if a thunder 

 storm is coming up suddenly. If you place 

 it up against the fence at one side, you have 

 a better chance; but then they will persist 

 in running around behind it instead of go- 

 ing in. If you put it up in one corner it is 

 still better. But even then they will wedge 

 in between the wire-cloth fence and the side 

 of the house, or get behind it or get into the 

 corner. Now, at F and G in the diagram I 

 have explained how we manage it. Instead 

 of putting the brooder or the duck house in 

 the yard, put it outside entirely, the door to 

 it being in the corner of the yard. A better 

 way is to attach the poultry-netting to one 

 side of the duck-house and also the same on 

 the opposite side. 



If you drive your brood of chickens or 

 ducklings up into the corner they have got 

 to go in the door. A better arrangement 

 still is to have the fence where I have placed 

 the dotted line near G. In this arrange- 

 ment you have a sort of lane like the letter 

 V, and the building is right at the small 

 end of this lane. There are few things that 

 have given me more pleasure than this ar- 

 rangement to get my ducks to go in when 

 I am in a hurry. .lust another thing about 

 getting them to go into their house, espe- 

 cially if the house is a new one, in order to 

 give them more room. Ducks, more espe- 

 cially the Indian Runners, have a habit of 

 carrying their heads high; and, unless you 

 have their doorway high also, they won't 

 see it. Sometimes "I have made an opening 

 in the fence that I thought sufficient to 

 drive them through. This ended in disap- 

 pointment: for, instead of going through, 

 they held their heads so high they could not 

 see 'the opening at all. When you make 

 the duck-house, make the door very high. 

 When the ducks are little they can get into 

 it without any trouble. But when you move 

 them into a more commodious coop, accord- 

 ing to their growth, you want a high door 

 or they will get their heads up so they won't 



see it at all. In this climate no sort of house 

 is needed for protection, more than one 

 made largely of wire cloth with a large open 

 door and wire-cloth sides. In order to man- 

 age ducklings as well as chickens, you ought 

 to get well acquainted with them (as I have 

 emphasized before), and keep acquainted. 

 In fact, I know of few things more interest- 

 ing than studying the peculiar habits and 

 instincts of these wonderful creatures. 



Now, then, in conclusion, if you want to 

 have fun and profit too from ducklings, you 

 want to give them running water. Nothing 

 will answer in place of it. If you want to 

 get an egg from every duck as regularly as 

 the sun rises and sets, give them running 

 water, study their wants, given them plenty 

 of green food, and learn to love them, and 

 they will love you in return and give you 

 both enjoyment and profit. 



All the fence needed for ducks, and small 

 chickens also, is inch-mesh netting two 

 feet wide. Of course, two-inch mesh, or even 

 three-inch, will hold mature ducks; but for 

 ducklings and small chicks nothing larger 

 than inch will do. As ducks subsist (and 

 thrive) largely on roots of almost all kinds 

 of vegetation, especially in or near water, 

 there is a great saving of expensive grain, 

 and meal for mashes, by having them a great 

 part of their time in " running water." 



EGGS THAT DO NOT HATCH; HOW FAR ARE 

 OUR INCUBATORS RESPONSIBLE? 



On page 147, March 1, I mentioned that 

 our sitting hens hatched almost every duck 

 egg given them, while the incubator gave a 

 duck for only about half the eggs, etc. As 

 the Cyphers folks at Buffalo, N. Y., had re- 

 quested me to let them know how I came 

 out with duck eggs I sent them a clipping 

 as above, and below is their reply: 



Mr. A. I. Root: — Your letter addressed to the Cy- 

 phers Incubator Company for the attention of Mr. 

 Farrington has been handed to the writer for at- 

 tention. This has been done for two reasons: One 

 is, that the writer was formerly an Ohio man, and 

 thought perhaps you would like to receive a letter 

 from a Buckeye boy; and the other is, that we have 

 had considerable experience in operating incuba- 

 tors and brooders: in fact, we have hatched almost 

 every kind of egg that could be mentioned in incu- 

 bators. We have even hatched alligator eggs suc- 

 cessfully, and to do this one must know a little more 

 than the ordinary person does about running an 

 incubator. 



If we were in trouble in our apiary we would not 

 hesitate to write you. and know that you could give 

 us information that would place us right; and we 

 appreciate your position, and shall endeavor to 

 treat you as we know you would treat us. 



We have read very carefully the article in your 

 "Poultry Department," a clipping of which you 

 have sent us, where you state that there Is a big 

 complaint of eggs for the incubator being infertile, 

 and that that recalls to mind the down-east " se- 

 cret" of starting all eggs under hens before placing 

 them in the incubator. 



To place you right in this particular phase, we 

 beg to say that neither the incubator nor the hen 

 has any thing whatever to do with the fertility of 

 the egg — that is, after the egg has been laid. The 

 germ is on the inside of the egg. is placed there be- 

 fore the egg is laid and enveloped by the shell. 

 Now. regardless of where the egg is incubated, 

 whether it is in an incubator, under a hen, or what- 

 ever it maybe, the mode of incubation has nothing 

 whatever to do with whether it is fertile or not. 

 An infertile egg is an egg that contains no germ: 

 and, regardless of its condition or manner of incu- 



