1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



191 



food; and with the fish and aquatic animals 

 they caught where the fresh and salt water 

 commingled they seemed to be well supplied 

 with food without any expensive grain ra- 

 tion. Edgar Briggs, in his book, has a chap- 

 ter on keeping poultry in a way that you 

 will have "nothing to do but gather the 

 eggs;" hadn't I gotten it to a dot? There 

 was just one little trouble: Wesley gathered 

 the eggs, which were found these times in 

 the bottom of the brook; and as he had to 

 crawl through a fence made of netting and 

 barbed wire, and then walk over the sharp 

 stones of some kind of coral rock in the bed 

 of the creek, "gathering the eggs" was no 

 small "joak" after all. I am glad to tell 

 you that we have the ducks at this date 

 (Feb. 9) so trained that they lay their two 

 eggs every day in a nice nest on dry land 

 and they also understand they can't "go in 

 swimming "until said eggs are in my hands, 

 and that is usually before daylight every 

 morning. There have been no more avia- 

 tion experiments up to date. They evident- 

 ly think aquatics preferable. 



Right here I want to whisper a word to 

 my good friends the Wright brothers. A 

 year or two ago they made some experiments 

 on a craft partly in water, and partly in air. 

 Well, my ducks are experts in that trick. 

 A few days ago a Leghorn rooster was so 

 unlucky as to get over the fence on the edge 

 of the water. As soon as the four "duck- 

 eys " saw his predicament they remember- 

 ed they hadn't had any fun chasing chickens 

 for a long while, and they, one and all, shot 

 over the water as if they had been fired out 

 of a cannon. Their wings and legs both 

 flew like buzz-saws, while the water flew in 

 rainbow sprays, and the rooster (frightened 

 out of his wits) rushed to me for protection. 

 Where the soft fresh water pours into the 

 bay when the tide is down, there is quite a 

 pretty little waterfall; and when we have 

 visitors (and there are quite a few bee-friends 

 coming from the great North almost every 

 day) I am sure to find them all delighted 

 with a view of the ducks, especially if they 

 happen to be sporting and splashing about 

 in the waterfall. And, by the way, I want 

 to say the ideal place for ducks is beside run- 

 ning water. Lakes and ponds may do; but 

 a stagnant muddy pool in clay soil is noth- 

 ing to be compared with a running stream 

 over a bottom of white sand, such as we 

 have here in Florida. 



Just one more thing: Duck eggs that are 

 laid in the water, esjiecially if they lie there 

 for some time, are not just the thing for in- 

 cubators or sitting hens — at least that has 

 been my experience. The moss and the 

 animal food they found in the water satis- 

 fled them for only a time, and it was their 

 final hankering for the grains of nice yellow 

 corn that enabled me to get them to come 

 home just about sundown so I could let 

 down the netting and fasten them in. At 

 present we are setting every egg, and I am 

 looking forward anxiously to the day when 

 we shall have a lot of ducklings as well as 

 ducks sporting in this beautiful clear run- 



ning water, flowing over a bed of white sand 

 thickly sprinkled with little shells that 

 make it look for all the world like a spark- 

 ling rivulet with a pebbly bottom. And, 

 talk about the beauty of swans! to my eyes 

 my four ducks with their plump bodies and 

 glossy jDlumage are handsomer than any 

 swans; and the two eggs every morning, 

 like "distance," "lend enchantment to the 

 view." Do you wonder that I feel moved 

 to say aloud when I go out in the morning, 

 after my daily bath just before daylight, 

 "praise Uod, from whom all blessings flow "? 



To-day, Feb. 18, both ducks are still lay- 

 ing an egg each every morning, without a 

 miss. I put the first three or four eggs un- 

 der a hen, but as they were all but one drop- 

 ped in the water I had only one fertile egg. 

 This was started in the incubator, then put 

 under a hen, and finally finished in an in- 

 cubator. At just about 21 days, by putting 

 the egg to my ear I could hear a faint tap- 

 ping inside; at 22 days I distinctly heard 

 the duck peep in answer to my taps on the 

 egg with my finger-nail. At 27 days the 

 egg was chipped, and on the 28th day, after 

 dark, my duckling was out of the shell. 

 Next morning, when the sun was well up, 

 he was scampering around outdoors in the 

 Florida sunshine. Of course, he was out 

 only at intervals, for, like his owner, he at 

 present needs frequent periods of rest and 

 sleep. All the duck eggs are being put un- 

 der hens, so far, and my last two tests of 

 ten and twelve esgs respectively showed 

 every egg fertile. This is quite a contrast to 

 the troubles we have been having with so 

 many unfertile Buttercup eggs. 



Lest some should rush to the conclusion 

 that this may be a fault of the Buttercup 

 males, let me add that hens from other yards 

 were almost determined, so it seemed, to 

 get in with this gaudily attired Buttercup 

 rooster with his lordly and majestic bearing 

 — so much so that, about this time, I count- 

 ed up one day 25 hens, mostly White Leg- 

 horns, following in his wake. Lucky (isn't 

 it?) that I am not in the business of selling 

 eggs? Well, I have now cut down his "ha- 

 rem " to less than a dozen females, and am 

 watching for a better report on "fertile eggs. ' ' 



THAT "PRIMING WIRE," ETC., PAGE 119, 

 FEB. 15. 



After what I said about getting the Sears 

 automobile started was in print I received 

 the following from the makers: 



The wire which you find extended through the 

 frame of your car and attached to the butterfly 

 valve in the air intake of your carburetor Is there 

 to enable you to shut off your air when cranking 

 the motor. This action will permit of a rich charge 

 being drawn in your cylinders, which will be easily 

 ignited by the spark-plug. Very few of our carburet- 

 ors have a priming-device and also this butterfly 

 valve in the air intake; but it does no harm to have 

 both. They really are for the same purpose — that 

 is, to permit of easy starting of the motor. 



Chicago, Jan. 30, Sears, Roebuck & Co. 



You will notice this implies that this 

 "starting wire " is to be pulled back and 

 held back while cranking, whereas we, sup- 



