170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



POULTRY DEPARTMENT 



THE 17 CHICKS AND THEIR MOTHER. 



I told you they were "safely housed" (?) 

 near our bedroom window, etc. ; but before 

 I tell you what happened I want to give 

 you a iDicture of (hem, and tell you how to 

 make a very safe and eflicient home for a 

 hen and chickens, without very much labor 

 and expense. First, get a nice smooth gro- 

 cery box, rather long 

 and wide, and shallow. 

 The one pictured 

 above was 34 inches 

 long, 20 wide, and 8 

 deep. I removed the 

 cover carefully, and 

 nailed one end against 

 the end-board inside 

 of the box, so as to 

 make a sort of letter 

 A. Then the back side 

 was boarded up with 

 shingles placed up and 

 down, and inch-mesh 

 netting tacked over the 

 front side, as you see 

 in the picture. To 

 cover the edges of the 

 wire netting 1 nailed 



strips of planed lath over the front as you 

 see. Well, I used this last winter without 

 any floor but the ground under it, and no 

 harm came to the chicks. I don't like any 

 land of wooden floor, neither does the 

 mother or chicks. If right on the ground, 

 the whole thing can be moved over to fresh 

 grass, the hen can scratch and dust her- 

 self, etc. But, listen ! before the chicks 

 were a week old a skunk or opossum dug 

 under a back corner and pawed out two 

 chicks. The hen then moved over to the 

 opposite corner, where he dug under again 

 and got two more. If you, my friend, have 



" been there," you know something how I 

 felt about my " Christmas present." 



I moved her and the 13 remaining chicks 

 to one of the houses where netting is let 

 down into the ground about a foot all 

 round ; but in two days the same " varmit," 

 being hungry again for a " chicken dinner," 

 dug down and managed to get thru at one 



The hen that stole her nest out in the woods and brought home 17 chirks 



corner and took three more, leaving only 

 eleven. I said to Mrs. Root and Wesley : 



" This sort of business is going to be 

 stopped — on our chicken-ranch, any way." 

 I made a square frame of wood, 48 x 20 

 inches, for the coop to rest on ; but instead 

 of covering this with a flat piece of netting 

 I made a sort of basket about like the lower 

 13art of a corn-popper. Then we dug out a 

 place for it, putting the dirt back into the 

 basket, and now "mother biddy" can scratch 

 and roll and dust herself on her dirt floor 

 just as if there were no wire netting under 

 her. Well, we have our house for sitting 

 hens ; but the same 

 varmint (or one like 

 him) dug under, as I 

 have explained, and 

 left only the egg-shells 

 where a hen was al- 

 most ready to hatch; 

 and altho this room is 

 6 feet by 8, we have 

 just " floored " it en- 

 tire with netting about 

 a foot below the 

 g^round. I feel some 

 better now, but I am 

 not quite over being 

 " mad " about the loss 

 of my chicks yet. So 



The three rows of potatoes shown on p. 129, Feb. 1, just three weeks later 

 on Christmas day. 



