MAY 1. 1914 



359 



The 'i\. I. Red hen that had 20 eggs and hatched 19 chicks. I tried to call them up with a head of 

 lettuce, but they were rather shy of the kodak, and skulked off among the palmettos. 



to stoop over in gathering the eggs daily, 

 and so I have the nests at a convenient 

 height. The roof on the opposite side is 

 hinged (see picture No. 2), and v?hen 

 thrown up and back I can get the eggs, 

 handle sitting hens, etc., quite easily. The 

 bottoms of the nests are inch netting, so all 

 the tine stuff rattles through. I think this 

 plan favors keeping out vermin. At inter- 

 vals fresh dry grass is supplied. Each one 

 of the eight apartments contains a galvan- 

 ized tub fastened on top of a post about 

 18 inches high, and these tubs always con- 

 tain wheat and corn. Even the small chicks 

 soon learn to fly up into these tubs; but a 

 Florida rat, never. Where each diagonal 

 yard strikes the inner court, there is a i^an 

 of water; and this water is always clean 

 and fresh, for the windmill keeps water 

 dropping into the pan day and night. One 

 of these pans is just visible nearly undei- 

 the nest boxes, each pan supplying two 

 yards, as you will notice. 



I will explain right here that the original 

 idea was to have all gates closed, and no 

 fowls allowed in the inner court. Well, 

 this is all right on the start; but I soon 

 learned each flock will stick to its own 

 house and yard pretty well after it has been 

 kept shut up for a few days. It saves lots 



of work to leave the gates all open except 

 the ones that confine them safe from in- 

 truders in the night time. It is my pleasant 

 task to shut all the doors as soon as all are 

 on the roost at night, and to open again as 

 soon as it is light enough for them to want 

 to go out in the morning. 



I have told you elsewhere how we now 

 care for the droppings; and it is a pleasant 

 task to sweep out the inner court with a 

 broom so it looks neat and tidy when visit- 

 ore come around. I confess, however, when 

 we have such abundant and frequent hard 

 rains as we have had this winter, it some- 

 times is a little " sloppy " until the water 

 soaks into the sandy soil, and to further 

 this, Wesley and I have just been putting 

 in tiles beside the surface drain around each 

 building. A hundred fowls give about a 

 dozen to each of the eight apartments, and 

 if there are many more than this on one 

 roost, there is more " nagging " by some of 

 the older and more important " biddies." 

 Each hen with her brood of chicks has a 

 house and yard to herself, and I tell you 

 this is a great convenience. I like to give 

 the youngsters bread and milk; but when 

 you do this you don't want any " grown- 

 ups nosing around." 



Oats are buried in the soft mellow soil 



