184 



glkaning^ ih nm<: cultuhe. 



Feb. 



CLEAN -WATER FOR POULTRY. 



DR. A. B. MASON USES A BEE-FEEDER TO GIVE THE 

 CHICKENS DRINK. 



fRIEND ROOT:— Inclosed I send a drawing of 

 an automatic fountain, with which to water 

 poultry, that will be good to set in your 

 winter poultry-house or anywhere else. It is 

 the handiest, best, and cheapest I ever saw. 

 Mine is made of heavy galvanized sheet-iron. As 

 neither fowls nor chickens can get into It, and no 

 dirt gets scratched into the water, it is kept clean. 

 We have smaller ones set on the ground for chick- 

 ens. I got the idea for this from H. D. Cutting's 

 bee-feeder. 



mason's POULTRY DlilNKING FOUNT. 



It is made of three pieces. One piece, 10.\' 



inches, bent thus, makes the body. This will bring 

 the front end within one inch of the bot- 

 tom of the tray, and 'iVz inches from the 

 front, and ii inch lower than the front. 



The curved front might be left 

 straight, thus, but it would be in the r — 





way of the fowls' heads when drinking. 



The ends are made of pieces Jij^ inches wide 

 and 10 inches long, with ^s of an inch of the side and 

 upper end turned at a right angle, and the lower 

 end cut out as shown. The ends of the body part 

 will just lit inside of the turned edges of the end 

 pieces, and, when soldered, the fountain is com- 

 plete, and will hold between two and three quarts. 

 If desirable to have it hold more, it can be made 

 larger In any or all directions. 



It is easily filled by turning it on its back and 

 pouring in the water; and then, by tipping back 

 further, it will fill up to the top. It can then be 

 set where desired, and is "ready for " business." 



A. B. Mason. 



Auburndale, Lucas Co., O., Dec. 12, 1887. 



Very good, doctor. AVe huve had our tin- 

 ners make one just after your drawing, and 

 it does the business tiptop. But within a 

 few miles of us are stoneware I'actories 

 which keep something on the same princi- 

 ple, of stone, which we think a little nicer, 

 because the latter is so much more easily 

 kept clean. It is just as you say— the chick- 

 ens can not step on the sides and upset the 

 thing. They can not wade in the water, 

 nor scratch dirt and droppings into it. The 

 water looks clean and pure so long as there 

 is a drop of it left. The stoneware arrange- 

 ment is a little heavier for transportation ; 

 but the expense for the same capacity is 

 about the same as the galvanized arrange- 

 ment figured above, and I do like the idea 

 of having the poultry neat and cleanly in 

 their habits. It is a pretty hard matter to 

 keep a poultry-house looking tidy ; but 

 these arrangements are a great help toward 

 it. 



JlE^Dg 0F 6^^I]\[ 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



REPORTS IN REGARD TO THE PROSPECTS IN DIF- 

 FERENT STATES. 



fHE plan as proposed in Gleanings, by Prof. 

 Cook, for gathering and publishing statis- 

 tics in regard to the honey crop, is, I think, 

 an excellent one, and I hope the editor of 

 Gleanings will not fail to adopt it. Everj' 

 season I hear my neighbor bee-keepers say, " I wish 

 I knew how the honey crop is in the West, South, 

 and North, then I should know what to ask for my 

 honey, and when to sell." Last year I got about 80 

 lbs. of box honey per colony. I thought if this 

 was about what every bee-keeper got, I had better 

 sell my honey as soon as I could, and 1 did. I re- 

 ceived only 14 cts. per lb., net. If I had known 

 that the crop was so small I should have asked 20 

 cts. and got it. Should you desire to add this fea- 

 ture to Gle.\nings, J ou may consider your hum- 

 ble servant free of all cost. W. Crommie. 

 Cobleskill, N. Y., Jan. 25, 1888. 



Thank you, friend C. This matter of 

 statistics is certainly to be a prominent fea- 

 ture of Gleanings for the coming year— at 

 least, we are going to try it; and until we 

 get it a little more under way we should be 

 glad to have the friends everywhere tell us 

 how bees have wintered, and the prospects 

 generally for a crop of honey, so far as they 

 can. For the present we will publish these, 

 providing they are made brief. A postal 

 card will contain all that needs to be said, 

 and you can write it big at that. From lo- 

 calities in the South, where winter is al- 

 ready over, and the bees are gathering 

 stores to some extent, reports will be ac- 

 ceptable already. Please let us have them 

 for our next issue. 



honev by the bushel ; a new use for the 

 potato-boxes. 



I received the goods you sent me, all in good 

 shape. Those 32 potato-boxes are "just boss." I 

 am putting them up on stormy days and at odd 

 spells, and filling them with those one-pound sec- 

 tions. They hold 72 sections as nicely as though 

 they were made to hold them. I shall soon have 32 

 bushels of sections put up; and I tell my folks, 

 that, if nothing happens, I expect 32 bushels of 

 honey in one-pound boxes ne.vt fall. I will tell you 

 how I expect to get it. I shall have those potato- 

 boxes full of sections with starters in when the 

 honey season opens, and put them on 68 colonies 

 when the right time comes; and when they are full 

 I shall take the boxes out in the apiary; and as I 

 take off those nice white sections tilled with white 

 honey, I shall shake off the bees as fast as possible, 

 and fill those potato-boxes and carry them in by 

 those handles, and then clean it up and put it in 

 shipping-cases in time to have the boxes to han- 

 dle my potatoes with. Do you think I can suc- 

 ceed'? 



Do you make the T sui)er to use wood separators? 

 I much jirefer wood to tin for separators, and those 

 four 1 received from you will not take wood separa- 

 tors with the ISj sections. 1 should like to know, 

 as I was thinking of ordering some more. 



Do you make wood separators to fit the T 

 super? 



