358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



POULTMY DEPAETMENT 



THE CONVERGENT POULTRY- YARDS UP TO 

 DATE ; SEE CUT ON PREVIOUS PAGE. 



In Gleanings for July 1, 1912, I gave 

 you some diagTams, etc., of the above poul- 

 ti-y-yards. These pictures were at the time 

 largely theoiy. I now take much pleasure 

 in giving a real picture of the place where 

 I spend many happy hours. Ernest secured 

 the excellent view of it all by mounting a 

 long ladder (with his kodak) leaned up 

 against one of the pines, such as you get 

 a glimpse of in the i^icture. Suppose I go 



Fig. 2. — A view of the other side of the nest-boxes shown in Fig. 1. 



over it with you all, something as I take 

 visitors through it and " explain things," as 

 I do more or less almost every day. 



The central building is the gi'anary where 

 all the feed is stored, and where we have 

 a bone-mill for gi-inding bones and scraps 

 of meat from the 

 butcher's, about twice 

 a week. On the north 

 of this building you 

 will notice two boxes, 

 one containing ground 

 oyster-shells and the 

 other mica crystal grit. 

 The whole crowd of 

 about 100, big and lit- 

 tle, visit these boxes 

 almost constantly ; and 

 just a few days ago, 

 when the gate was left 

 open, I noticed the 

 Indian Runner ducks 

 (18 in all) greedily 

 gobbling up the 

 crushed shells. As they 



run in the canal every r^ n n.^ ■ 



J . . . -L Fig. 3. — The wire 



day (see picture or mustard, cabbage, beet 



''waterfall") I supposed that they found 

 plenty of shells on its pebbly bottom. 

 However, as we are now getting from 12 

 to 15 duck egg's every day I concluded 

 to give them all the shells they wanted. 

 The ducks have a yard where they stay 

 nights, at the upper left-hand corner. There 

 is a very small structure where they can get 

 out of the hard rain in their yard; and the 

 lane where they get down to the canal is 

 just beyond this small covered shanty. If 

 I don't get around promptly to open this 

 gate at 8 :30 a.m. 

 there is a chorus of 18 

 V ices in protest. 



On the north, south, 



east, and west of this 



granary, and at equal 



distances from it, are 



four similar buildings. 



Each one is divided in 



the middle with a wire 



partition, thus making 



eight separate houses, 



and each of the eight 



has a separate yard, 



the division fences 



running out like the 



spokes of a wheel. 



These fences go out 



off in the woods as far 



as the chickens care to travel. You can see 



one fence in the foreground. It is looped 



up to a stout wire. When this fence reaches 



the " inner court," as we call it, you see a 



group of eight covered nest-boxes. As I am 



an old man, it is something of a task for me 



netting basket used when I fet'd tlif llocli lettuce, 

 -tops, etc. 



