GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



they can scratch and get more or less in- 

 sects, the animal food may not be needed; 

 but where they are kept in yards, in order 

 to get the best results they must have both 

 green food and meat in some form. 



THE CONVERGENT POULTRY-YARD AS DESCRIB- 

 ED IN OUR JULY 1st issue. 



At the present writing, Aug. 1, I am_ a 

 little disappointed to find so little notice 

 taken of this new departure, for I am sure 

 it is destined evidently to cut an important 

 fig-ure in farming and in poultry-raising in 

 general. One of our agricultural papers 

 mentions a dairy barn to be made on this 

 principle. The silo stands in the center of 

 the barn, which is circular; the cows with 

 their heads toward the center. The feed is 

 taken from the silo right across the alley to 

 the cows' manger. The manure is gathered 

 by driving around the outside of the barn. 

 Although I am but little conversant with 

 the dairy business, it seems to me this 

 would be a wonderful saving of expense 

 and time. But to get back to the matter of 

 poultry, just think of the convenience of 

 having eight, sixteen, or joossibly more 

 yards, for that matter, all running up to a 

 common center. If a broody hen is found, 

 just let her loose in a vacant yard. You 

 can give her a setting of eggs, or break her 

 of sitting, without any delay or running 

 back and forth; or suppose you have a hen 

 \^dth a lot of chicks, no matter whether it is 

 a common brood or sixty or seventy, as I 

 manage, just put her in a vacant yard, 

 where her wants and those of the chickens 

 are all supplied, and they are also perfectly 

 secure from all sorts of poultry enemies. 

 At little additional expense you can also 

 keep off: haAvks and owls as well as rats and 

 wild animals. When you wish to separate 

 the surplus cockerels, every thing is all 

 fixed for that without any trouble. Any 

 number of choice breeding-pens can be 

 started in a twinkling; and every fowl in 

 your possession has free range, and yet can 

 be made perfectly secure at night without 

 any chasing about. 



In my Florida home last winter I had 

 seven yards, besides the ducks. The yard 

 for my cockerels was away off in one cor- 

 ner of my square five-acre lot. The ducks 

 were in another corner, and my best pen of 

 Leghorns in still another corner. This last 

 pen was down near the creek by the boys' 

 swimming-hole, and several times a dog 

 got in among my chickens. They were so 

 far away from the house that they were 

 more meddled with than in the other yard. 

 Now, with the convergent yards all the 

 fowls on the ranch can be close by where 



you sleep, so that it is an easy matter to 

 note a disturbance in the night. At the 

 same time, they can each and all radiate 

 during the day all over the five-acre poul- 

 trj'-farm. A similar arrangement can be 

 made for hens and chickens, say on a small 

 scale. Most of you know how much work 

 it is to take care of, say, half a dozen hens 

 with cliicks of different ages. Suppose 

 each hen with her brood could come right 

 up to some central point where you have 

 chick feed, grit, oyster-shells, water, and 

 every thing they need. All you have to do 

 is to go into this central inclosure, close by 

 your home if you choose, and every hen 

 with her brood would rush up for the ra- 

 tions — no fighting nor quarreling. To save 

 labor I used to have my chick feed kej^t in 

 a covered can. The can had to be lugged 

 back and forth from one yard to another, 

 or else I was obliged to have a similar cov- 

 ered can near each hen with her brood. Of 

 course the same arrangement works equally 

 well with a tireless brooder or lamp brood- 

 er. You can have a dozen different brood- 

 ers if you like, and one roof may cover 

 them all, with radiating j^ards, so that the 

 chicks may have range as fast and as far as 

 they need it. I notice the poultry journals 

 are recommending that each pen of fowls 

 sliould have two yards, so you can grow 

 green stuff in one yard while the fowls oc- 

 cupy the other. The radiating yards 

 would be the nicest thing in the world for 

 this i^urpose. Some one may suggest that 

 this all sounds well enough on paper. Well, 

 Providence permitting, in a very few days 

 T expect to have the fun of arranging it on 

 my five acres in Florida; and I am going to 

 try to have something I shall not be asham- 

 ed to show visitors when they come around. 

 May be it would pay you during the win- 

 ter time to take a trip down to that land 

 you have all heard me talk so much about. 



mustard to start hens LAYING AND TO 

 KEEP THEM LAYING. 



Since saying what I did about mustard, 

 from the book entitled ''The Corning Egg- 

 farm," and what I copied also from E. L. 

 Keyser, there have been constant inquiries 

 made in regard to how much mustard, how 

 to feed it, and how often to feed it. I pre- 

 sume this will have to be settled largely by 

 trial. I wish our experiment stations would 

 lend a hand. All I know about it is this : I 

 purchased a box of ground mustard at the 

 grocery, and put a heaping teaspoonful into 

 half a pailful of mash made of bran shorts, 

 middlings, Indian meal, etc., stirring it 

 thoroughly so as to have it distributed all 

 through the dry bran. Then this was wet 



