1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



83 



pecially with the bee-keeper who is not a 

 professional, is that they have too many 

 irons in the fire, and some of them will be 

 burned. We should make a specialty of 

 some one line of business that is to our lik- 

 ing, and, as Editor Hutchinson says, "know 

 every thing about it " (if that is possible). 

 Erwinna, Pa., Dec. 22. 



McGLADE'S ARTICLE ON THE HEN. 



Bees vs. Poultry. 

 BY W. H. PEARSON. 



I am well aware that Gleanings is not a 

 poultry paper; but when one of its writers 

 (p. 1307) uses its columns to boost bees and 

 run down poultry I can not let such an arti- 

 cle pass without replying. It is evident 

 that Mr. McGlade does not understand the 

 science of poultry-raising. He produces 

 evidence of that in the single statement that 

 fifty selected early pullets did not lay till 

 March 1st, and then one-third of them want- 

 ed to sit by April 1st. 



Any one who has ever kept poultry, and 

 kept it right, knows that such a statement 

 shows that the man behind those pullets 

 either did not know how to care for them or 

 that they were the kind that never would 

 lay; and I will wager that it was the fault 

 of "the man behind." Mr. McGlade says, 

 "They get fatter and fatter, and a fat hen 

 won't lay many eggs." Of course, they 

 won't. If he knew so much as that, why 

 did he let them get fat? 



A well-known writer on poultry says, " The 

 200-egg man is much more rare than the 200- 

 egg hen, ' ' meaning that there are more hens 

 that lay 200 eggs per year than there are 

 men who are able to handle the hen to make 

 them produce that amount. 



I will venture the statement that here in 

 California it is the rare exception where 

 poultry does not pay, and pay big, when 

 handled half way intelligently; and I have 

 no difficulty in making a few hens in a city 

 back yard bring in two dollars for every dol- 

 lar spent on them. I have handled as many 

 as 200 Brown Leghorns in a flock, and made 

 them pay one dollar net per year each, with- 

 out counting their manure as worth any 

 thing, and it is worth a good deal. 



Why! we have poultry- keepers who ride 

 in automobiles here in California, and the 

 hens paid for the auto too. Flocks of 500 

 Leghorns are common here, and their owners 

 make money, lots of it, as is proven by their 

 staying in the business year after year. I 

 know a young lady at Hay wards, Cal., who 

 keeps from 1100 to 1500 Leghorns, and makes 

 them pay her well every year. 



Comparisons are odious; but for the bene- 

 fit of Mr. McGlade and other "doubting 

 Thomases" I will institute a little compari- 

 son between poultry and bees, from my 

 standpoint, and see now it works out. 



A little over a year ago I took it into my 

 head that I should like to have a hive of bees 



in the back yard for my own pleasure, if not 

 for profit. Upon canvassing the neighbor- 

 hood I failed to find any bees, so had to go 

 about six miles out in the country before I 

 could find any, and they were in an old box 

 hive, with some kind of home-made "con- 

 traption" called frames by their maker; 

 but when I came to investigate I found that 

 the frames were glued to the cover by the 

 bees, and the bottom was nailed on, making 

 a combination that beat me. 



When I came to look for a modern hive I 

 found I could not buy the kind I wanted (a 

 Danzenbaker) unless I bought a bunch of 

 five, and I didn't want five. So I left the 

 bees in their box for nearly a year, then I 

 got Messrs. Lilly & Co., of Seattle, to ship 

 me down a single Danz. hive, set up with 

 wired foundations, and starters in super, 

 which cost me in San Francisco, unpainted, 

 four dollars, besides the trouble and expense 

 of going after it and carrying it home, seven 

 miles by rail and boat. When I came to 

 transfer the bees to their new home the box 

 came all to pieces, and a more mixed up 

 mess of bees, honey, old comb, and old box 

 I never saw. I finally got the bees into their 

 new home, and then let them carry all the 

 honey from the box wreck in also. Then I 

 thought I would prefer some real Italians 

 instead of the hybrids I had. So I sent to 

 Mr. Alley, in Massachusetts, for a golden 

 queen. She finally arrived, and when I went 

 to look for the old queen I couldn't find her. 

 I tried several times to locate her, but fail- 

 ed utterly. So I made another journey to 

 San Francisco and bought an Alley queen- 

 trap; brought it home, took every frame 

 from my Danz. hive, and shook them in 

 front of the entrance, and in this way caught 

 the queen, which turned out to be very dark 

 and small— mxuch darker than her bees. (It 

 seemed like the irony of fate for the queen 

 to be superseded by an Alley queen to be 

 caught in an Alley trap ) 



By this time the season was so far advanc- 

 ed that there was no more surplus honey, 

 so I thus far have not had a spoonful of hon- 

 ey in over a year from my bees. But is that 

 the bees' fault? Not much. I don't blame 

 my bees any more than I do Mr. McGlade's 

 hens for not laying. It was my fault for not 

 providing them suitable quarters, just as it 

 was Mr. McGlade's fault for not caring for 

 his poultry so they could lay eggs instead of 

 putting fat on their bodies. 



As the account stands now, I am a credi- 

 tor to the bees for about $8.00, with no hon- 

 ey in sight. Per contra, if I had taken five 

 dollars I could have bought 100 first-class 

 White Leghorn eggs; the rest of the $8.00 

 would have paid for incubating them. I 

 could have sold over $8.00 worth of surplus 

 cockerels, and have had a nice bunch of pul- 

 lets laying by Oct. 15, when eggs were worth 

 50 cents a dozen (they have been as high as 

 60 cents, and are now selling at 55), and the 

 pullets would have bfen 'vorth. at a low val- 

 uation. 75 cents esch. How does that work 

 out, Mr. McGlade? 



When it cjmes "to giving advice to those 



