736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



to chase us. Little Bennie. Clara's brother, 

 thought it fine fun to see Fido chase us. He 

 caught and liilled two of us. and carried one to 

 the house in his mouth. Mistiess Brown saw 

 him have it. and took it away from him and 

 whipped him hard, and showed him the poor 

 dead chick, and whipptd him again. After that 

 he never chased us. 



One very warm night we went to bed very 

 liappy; and as mistress Brown had placed a 

 board up in front of oui- coop every nieht since 

 the rats bothered us, it was so warm we got 

 over the hole in the floor, so as to get air. as 

 there were thirteen of us left, more than half- 

 grown chickens, and it was very warm in the 

 coop. The old rat had not forgotten where he 

 could get food to rat, so he thought he would 

 have some more chicken, and caught some of 

 us, and tried to pull us through the hole in the 

 floor: but we wen^ too large to pull through. 

 But he held on to my foot. and. oh how he did 

 hurt! He piflled and pulled, and I squalled, 

 and mother Biddie squalled, and mistress 

 Brown came running out. She said she did 

 not see what was the matter of those chickens, 

 as they were shut up tight in the coop. She 

 knew It could not be rats. She went back to 

 the house, and in a little while another one of 

 us was caught by the foot, and we all squalled 

 again; and so we had our feet caught and bit 

 several times that night. 



When little Clara came out in the morning to 

 feed us she said she was so sorry, for Beauty 

 (that was my name) and Toinmie had each lost 

 a foot, and one other chick had lost a toe. She 

 told her ma, who came out and examined the 

 coop, and said it was no wonder, as there was 

 such a great hole in the bottom of the coop a 

 rat could almost crawl through. Brother Tom- 

 niie and I had to hobble around on one foot, 

 and suffer much. Mother Biddif said it was 

 carelessness, thoughtlessness, laziness, and ig- 

 norance that caused much of the suffering in 

 this world, and that made people so poor. 



Mistress had one coop of downy little chicks, 

 nearly black (as all little Plymouth Rocks are 

 when just hatched, the pullets being the dark- 

 est). This coop of chickens was set close to the 

 bees because it was a nice shady place, shady 

 at noon, but had the sunshine morning and 

 evening. I guess she forgot that bees would 

 sting a black chicken when they would not 

 notice a white one; and they will sting little 

 downy chicks worse than when feathered out. 

 The bees stung those little black chicks so bad- 

 ly that it was pitiful to hear them chirp so 

 often, and see them run to the coop with two 

 or more bees stinging them. Sometimes their 

 mother would catch the bees in her bill, and 

 pull them olT. and sometimes some of the older 

 chickens would pull them off. Several chicks 

 died from the effect of the stings before the 

 coop was moved. 



After a few weeks, my stump of a leg, and 

 Tommie's, got well, and they called us 

 "sturapies;" and little mistress petted us a 

 great deal because we were cripples. 



When master Brown worked with his bees 

 we learned to follow along with him, and pick 

 up the roaches that ran out of the hives. We 

 got so tame he rather liked us because we 

 caught the roaches. He told mistress we tag- 

 ged him around like little dogs, and would run 

 to him as soon as he went down into the apiary. 

 Sometimes he would set his nice honey down. 

 We soon found out it was delicious. We picked 

 into some of his nice combs, which made him 

 very angry and throw sticks at us; but I guess 

 honey tasted just as good to us as it did to him. 

 He said we bothered hiiu ever so much, for he 

 did not dare to set honey down anywhere, be- 

 cause the twostumpies had taught all the other 



chickens to eat honey, and it would teach him 

 a lesson never to let chickens get a taste of 

 honey. 



By this time the weather was very warm, 

 and we were shut up tight in our coops at 

 night to keep out the rats. Oh how warm and 

 uncomfortable we did getl Master W'illiams 

 called one day to see how mistress Brown suc- 

 ceeded with the purebred poultry she got of 

 him. He told mistress that he was not troubled 

 with rats since he took to poisoning them in a 

 box about three feet long, a foot and a half 

 wide, and two feet high, with a two-inch hole 

 bored in the top of each end. He made two 

 such boxes and set one in the barn and one in 

 his shop near his chicken-house. For several 

 nights he put in fresh corn meal. At first they 

 would not notice it; but in a week or so they 

 took it finely; then he mixed some rat-extermi- 

 nator with it. which they ate, and which must 

 have killed great numbers of them, as they had 

 not bothered him since. He said the lid ought 

 to be locked when the poison is in, for fear of 

 accidents. 



He takes old wire cloth, and nails it over a 

 frame that just slips down into two grooves at 

 the fronts of his coops, so his little girl can 

 slip them in at night without his having to look 

 after them, which makes it much cooler for the 

 chickens. As the coops are all set in a row. the 

 little girl is not apt to miss any,. 



Mother Biddie thought that,' as we were get- 

 ting so old, she would slip away from us. As 

 mistress had not been keeping her in the coop 

 during the day of late, she chose her nest on the 

 ground, and filled it full of eggs before mistress 

 found it. Mistress said, because it was on the 

 ground the eggs would be likely to hatch well, 

 because of the dampness. If people would put 

 fresh earth in the nests when up from the 

 ground, and occasionally dampen them, it 

 would cause eggs to hatch better, as many 

 chicks die while hatching. Mother Biddie 

 said if some careful person would help the little 

 chicks to get out of the shell after it was picked, 

 many chicks might be saved— that is, if the 

 shells did not readily come off; but they must 

 be careful or they will injure the chick. It is 

 the inside lining of the shell, more than the 

 shell itself, that detains the chick. If the shell 

 is cracked and peeled off. and the lining left on. 

 it quickly dries and becomes tough, and the 

 chick can not help itself. This should be care- 

 fully peeled off; but if the chicks seem to be 

 hatching all right they had better be left alone. 



When mother Biddie was allowed to set this 

 time, mistress set two other hens at the same 

 time. In six days the eggs were tested by tak- 

 ing them all out of the nest after dark; then, 

 taking the eggs one at a time between the 

 thumb and forefinger of the right hand, place 

 them in front of the blaze of the lantern, and 

 shade the light with the other hand. The un- 

 fertile eggs will be clear, and the fertile ones 

 will be dark, with an air space at the large end. 

 There will be some you can not determine 

 whether they are fertile or not. and should be 

 tested again on the thirteenth or fourteenth 

 day. The fertile eggs may now all be put 

 under two hens. Th(>y will hatch better than 

 if the unfertile ones are left in the nest. As 

 they contain no embryo chick they have no 

 warmth of themselves. If all the eggs are fer- 

 tile, the heat is greater, which is very impor- 

 tant early in the spring. 



If more convenient, and the hens are wild, 

 the eggs may be tested in the daytime by hold- 

 ing them in the left hand, or in an egg-tester, 

 and looking toward the sun. 



Do not neglect in midsummer to use the 

 insect-powder from tlie sprayer two or more 

 times while Biddie is sitting, as it is very easy 



