Nov. 15, 1911 



705 



killers now for sale in our stores would an- 

 swer a good purpose. After you have killed 

 a few they will take leave, and 1 think they 

 are very easily frightened away. Of course, 



the loss of a few bees does not amount to 

 much; but, like the king-bird, as they gen- 

 erally grab for the largest bee they will 

 probably pick out the drones and queens. 



[P®qoD{1d°^ [D®^®[p{^mn' 



HINTS TO POULTRY-KEEPERS, FROM THE 

 MAN WHO HAS GIVEN US THE "NEW 

 DISCOVERY." 

 I am just glancing over the paees of your March 

 1st issue and would lilce to comment. 



TWENTY-ONE DAYS NOT ALWAYS THE RULE. 



People who thinli chicks should always come out 

 on the 21st day, and then l>reak up the hen, or 

 open, find many dead in shell, which, if left or 

 placed in a machine after the hen had gone oflf 

 with her chicks, would have hatched later. Two 

 weeks ago a hen abandoned her nest. P3ggs were 

 put in the machine, and they have been coming 

 out for the past four days— probably according to 

 the amount of chill each got. 



FILLING THE EGG-TRAYS ON THE START WITH THE 

 SMALL END DOWN. 



About placing the small end down, I once, in an 

 eight-tray machine, stood 2 trayfuls on small ends, 

 wiggling them a little twice daily. I left them this 

 way, tt'C whole hatch untested — bin ends always 

 up — and the.se two trays seemed to beat the others; 

 but I have no figures now. There was not a ciip- 

 ple, and Ertel says cripples come from small end 

 being up. 



OVERHEATING, THE CAUSE OF INFERTILE EGGS. 



Your lady who bought your Buckeye and eggs, 

 and found 28 infertile, likely overheated at the 

 start. I had a thermometer which was 8 degrees 

 too high, and, though 1 ran it at 102, I was actually 

 running at 110. Result, every egg tested out dear. 

 It takes a hen one week to heat eggs to the center 

 to 100 degrees: 10 days to 101. The machines heat 

 to 100 at center in 24 hours. 



SULPHUR FOR NEWLY HATCHED CHICKS— A CAU- 

 TION. 



I ted sulphur to one lot of newly hatched for a 

 few feeds, with groiuid dry food, and then heard 

 that would hurt them, so I stopped. There were IH, 

 and there are now seven, one quite large, and the 

 rest, except one, small, and that one medium. 

 The two larger are the only lively ones. Those that 

 died showed no outward sign. Liver spotted. They 

 went off very quick— weak one day, dead the next. 

 They were on range. No others acted the same. 

 Was it sulphur? 



SALT-WATER BATHING A REMEDY FOR REDBUGS. 



Thirty years ago I found the remedy for redbugs 

 on my limbs to be to go into the salt water (ocean), 

 and stand in the sun to dry off. I never had any 

 after that, while others scratched their legs raw. 



OIL OF TAR FOR SOREHEAD. 



Sorehead I have always cured quickly with oil of 

 tar, removing the scab when soft, and applying 

 vaseline. Oil of tar mixed in vaseline will get rid 

 of jiggers. 



FIRELESS BROODER— HOW TO MAKE A CHEAP ONE. 



Feathers in bagging-down, or mosquito-netting 

 draped over a round form of thick paper felting, 

 with a hole inside, is a very good tireless brooder. 



St. Augustine, Fla. C. W. Leonard. 



CHICKENS POISONED BY EATING TOADSTOOLS. 



Mr. Rout: — I had a peculiar thing happen to some 

 chickens which I thought very much of, as they 

 were Barred Plymouth Rocks. As 1 was working 

 with my bees yesterday two of my little boys came 

 to me with some toadstools and asked me if they 

 were mushiooms. 1 told them they were not, and 

 to throw them away; but I didn't notice where they 

 threw them. This morning, the 29th. 1 went to my 

 chicken-yard, and, to my surprise, I found six of 

 my fine chickens dead. I went to the house and 

 asked my wife what she had been feeding the 

 chickens. She said she had given them nothing 

 but cracked corn, so I made an Inspection of the 



yard and found the boys had thrown the toadstools 

 to the chickens, as the stumps were still there; so I 

 concluded the chickens had been poisoned by eat- 

 ing them. The chickens that were not dead were 

 staggering around the yard like a lot of drunken 

 men. Have you or any readers of Gleanings 

 heard of such an occurrence before? 

 RhineclifT, N. Y., June 29. Peter Wheeler. 



Friend W., I have never heard of any 

 thing like the above before. We have a 

 sort of mushroom in Florida that the chick- 

 ens eat, and it does them no harm; and my 

 impression is that if these toadstools had 

 not been thrown down and probably brok- 

 en to pieces the chickens would not have 

 touched them. I formerly supposed that a 

 poison mushroom would not prove palat- 

 able. A lady in Michigan, however, was 

 made very sick by just tasting of a poison 

 mushroom, and she assures me that the 

 taste was just like, or very much like, that 

 of the edible mushroom. If this is true, it 

 is not any wonder that the chickens were 

 fooled like human beings. One should be 

 very careful in handling or even throwing 

 away poison toadstools. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS; CROWS, ETC. 



Mr. Root:— I have noticed so much on the favora- 

 ble side in the many reports of Indian Runner 

 ducks that 1 will offer a little discord. Early in 

 1910 I bought a setting of eggs from a prominent 

 breeder in Massachusetts, but hatched only two 

 ducklings, and these were very weak, and lived 

 only a few hours. I obtained a second setting of 12 

 eggs, and instructions to sprinkle the eggs slightly 

 a week before due to hatch, and hatched Ave, all of 

 which lived to maturity — three drakes and two 

 ducks. None of the eggs could be called pure 

 white, and several were decidedly green, but the 

 ducks were handsome fawn and white. They were 

 hatched in June, and one egg was laid in March, 

 and five or six weeks later 1 sold them in disgust. 

 1 sold one of the drakes last fall, and the other two 

 made life miserable for my White Wyandotte hens: 

 and it was this, as well as their lack of egg produc- 

 tion, and color of eggs that caused me to go out of 

 the Indian Runner duck business. 



You mention using potatoes for feeding chickens, 

 and think it may be necessary to boil them and 

 mix with bran mash in the North. I have not 

 found it so— at least in winter and spring. But I 

 crush them with a mallet or my heel, and find the 

 hens eat them better than mangels or sugar beet.s. 

 I save all small and scabby potatoes for my hens, 

 you may be certain, and believe them more succu- 

 lent, and better for them, than if they were boiled. 



Your sympathy for crows 1 deem misplaced. 

 They are a great curse in this section, and yet from 

 reports I judge they are far more abundant in oth- 

 er parts of New England. One of my neighbors, a 

 man of good judgment, says corn is damaged on an 

 average fully five dollars per acre by crows; and if 

 we count the time spent in hunting them, the 

 twine used to frighten them, the poison and loss of 

 sleep, the estimate should be much higher. And if 

 we add the many other indictments that may be 

 justly made, the account is decidedly again'.t the 

 crow. It is well known that crows eat the young 

 and eggs of nearly all other 'drds, including do- 

 me.stic fowls. A grower of poultry on a large scale 

 near here last year estimated that fully one-fourth 

 of his young chicks were carried away by crows, 

 and my nearest neighbor lost many. They are far 



