1874 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
45 
A SHORT CHAPTER OIV POULTRY, 
Willi u moral lluit may liitvo a bearing on 
Hoc Culture. 
O NCE upon a time a lad “got up to the 
head” in his spelling class, and what is 
more he did the same tiling, not only once but 
several times, until he eventually secured a 
silver quarter of a dollar, awarded as a medal 
the last day of school, to the one who should 
have earned the most head marks. On his 
way home on that eventful day, he mused 
somewhat in this way: “spelling I have con- 
quered, or at least pretty nearly, (remember he 
was of only about a dozen summers,) and now 
what is to be “licked” next, and what is to be 
done with the silver quarter?” If we follow 
him a little, we may discover his project for 
solving the two problems at once. 
That same afternoon after having obtained 
the maternal sanction of his plan he trudged 
off 2J£ miles to “Grandfathers;” and “Grand- 
mother” being absent the following colloquy 
occurred : 
“Well, what’s broke now?” queried Grand- 
father who sat by the lire in the old “cellar 
kitchen.” 
“ Nothing's broke, but I want to buy two 
hens.” 
“Want to buy two hens ? what for, where is 
your money 7” 
A display of the quarter, and a relation of 
how he came by it, seemed satisfactory, and 
then came the query : 
“But don’t you want a rooster too ? ” 
“No, thei/ don’t lay eggs.” 
“You are only intent on making money 
then?” 
“Yes; if they lay eggs enough to buy more 
hens, I shall probably get a rooster too, but 
just now I only want what the quarter will 
pay for.” 
“You would not take a rooster then as a 
gift?” 
“ I had rather not.” 
A bargain was soon made, after the above 
preliminaries, but we must digress a little here 
to explain that beside the fire place in this old 
cellar kitchen a brick oven had been built in 
the wall, and Grandmother had so far domes- 
ticated two large cream colored “ biddies,” that 
they had for some time been in the habit of 
laying great white eggs in this same oven ; 
after which feat they modestly betook them- 
selves out doors with the rest of the fowls ; 
hut it always seemed that these two hens had 
a kind of a way of looking up at a body as if 
they knew something that other folks didn’t; 
they only approached their novel nest when 
Grandmothers back was turned, and rarely if 
' ull ' u ded in the house at other times. 
Now regardless of the “ great store” she “set” 
by these two, Grandfather picked them up 
probably because it was less trouble, and our 
hero of the spelling book was traveling home 
happy, with a hen under either arm. To con- 
less the truth we fear his enthusiasm was 
somewhat abated before he reached home, and 
his musings as to whether these two hens were 
hot unusually large, were once brought to a 
dangerous crisis by his slipping down on a 
seep rough gravelly bank when near home, 
i wouldn’t d > to let the fowls go after all this 
trouble, and so he “ held till ’em,” but to judge 
by the twist of his mouth at this time, we 
should think those gravel stones were prob- 
ably quite harrassing. 
The fowls were duly housed an 1 cared for, 
and many a happy hour was spent in devising 
improvements, by way of giving them a wider 
range without any excessive cash on ‘lay ; fur- 
nishing them a better variety of egg producing 
food, studying all the agricultural papers had 
to say on poultry keeping etc., etc. Bye and 
bye, a Poland hen with a brood of 14, comical 
top-knotted chicks was added; they were pur- 
chased for a small sum, of a neighbor wiio had 
become tired of their mischievous propensities. 
Regular accounts were kept and the “hen 
business,” as his sister termed his hobby, 
really paid ; not much it is true, but when the 
young Poland pullets began to lay in Feb. and 
eggs were eighteen cents a dozen, our young 
friend felt as happy as the proprieter of a 
small Gold mine. 
And now we come to the “ pint” as Major 
General Jack Downing used to say, and in 
fact we should not have written so much on 
Poultry for a Bee Journal had it not been for 
this same “ pint.” 
This same poultry house and yard, built of 
old rotten boards, refuse lath, and all sorts of 
odds and ends, was on the south side of the 
horse barn ; the family poultry house, a com- 
paratively large and expensive affair being 
directly east of it ; with the manure from the 
stable bounding the west, which in fact before 
spring, came very near covering the whole 
structure entire, do you wonder those hens 
laid eggs ? On the ground of economy the 
roof was entirely open on the south side, so 
the sun shone directly on their scratching 
ground, and some tempting nests were formed 
by bedding boxes back under the manure with 
entrance partially obscured by straw. Of 
course eggs’ never froze in them, and in fact 
the back part of their domicil was quite a 
warm retreat during the coldest days. Con- 
siderable of this coarse stable manure was 
scratched through the loose structure, and to 
furnish them employment their grain was 
buried in this, which kept them scratching the 
material over and over until it was like saw- 
dust, thereby keeping the ground under their 
roosts always clean and wholesome, on the 
plan given by Mr. Stoddard in the Egg Farm 
papers in American Agriculturist. 
In this case it seems a condition was secured 
free from frost, wind, rain and snow ; yet ad- 
mitting sunshine during the middle of the day 
all winter long. Is any thing else needed for 
the successful wintering of bees ? 
After enlarging the “ hen business” and try- 
ing it away from the barn and manure heaps, 
it did not pay as well, yet the real cause, prob- 
ably, of the difference in results was not 
thought of at the time. 
P ■ S. — " Grandmother” was very much in- 
clined to be vexed at the loss of hei pet bid- 
dies,” yet under the circumstances, and in 
consideration of their being in the hands of 
her favorite grandson Nocice she at last be- 
came reconciled. 
Also, we omitted to state in the proper place, 
that Father’s larger number of fowls in their 
large poultry house, with 24 elaborate nests, 
