350 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



hours. It is more often in 25, 26, 28, or BO, 

 and clear u]) to 48 hours, which would be an 

 egg every other day. Now, there are evi- 

 dently a few hens that lay an egg every 2o 

 hours; fewer still, 22, and may be less. 

 These hens' or ducks would, therefore, occa- 

 sionally lay two eggs inside of a day. Such 

 eggs, of course, would ha\"e to be laid, at 

 least one of them, in the night time; and 

 tliis might account for the eggs we find un- 

 der the roost. On my Florida ranch they 

 roost not only low down, say 2 or 2>^ feet 

 from tlie ground, but the sand under the 

 roost is so soft tliat an egg is very seldom 

 brot:en that is dropped in the night. This 

 accomplishes two desirable things: The 

 eggs are not wasted, and the hens are not 

 taught the egg-eating habit by finding a 

 broken egg under the roost. 1 would sug- 

 gest that the duck mentioned above laid an 

 egg in a little less than 24 hours; and there- 

 fore in 9G days there was a sliowing of two 

 more eggs tlian an egg a day. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS. 



The editor of that excellent jioultry-jour- 

 nal called Poultrij has been testing the In- 

 dian llunner ducks. Here is what he says 

 about them: 



We received the three ducks and the drake March 

 'A. <Jne duck laid March 12, and the next day two of 

 them laid. Then all three of them began to lay 

 regularly, and up to this time (twenty-five days aft- 

 er we picked up the first egg) we have got seventy- 

 two eggs, lacking tlu'ee of getting one a day from 

 each duck for twenty-live days. Kvery one of these 

 eggs has lieen pure white. Tested by cooking we 

 have been unable to detect any difference between 

 them and eggs from our hens. W'e are very much 

 interested in these ducks of ours, and we are going 

 to keel) tliem going as long as we can, and raise as 

 many of them as we can this season. If they con- 

 tinue as they have started out. we are inclined to 

 think that our egg-ranch will be largely stocked 

 with Indian Runners in the end. 



Well, if his exi)erience and mine are not 

 the exception, no wonder he is coming to 

 the same conclusion as myself — that all })is 

 chicken business hereafter will be consider- 

 ably along the line of ducks. 



THE PROSPECT OF A HONEY CROP IN THE 

 EXTREME SOUTH OF FLORIDA, ETC. 



The "general drouth in Florida," spoken of in 

 (iLEANiN(;s for April 1, has been broken in a few 

 places in this county. There have l)een good showers 

 in Alva. Caloosa, and this place. At the first two 

 points the orange-bloom was delayed by the dry 

 weather, but the rain has put tire trees into full 

 Hower. and one could gather a great crojj of honey 

 if he would move his bees there. Thiit is not the 

 thing to do, however, for the saw palmetto is just 

 l)looniing i>rofusely, and the haivest here is begin- 

 ning. The heavy rain which we liad a week ago 

 was in addition to that mentioned above, .and put 

 enough moisture in the ground to keep many acres 

 in full liovver for several weeks. It is too bad that 

 tons of nectar are to go to waste for lack of bees to 

 gather it. There are line locations in this county 

 for many large apiaries. It might be well for some 

 of the friends to consider tliem carefully. 



The largest l)ee-keei)er in tlie county is a lad.v — 

 Mrs. Hrainard, postmistress at Captiva. She has o" 

 colonies at tliistime, and writes that she gets a crojj 

 of honey every year from sea-gi-ajje, mangrove, and 

 cabbage palmetto, though not always a large one. 

 There are not enough oranges and saw palmettos 

 on the island to give any surplus from these sources. 



Captiva is a long narrow island that is far beyond 

 bee-fligiit from the mainland. I think her location 

 is about as poor as could be found in the county. 



Many en(iuiries have come to me about free gov- 

 ernment lands. 1 have had time to reply to only a 

 few of them. The last one received asks that I re- 

 ply through (li.KANiNGs. r will do that, telling 

 what 1 think of the homestead proposition after a 

 year's exj)ei*ience with it, if you care to have me. 

 It does not look as rosy to me as it did when I first 

 came to Florida. 



Ft. Myers, Fla., .\pril 20. F. M. Baldwin. 



Friend B., I am very glad to tell you we 

 had several good rains in Manatee Co. be- 

 fore 1 left. The last one gave waXyi inches 

 of water in one shower. By all means tell 

 us about the government land. I am glad 

 to see you own uj) that your experience is 

 not quite equal to your anticii)ation when 

 you first started in your Southern home. 



THE CROWS — ARE THEY THE FARMER'S 

 FRIENDS OR FOES? 



I have always felt sad, and a good many 

 times worried, to see the boys start out to 

 hunt crows; and even when the crows are 

 digging up the corn I have wondered — in 

 fact, hoped — that there might be some bet- 

 ter remedy than i)oisoned corn or even tar- 

 red corn. Well, the Eid'cd Neiv-YorkerlvA^ 

 had several communications lately to the 

 efTect that it is better and cheajier to leave 

 enough corn on the toj) of the ground for 

 the crows, .so they will not i)ull it up. In 

 order to avoid having the corn cultivated 

 under, and coming uj) as a weed in a corn- 

 field, the corn is sprinkled along the dead 

 furrows, where the crows can easily find it 

 without ])ulling uj) the i)lanted corn. One 

 writer suggests that a i)eck of corn scattered 

 about will ])rotect a ten-acre lot; and it is 

 not only the cheapest remedy, all things 

 considered, but after Mr. Crow is satisfied 

 with all the corn he wants, in order to make 

 a balanced ration he needs some animal 

 food, and he will go to work at, the grubs 

 and cut-worms with just as much relish as 

 if he had not had so much corn. When we 

 take into consideration the damage that 

 worms and insects do because there are not 

 enough birds to keep them under, is not the 

 aboN'e a sensible and humane way to man- 

 age the crow? It has been suggested that 

 even skunks as a whole are of more benefit 

 to the farmer than damage; but, of course, 

 this would not i)revent us from trapping or 

 shooting any 'nidiridii(il.'< of the tribe that 

 had got into the habit of visiting our chick- 

 en-coops. 



SPECIAL NOTICE. 



W. S. McKnight, queen-breeder, of Xewton, Ala., 

 has just informed us that his shop was destroyed by 

 fire a few days ago, and that the loss includes most 

 of the correspondence anil (luecn (jrders he has re- 

 ceived this spring, rnlortunately. Mr. McKnight 

 has no duiJlicatesof his orders, and can not tell who 

 is entitled to queens, lie lias requested this an- 

 nouncement, and asks that his ijatrons kindly bear 

 with him in his trouble, and let him know at once 

 of orders they Iiave sent, with the amount, and 

 what for. This we trust they will do. 



