578 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



For full-grown fowls, friend Stoddard uses 

 netting with a two-inch mesh, and makes 

 it about four feet high, and, say, six feet 

 square, according to the number of fowls. 

 No mites or other vermin can find a lodging- 

 place in this all-metal chicken-coop. Of 

 course you will have to go around to all the 

 cages, big and little, and shut them up after 

 the fowls get in. Then you will need to get 

 up by daylight (as I do when in Florida) , and 

 let them all out, big and little, as soon as they 

 want to get out. This is something of a task, 

 it is true; but it is the only method that I 

 know of to prevent absolutely all losses from 

 night prowlers. If you think there is no 

 danger in your locality of skunks or possums 

 or rats digging under, you may omit the 

 poultry-netting /oor. But I think it is saf- 

 er to have it. Then you know your valuable 

 stock is absolutely safe, and that it will be 

 there in the morning sound and well. Now 

 to clean out these i)oultry-runs, big and lit- 

 tle, just grab hold of one side and turn it 

 upside down. This scatters the droppings 

 over the ground, and it is certainly quicker 

 and simpler than any method of' cleaning 

 the roosts, and will keep them sanitary. 



To prevent chickens from getting into the 

 habit of roosting on top instead of inside, 

 friend Stoddard has used a triangular cage, 

 the three sides being all alike. I do not ex- 

 actly see how this works unless he has one 

 roost the whole length of the long wire-cloth 

 prism. In order to economize the expense 

 of wire cloth he has also used a long cylin- 

 der, the birds roosting, as I understand it, 

 on a pole that goes through the axis. To 

 give them fresh ground every morning, you 

 simply roll the cylinder over half a turn or 

 less. Where this square cage is used for 

 large fowls, two of the roosting-poles can 

 project through far enough so a boy at each 

 end can move it where you want it. These 

 poultry-cages are to be used principally as 

 colony houses— no yard — and friend Stod- 

 dard claims to be the first writer on poultry 

 to suggest houses scattered over the "egg- 

 farm " instead of having separate yards for 

 his Hocks. This may be true, for I well re- 

 member when his first account, wdth dia- 

 grams, in the American Agriculturist, of 

 his plan of an egg-farm, came out, I was so 

 much taken up with it that I could hardly 

 sleep at night. 



Now, friends, these poultry-cages can be 

 used, I am sure, with much benefit to the 

 health of the chickens here in the North in 

 warm weather. In Florida, I knoiv they 

 will give good results the year round; for, as 

 I have told you, I kept laying hens success- 

 fully for three or four winters in my Southern 

 home, roosting in trees with no protection 

 whatever from storms of any sort, and I 

 never had chickens do better. For pity's 

 sake, let us stop "killing our chickens by 

 (mistaken) kindness." 



WATER FOR DUCKS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU 

 WANT FERTILE EGGS. 



We frequently see it stated in the farm 

 papers that Indian Runner ducks can be 



reared without water to swim in; and we 

 are told again and again that little ducks 

 must not be allowed to get into the water. 

 You will remember I have discussed this 

 latter point at considerable length. Well, a 

 woman stated in one of the poultry journals 

 (I am sorry I did not make a clipping of it) 

 that ducks, in following nature, mate in 

 water; and this reminds me of something 

 about our Indian Runner ducks in Florida 

 last winter. Before I let them out of the 

 yard to go to the creek I rei)eatedly saw 

 them mate; but after I let them go to the 

 creek in the morning (after the eggs were 

 laid) , the very first thing after getting into 

 the water was the mating. In fact, they 

 seemed to postpone this matter (so impor- 

 tant in regard to getting fertile eggs) until 

 they were let out in shallow water; I won- 

 dered what this meant, and what was the 

 cause of it. Well, now, this lady stated in 

 one of the poultry-journals that, unless the 

 breeding ducks were allowed to mate in iva- 

 ter, the eggs would not all be fertile. 

 Another writer in one of our poultry-jour- 

 nals, in speaking of geese and raising gos- 

 lings, says the same thing in regard to geese 

 — that the eggs would not hatch unless the 

 breeders are permitted to do their mating /n 

 the water. Now, this is an exceedingly im- 

 portant matter; and yet our books and wri- 

 ters about Indian Runner ducks have had 

 nothing to say about it. In the .luly num- 

 ber of that excellent journal called Poultry, 

 the editor writes as follows: 



The eggs from the Indian Runners have failed to 

 hatch entirely. Of more than 100 eggs which we 

 have set, mostly under hens, we have had exactly 

 three ducklings hatch, and not one of them lived 

 to be three days old. 



Of course, we do not know that the Run- 

 ners that laid the above eggs had no access 

 to water to swim in; but in view of what I 

 said, it seems very likely. See below. 



It seems that somebody complained to 

 the editor of the Practical Parmer that 

 goslings did not come out of the shell unless 

 they were helped out. The poultry editor 

 replies as follows: 



We asked Roy Crandall. the iiarty who sold us 

 the goose eggs, and \\ho makes a business of rais- 

 ing geese on a large scale, about the trouble we 

 had in getting the little goslings to come out of the 

 shell, and he writes us as follows: " I should say 

 that lack of moisture was the reason you had to 

 peel the goslings off the shell. Some folks let the 

 goslings die in the shell, and then complain about 

 the eggs hatching poorly. We take the goose and 

 set her in a pan of lukewarm water .about the 7th, 

 the 21st, and 27th or 28th day; get her fairly wet, 

 and then let her go back on the nest. She won't 

 like it, but has to stand it. This will moisten the 

 eggs just about right. A goose goes into the water 

 nearly every morning while sitting. 



Now, the above is an important sugges- 

 tion. A duck or goose, while sitting, sure- 

 ly goes into the water (if she can) every 

 day or at least every two or three days; and 

 when she comes back to her nest she cer- 

 tainly gives the eggs a i)retty good wetting; 

 and, if I am correct, the directions that go 

 with almost every incubator, in regard to 

 hatching cluck eggs, recommend considera- 

 bly more moisture than is ever.needed with 

 hens' eggs. And all this reminds us that 

 ducks and geese ai'e "waterfowls." 



