32 



Removable Roosts and Dropping-boards 



For some years I have used the arrangement for 

 roosts described in the accompanying engraving, and 

 found it convenient. It is my own idea, and I do 

 not know that any one else has any system lilie it, 

 I have not given it to any poultry journal; but if 

 ' any one thinks it has any merit I shall be glad if 

 he makes use of it. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



only what they supply themselves, so I do not see 



why one should not combine the two; for if one 

 pays, the two ought to pay better. 



Grand Rapids, Mich. J. A. Pearce 



A, piece of galvanized iron cut 10 inches, trian- 

 gle shape (nailed to the ends of the roost) with two 

 holes in to hook on two nails in the side of the chick- 

 en-house (the nails should slant upward). B, hanger 

 Dailed under the droppings-board and supported liy 

 nails in the end of the house. C, broom handles 

 driven deep in the earth floor to support the drop 

 pings-board with a 14-inch hole bored through so 

 that a ten-penny nail can drop in. D is a similar 

 support for roost hangers. E is the roost turned 

 bottom up on the floor for small chicks. The perch 

 is then 7 inches high. 



The advantage that this system has is that, with 

 a 7-inch hoe having a handle 4 ft. long, and an iron 

 water-bucket, I can clean the droppings-boards from 

 50 hens, and throw on three handfuls of road dust 

 in about five minutes. 



Furthermore, all the hangers (iron) and supports 

 are easily kept gieased with crude oil or soft grease 

 with a paint-brush, and will last some time. Then 

 if the roosts hang 12 or 14 inches from the wall, no 

 insects can get to the hens. 



Finally, the droppings-boards, being 15 inches 

 from the floor, the hens can go under them and use 

 all the floor space, and the sun can shine under- 

 neath also. If wanted, straw can be spread all over 

 the floor for scratching, and all this arrangement 

 tan be taken out to clean or oil, and put up again 

 in a few minutes ; and it can be easily and cheaply 

 made, the galvanized iron can be cut, including nail 

 holes, with a sharp cold chisel on a hard-wood block 

 if no tinner's shears are handy. My droppings- 

 boards are made of soap-boxes. 



St. Louis, Mo. Chas. W. Collett. 



Blue Ointment to Kill Lice on Poultry 



In a recent issue of your magazine Mr. A. I. Root 

 mentions having trouble in keeping his fowls free 

 from lice. The poultrymen 

 in this vicinity apply blue 

 ointment around the vent, 

 and consider this treatment 

 one of the most valuable 

 discoveries for the preven- 

 tion of body lice on fowls 

 that has been made for 

 some time, as one treatment 

 will iLSually keep the birds 

 free of lice for from four 

 to six months. The body 

 lice go to the vent to drink, 

 and, not being able to cross 

 the ring of blue ointment, 

 perish. 



The blue ointment must 

 be specially prepared by be- 

 ing softened with vaseline, 

 as the ordinary article is 

 too hard to spread. The 

 method of applying is to 

 take a small amount on the 

 end of the finger and hold 

 it against the bird until it melts, then make a ring. 

 It must not be used on young chicks, as it is too 

 sti'ong, and will kill them ; but it can be used after 

 they are six months of age. It costs here 50 cents 

 for half a pound, which is enough for a small flock 

 for a year. 



The best time to apply is in the evening, just after 

 the birds have gone to roo.it, as it is easiest to catch 

 them at that time. 



Tacoina, Wash., Aug. 6. D'^vight Whitman. 



The Poultry Journals Criticised 



I'm getting disgusted with the poultry journals. 

 About all there is in them is a write-up of " .Tones' 

 fancy strain of White Leghorns that we visited last 

 week," or " It will pay our readers well to visit 

 Smith's poultry-yards and see his strain of fancy 

 new-fangled breeds," and, of course, plenty of adver- 

 tisements of the different breeders and supply deal- 

 ers, which is all right if there were only some prac- 

 tical articles on the problems that are daily con- 

 fronting the man with a flock of utility hens which he 

 is keeping for production, and not just to sell fancy- 

 bred stock to another buyer at a high price for him 

 to raise to sell to a third party at a high price, and 



so on. SUBSCRIBBK 



[It is true that a large proportion of the poultry 

 journals are filled up with " puffs " for this, that, 

 and the other ; however, there are some good journals 

 that are strictly high-class in every sense of the wor.l. 



— Ed.I 



Bees Kept in Poultry-house 



Bees may be nicely kept in a poultry-house if it is 

 kept as a poultry-house should be. I built such a 

 one last year, and it practically does not need a 

 thing after it is ready for the poultry to make it 

 ready for the bees, and the bees do not take up any 

 (if the room that poultry would use. One has to visit 

 tlie poultry seven hundred times a year (twice a 

 day), and they also have to be provided with an 

 enormous lot of feed ; but the bees will get along 

 with only two visits a year, and no feed, or feeding 



A Profit of $2.20 per Hen ; a Chicken that Learn- 

 ed to Eat Drones 



In the fall of 1911 we moved into a rented place 

 on which there was no poultry-house ; but as we had 

 15 hens, 13 of which v/cre pullets, I made a coop 

 out of three drygoods-boxes. The following spring I 

 fenced off a plot surrounding this coop with poultry- 

 netting, and confined them. This plot was about 

 four rods square, containing three large apple trees 

 under which I placed 16 colonies of bees. My in- 

 vestment for coop and fence was about $5.00. 



