AUGUST 15, 1913 



531 



I have thought best to mention tne aoove 

 because several parties coming from the 

 North have been assessed additional charges 

 — not quite so large, however — in several 

 cases, even after they had the receipt in 

 full, paid to destination. 



Let us now go back to friend Klein, who 

 came to Florida, I think, some time in 

 November, on account of his health. He 

 improved rapidly, and gained 15 lbs. in 

 flesh, and was highly delighted with the 

 change; but along in February or Mjareh 

 the Florida grip or something else got hold 



or him, and he became so sick and discour- 

 aged that I have just learned he has moved 

 back to Ohio with all his family and pos- 

 sessions. I have not learned, however, 

 whether he shipped liis little automobile 

 back or left it there. 



Now, had tliis good brother taken friend 

 Keek's advice, and sjjent a winter in Flor- 

 ida before going down there with his family 

 and all his possessions, think of what he 

 would have probably saved in money alone, 

 and ])erha]is unpleasant experiences as 

 well. 



Poultry Department 



EDUCATING THE LEGHORNS NOT TO FLY; 



SOMETHING ABOUT INEXPENSIVE 



FENCES. 



Mtost of us have discovered, sooner or 

 later, that chickens can be educated, like 

 other animals, in the matter of getting over 

 fences or tln-ough them ; but I- suppose only 

 a few of us have ever considered the matter 

 of educating chickens riot to fly. I have 

 discovered this in our Florida home — that, 

 when they get a fashion of flying over the 

 fences, it is a hard matter to stop them. 

 Clipping one or both wing's promptly with 

 the tirst hen that starts the habit Avill often 

 wind it up ; and after our flock has been 

 away from the yard during the summer 

 they seem to forget about flying over; and 

 although our fences in Florida are only 

 four feet high, last winter we had almost 

 no trouble at all by the hens getting out. 

 Just before we came away a few' had learn- 

 ed the trick. Now, here is something from 

 the periodical called Poultry that is new to 

 me: 



Last spring we built our breeding-pens on a plan 

 new to us. We made them long, and but six feet 

 wide, as the breeding-pens were made up of small 

 numbers, from six to fifteen birds in a pen. The 

 sides of these pens were made of three-foot poultry- 

 netting, and they were covered over the top with 

 six-foot netting. This gave plenty of head room for 

 the fowls, and these enclosed i)ens were cheaper 

 than those witli high fences would have been. We 

 have enough of these pens to furnish room for all 

 the hens we kept over, about 85. During the breed- 

 ing season they were kept in these pens almost con- 

 tinuously, and they soon learned that they could not 

 fly out of them because of the netting cover. Not 

 being given to reasoning, these hens have come to 

 believe that a fence is insurmountable, no matter 

 how low it is, and do not try to fly over the 26- 

 inch fence. I am led to this conclusion by the fact 

 that two or three times when a hen has wandered 

 into the garden through an open gate she would 

 allow herself to be caught before she would try to 

 fly over the low fence. 



We have concluded to keep these hens in this no- 

 tion of staying behind a fence. Every few days we 

 simply leave them in tiie pens all day, and we be- 

 lieve we can keep them from learning that a low 

 fence can be got over. If this continues to work we 

 have learned to save time and trouble, for we can 

 build the covered runs at small expense, and orchard 

 fences cost money, and a lot of it, in this country. 

 Any one who will go to the trouble of building low 

 covered runs such as we have used this year can 



soon solve the problem of keeping fowls in subjec- 

 tion ; and we consider this one of the most money- 

 saving things we ever learned about the habits of 

 fowls. 



This covered poultry-yard, as described 

 above, is a splendid arrangement for a hen 

 and chickens where hawks are apt to be 

 troublesome ; and a three-inch-mesh netting, 

 which is comparatively cheap, will answer 

 overhead as well as any. Another point 

 comes in right here. A two or three foot 

 fence that would never answer to keep 

 chickens in a yard will do excellent service 

 in keeping them out of the garden. I have 

 seen a two-foot fence keep Leghorns of¥ the 

 garden all sunmier — that is, unless some 

 one of them happened to discover how easy 

 it was to get over. Now, this point we 

 have been speaking of applies to turkeys as 

 well as chickens; and the same letter I 

 have quoted from gives us the following: 



We might add that our bronze turkeys have never 

 been inside the orchard, although they were hatched 

 and raised around the poultry-yard. In fact, these 

 same turkeys, hatched in the spring of last year, 

 have never been confined in any way- — have unlimit- 

 ed territory over which to roam, and yet we have 

 never caught one of them ten rods from the place 

 where they were hatched. 



You see the turkeys, had they been eon- 

 fined by a 26-ineh fence, would have gotten 

 out without any trouble ; but when it was 

 getting into the orchard, instead of getting 

 out of it, it was a different thing. 



Now, here is something more from the 

 same periodical: 



HEEF SCRAP FOR LAYING HENS; HOW MUCH 

 AND HOW LITTLE IS NEEDED. 

 This season we concluded we would try to dis- 

 cover just how little beef scrap we could use and 

 still get the maximum number of eggs. We soon 

 found that we could reduce the quantity of scraps 

 fed to the place where egg-production would fall off" 

 in a very noticeable way. Between 5 and 8 per 

 cent beef scraps in the regular feed of hens seems to 

 be about right. If cut below 5 per cent the number 

 of eggs gathered becomes less almost at once. Feed- 

 ing 10 per cent beef scrap seems to promote growth 

 in young chicks, but hens do not seem to lay better 

 than they do when a little less is fed. 



Please consider that if your fowls, or, 

 say, hens and cliickens, have a run where 



