GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



tumbling down, necessitating soiling your 

 fingers, etc. For a flock of a dozen fowls 

 it is all right; but if you have a hundred or 

 more you will probably need a rather larg- 

 er-sized machine. This machine will grind 

 " corn in the ear," so as to be available for 

 chicks, at a very fair speed. 



THE EGLANTINE CHICKENS UP TO DATE. 



The article above, as will be seen, did not 

 get in at the time I expected. On page 

 879, Sept. 1, ] mentioned one of the Eglan- 

 tine pullets that began to lay when four 

 months and eight days old. She laid an egg 

 every day, or almost every day, until she 

 was about five months old, and then she 

 wanted to sit. The novelty of seeing a 

 pullet wanting to sit when only five months 

 old, and a Leghorn pullet, too, wanting to 

 sit, Avas such that I concluded to let her 

 have her own way. I gave her 13 eggs, 2 

 of which were not fertile, and out of the 

 11 she hatched 8 chicks. The weather was 

 so cold, however, and probably, also, on ac- 

 count of their being only pullet's eggs, 

 she hatched out only 8, 6 of which are now 

 following their mother all over the premises. 



Some years ago the Bural Xeir-Yorker 

 gave a picture of a pullet that they called 

 " The Youthful Mother." One of the 

 friends who reads Gleanings sent a copy 

 of the picture, and we had it for several 

 years hanging up on the wall in our home. 

 I think their pullet began laying at about 

 41/2 months of age, so you see mine is a 

 little ahead. She is a splendid mother ex- 

 cept that when the weather is cold she does 

 not brood her chickens quite as much as an 

 old hen would. She just scratches and 

 scratches out in the garden from daylight 

 till dark; and she is about the busiest hen 

 or pullet I ever had anything to do with. 

 I said on p. 954, Oct. 1, that the Eglantines 

 of which I gave you a picture on page 878 

 were still laying eggs. Well, I shall have to 

 except one that was run over by an auto- 

 mobile. I have been in the habit of letting 

 them out of the yard at four or five o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and before I knew it they 

 got up into the street. I suppose they were 

 attracted by the droppings of horses pass- 

 ing along the road. T drove them back re- 

 peatedly, and now I am mourning the loss 

 of one of my Eglantines. 



* Traveling over the country I frequently see dead 

 chickens by the roadside — run over by automobile, 

 doubtless. If this is true everywhere as it is around 

 here, will it not pay farmers and others to have some 

 sort of front fence to keep the chickens out of the 

 main highway ? Of course it is desirable to let 

 them have the run of the farm in order that they 

 may destroy insects, and thus save expensive feed, 

 also. When one is in a hurry it often causes con- 

 siderable delay to slack up to avoid running over any 

 chicken that may .take a sudden notion to cross the 

 road in front of the machine. 



I spoke about feeding sweet corn. Well, 

 we grew enough sweet corn in our garden 

 to supply the pullets until about the middle 

 of October. Until the supply of sweet corn 

 gave out T was getting five or six eggs a 

 day; but just as soon as the corn was gone, 

 and I gave them field corn, the laying dwin- 

 dled until finally there were two days when 

 I did not get an egg. I noticed that when 

 I gave them field corn they looked at it 

 rather suspiciously. They did not seem to 

 feel sure that it was good to eat. It has 

 now been a little over a week since I made 

 the change, and now I am getting one or 

 two eggs a day. Now, does the above indi- 

 cate that sweet corn is a better feed for 

 chickens, or was it simply a change of foodt 

 I think I have seen it stated that an abrupt 

 change in rations will probably stop lay- 

 ing more or less ; but I should hardly ima- 

 gine that changing from one kind of corn 

 to another kind would stop their laying en- 

 tirely. We might think that the approach 

 of cold weather (and we have had some very 

 cold nights) just about the time they gradu- 

 ally stopped laying was the cause of it. 

 The two older Leghorn hens I have men- 

 tioned are now moulting; but none of the 

 pullets show any tendency to moult that 

 were hatched in April in Florida. 



THE " OUTDOOR SLEEPING-PORCH " FOR THE. 

 EGLANTINE CHICKENS. 



On page 878, Sept. 15, I gave you a pic- 

 ture of said sleeping-iDoreh. Well, when 

 the weather came on cold, especially when 

 we had cold rains, I was very curious to 

 know whether the chickens had sense enough 

 to go down inside of the coop and roost un- 

 der shelter. I am glad to say they have 

 gone down three times inside — twice when 

 there was a big rain, and once when there 

 was a very high wind. On one occasion 

 there seemed to be a difference of opinion 

 among them. The rooster and three hens 

 went inside wliile the rest stuck to their 

 outdoor roost. So far I regard the experi- 

 ment as a success; and I do believe it would 

 pay to make some arrangement to let 

 poultry roost outdoors when the season or 

 weather permits. I have now 15 chickens 

 besides the 7 pullets and rooster which I 

 expect to ship down to Florida by express 

 the day before we start, Nov. 14. 



A KIND WORD FROM THE HOME OF THE EG- 

 LANTINE CHICKENS. 



Mr. Hoof: — I want to thank you for various 

 mentions of Eglantine chickens in Gleanings, and 

 I sincerely trust that your success with Eglantine 

 stock continues. It will if you do not breed im- 

 matures or overdo inbreeding. 



I enclose a clipping from yesterday's North Ameri- 

 can telling of the doings of some Eglantine birds. I 



