GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



may not be tempted to send a dollar right 

 off, but wait a while. In about ten days 

 you will get something additional, saying 

 that, foi' some si3ecial reason, they have 

 concluded to cut down the price to 75 cts. 

 But if you still delaj^, a little later comes an 

 offer for the small sum of 50 cents for a 

 "full individual right," and a lot of valu- 

 able recipes thi'owu in; and I think, al- 

 though I have not now the documents on 

 hand, that still later they come down to 25 

 cents. And this is a fair illustration of a 

 lot of schemes to get your money by some • 

 hook or crook. Whenever any advertiser, 

 after a few days, begins to cut down his 

 prices, look out for him. See what I have 

 said about the "memory school" on page 23, 

 advertising pages, May 1. 



Since dictating the above, the American 

 Poultry Journal for June has come to hand, 

 and in it as good an authority as Prince T. 

 Woods, M. D., describes and pictures an 

 incubator which is substantially the same 

 thing as mentioned above. Below is the 

 opening paragraph : 



Would j-ou like to build an open-air incubator, 

 one that can be run out of doors from the middle 

 of March until late in the fall, one that costs only 

 about $1.50 per 150-egg capacity, labor included, 

 one that hatches by the natural method, and will 

 hatch every hatchable egg that a good sitter can 

 hatch? If so, build and try a Wozelma open-air 

 natural incubator, ten-hen capacity. 



You can easily build one from waste lumber, a 

 little wire netting and roofing fabric, by following 

 dimensions here given, and using the illustrations 

 from photographs for a guide. Ours holds 150 eggs, 

 fifteen under each hen, ten compartments, a sitting 

 hen in each compartment. It costs about 75 cents 

 for material and less than two hours' labor. 



The description of how to make it occu- 

 pies something more than a full page, in- 

 cluding four excellent photos of the sitting- 

 hen incubator in actual use. Please notice 

 what I have said about the sitting hen giv- 

 ing larger fertility than the average incu- 

 bator, or perliaps any incubator. There is 

 no question that these things are a success 

 if i^roperly made and handled. But think 

 of chai'ging a dollar for the crude- direc- 

 tions, few or no illustrations, on a single 

 sheet of paper, when the whole thing is giv- 

 en by an able writer and an expert poultry- 

 keeper in one of our poultry journals ! 



Still later. — In the Poultrij Tribune for 

 June our good friend Mrs. Mattie Webster 

 writes as follows : 



I think the most convenient and greatest labor- 

 saving device is the "hatcher," where each hen mav 

 have her individual run where she may exercise, and 

 there have placed food, water, and grit. We have 

 one of thirteen nests and runs, and you may be 

 siire the first thirteen broody hens are always set in 

 this hatcher. 



Still further, I just now discover that in 

 the fi'ontispieee in that valuable little book, 

 "Poultry Hecrets," is a collection of nests 

 for sitting liens with a latticed dooryard for 

 each hen. 



BLOOD-STKEAKED EGG.S, ETC. 



I should very much appreciate having you request 

 your poultry department to advise me of a remedy 

 as well as suggest the cause of the following afflic- 

 tion which seems to affect a few of my hens. Oc- 

 casionally a hen will appear to be suffering from an 

 internal hemorrhage which lasts for two or three 

 weeks, and which is evidenced in the form of bloody 

 piles. Perhaps it is due to the food, or some germ 

 of disease. 



Chicago, 111., May 30. C. F. Childs. 



My good friend, I regret that I am not 

 able to suggest a remedy; but very likely 

 some one who reads Gleanings may be 

 able to give us help. I had one hen in Flor- 

 ida whose eggs were streaked with blood 

 more or less. On examination I found 

 about the same conditions you mention. I 

 l^ut her off by herself, and gave her a diet 

 principally of bread and milk, and she re- 

 covered. Whether the treatment had any 

 thing to do with the recoverj^ or not I am 

 unable to tell. Where a large number of 

 fowls are kept I believe it is often the case 

 that there Avill be occasionally an egg that 

 has marks of blood on it as I have described. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS. 



The May number of the Pacific Poultry- 

 man, Seattle, Wash., is a "duck number," 

 and principally devoted to the Indian Run- 

 ner duck. There is a large number of con- 

 tributions from those having tried the In- 

 dian Runners, and every one gives a favor- 

 able report in regard to them. I am not 

 surprised to see a special number of this 

 poultry magazine devoted to the Runner 

 ducks ; and I shall not be 7nuch surprised 

 to see a journal started very soon, all de- 

 voted to the raising of Runner ducks. The 

 objection has been raised that the Runners 

 are large eaters. Here is what one of the 

 writers in llie above journal says in regard 

 to it; and the statement accords most em- 

 jihatically with my own experience. 



They are large eaters ; res, but they make erery 

 bite they eat count to good advantage. Besides, they 

 eat clieap food, for one half their feed may be green 

 feed. 



Give them plenty of green food that the> 

 like, such as lettuce, mustard, dandelion, 

 or even good fresh grass, and you will sav-e 

 half the grain needed, or more. 



THE SITTING HEN AHEAD OF ANY INCUBATOR 

 FOR STARTING FERTILITY. 



I make two clippings from the Poultry- 

 man in regard to this matter. 



I am convinced that no incubator will start all 

 ibf fertile duck eggs. 



The hen is the best incubator, and, if possible, 

 cptrs should be given to hens for a week or ten days 

 before placing them in the incubator. 



Will not our experiment stations test 

 this matter thoroughly with our best incu- 

 bators? It is certainly an important mat- 

 ter to be settled, and the experiment sta- 

 tions of our different States, being unbias- 

 ed, are the proper ones to settle it. 



