GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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WHITE ORPINGTONS — A REPORT FROM SEVEN 

 PULLETS. 



Dear Brother Root: — I am inclosing a record of 

 my first pen of White Orpingtons. I think it is not 

 verv far behind the best; but I should be pleased to 

 see" your comment on it, if you can conscientiously 

 do so. 



At the time these pullets were commencing to lay, 

 it was from 20 to 24 degrees below zero. In Jan- 

 uary I received 97 eggs from the five oldest. I in- 

 tend to make egg-production a study and a business. 



White Orpingtons — number of eggs laid: 



Hatched At 1 yr. To July 1st egg 



old 14, 1912 laid 



5-26-1911 Queen. 65 89 12-27-11 



*Edina, 109 139 1-4-12 



Diana, 71 89 1-5-12 



Mamie 61 80 1-6-12 



Juliette, 60 83 1-9-12 



6-26-11 Red Wing 55 57 1-30-12 



*Beauty, 123 132 1-30-12 



*Annabel, 105 119 1-31-12 



Bunch, 40 52 1-11-12 



Total, 689 839 



*Edina, ) 

 Beauty. V 337 390 



Annabel, ) 

 These last are the three best layers in the above 

 record. Edina and Beauty never went to sitting 

 until June 26, and Annabel July 14. Beauty missed 

 only one day. May 8, from April 23 to May 22 in- 

 clusive. 



Juliette became crop-bound, and was sick two 

 months. The other five hatched out two settings of 

 eggs each. 



Brunswick, Mo., July 15. Frank Smutz. 



We have given the above, not because 

 there is any thing particularly remarkable 

 about it, but rather because our friend had 

 his pullets all named; and he knows just 

 when each pullet commenced to lay and 

 how many eggs she laid up to a given time. 

 I suppose that the seven were trap-nested, 

 although he does not say so. The whole 

 seven commenced laying when about six 

 months old, and during a time of severe 

 zero weather. I rather think this lot did 

 better, because they had extra care and at- 

 tention. Each one having a name would 

 indicate it. Now a point comes in right 

 here: Shall this friend save his eggs from 

 the best pullet? I believe the general ten- 

 dency is, from the best authority, to say 

 no; but instead of taking eggs from the 

 best layers, get the eggs from the mother of 

 this great layer. If the mother produced 

 one Edina layer she could probably pro- 

 duce more. This same thing applies to bee 

 culture — rear queens from the mother of 

 the queen whose bees gave a great crop of 

 holiey, rather than from the queen herself. 

 And this mode of procedure indicates why 

 we can pay a big price for tested breeders, 

 either queen bees or mother hens. One 

 thing more : 



When you get hold of a fowl that has 

 given you pullets with big records, you 

 should keep that fowl for a breeder, no 



matter how old she is. Even if she is so 

 old that she lays only a few eggs, if these 

 eggs have proven season after season to 

 ]3roduce pullets that are great layers, hold 

 on to her. 



TESTING EGGS BEFORE THEY ARE PUT INTO 

 AN INCUBATOR^ ETC. 



We clip the following from an editorial 



in Poultry Topics for July : 



By testing the eggs before placing them under 

 the hen in the incubator, the farmer can increase 

 the percentage of eggs hatched. In many cases this 

 percentage can almost be doubled. 



We have usually found Poultry Topics 

 to be a very steady and reliable journal; 

 but the above perplexes me exceedingly; 

 and the more I study it the more I am 

 troubled about it — first, has the editor of 

 Poultry Topics been in the habit of keep- 

 ing a hen in his incubator? second, does he 

 mean to tell us that "the farmer" or any- 

 body else, for that matter, can sort out the 

 unfertile eggs before giving them, say three 

 days or more, to a sitting hen, or placing 

 them in an incubator'? I know there are at 

 least two persons who have advertised in 

 the i^oultry journals that they could teach 

 how to sort out the unfertile eggs before 

 giving them either to the hen or to the incu- 

 bator. If I am correct, the magic egg- 

 tester makes some such claim; but I am 

 ready to pay $100 for any process that will 

 succeed as above at any experiment station. 

 The egg-tester simply gives the specific 

 gravity of the egg ; and they claim the 

 heaviest eggs hatch the best chickens. Now, 

 even if this is true, the specific gravity of 

 an egg has nothing to do with its being 

 fertile or unfertile. This I have tested to 

 my satisfaction. 



A KIND WORD FROM ONE OF OUR MISSIONARIES. 



Mr. A. I. Boot: — Time has again brought around 

 one pleasant duty of the moment, which is to thank 

 you, as senior partner in your firm, for your con- 

 tinued kindness to me in the matter of sending me 

 Gleanings for the past 12 months, and which is as 

 much appreciated as it ever was. 



The swing of the pendulum, I observe, has occur- 

 red in your country, and some State legislation has 

 taken place not promotive of temperance. It was the 

 effect I was fearing. Great success in big move- 

 ments seems always to be followed by some setback ; 

 yet the movement is not overthrown. 



In this little island, drunkenness is not in fashion, 

 and one may live and move about in it for months 

 without seeing a person the worse for liquor except 

 at such times as fleets visit us, when it seems to me 

 English marines take a disgraceful first among the 

 nations represented. 



Trusting that many years of usefulness may lie 

 before you in God's cause, and with my best wishes 

 to you and Mrs. Root for a happy 1912, I remain, 

 W. A. Hutchinson. 



St. Joseph's Rectory, Barbados, W. I., Dec. 30. 



