1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
731 
THE THOUSAND HEN POWER HOUSES. 
New Records from Large Flocks. 
Now that the hatching season is over and the pul¬ 
lets out on range are getting in condition to take up 
the burden of egg laying, I can continue the story of 
the monthly records of the 2,000 hens in the Burr 
house, which I was forced to defer last March, when 
hatching began. I have hatched over 8,700 this year. 
Eggs were never more fertile nor chicks stronger. 
The mortality was very low, and thanks to plenty of 
grit, charcoal and shell, they are now the best look¬ 
ing lot of pullets I ever raised, all hatched from 
yearling hens and cockerels in curtain-front colony 
houses. I could write much about the care of chicks 
to raise them successfully in large quantities, but that 
it not now my story. Right here I would interpolate 
that if Mr. Mapes and his friends cure up sore-eyed 
hens and breed from them, they will have this trouble 
strike out for generations in white diarrhoea and other 
weakness in chicks. We have cured them for five 
years with an ax, and the stock is getting stronger all 
the time. 
I cannot endorse too highly Mr. Cosgrove’s recom¬ 
mendation of charcoal, both for hens and chicks. I 
have never used much of it until this year, but after 
using the fine granulated charcoal for both in the fine 
feed which is before them all the time, I am con¬ 
vinced that it not only keeps them healthier, but saves 
25 per cent of the expensive feeds by preventing their 
non-absorption. In other words, more digested food 
goes to make bones, muscle and eggs, and less of the 
protein goes into the manure. 
d he December account of the two houses was pub¬ 
lished. In January I found that the man in charge, 
using his own judgment, was feeding three parts of 
beef scrap to one of fine feed, in addition to the 
green bone fed. You will remember that Jan¬ 
uary was a month in which we had but four clear 
days, cold, raw and rainy. The No. 3 house, 
with 984 of the older pullets, laid during the 
month 5,567 eggs, worth $291.48; consumed 4,476 
pounds of feed, costing $75.67. They increased 
from a daily egg yield of 183 eggs on January 1, 
to 223 eggs on January 15, when a heavy snow 
storm shut them in, and with no clover to scratch 
in they moped like a lot of school children shut 
in. The eggs dropped from 223 on the 15th to 
112 on the 26th, and then increased again. The 
mortality during the month was three, leaving* 981. 
1 he average was 5.25 eggs per hen for the month. 
1 he No. 4 house, with 866 young pullets, lost 36 
during the month, including 15 runts killed. They 
laid 4,140 eggs, valued at $124.20; consumed 5,043 
pounds of feed, costing $75.65. They dropped 
from the 15th to the 26th, and increased the daily 
egg output the same as No. 3. During this 
month the yearling hens, with the normal fine feed 
and plenty of cut clover and sprouted oats, out¬ 
laid the pullets without any green bone; they were 
not forced, as I was saving them for breeding 
stock. 
In February the two houses together, number¬ 
ing 1,811, lost 47, leaving 1,764 at the end of the 
month. They laid during the month 9,807 eggs, val¬ 
ued at three cents each, $294.21; consuming 11,034 
pounds of feed, costing $165.51. They averaged dur¬ 
ing the month 5.59 eggs per hen. In March, 1,764 pul¬ 
lets, with a mortality of 47 during the month, laid 
23,246 eggs, which at 2V 2 cents apiece, are worth $581.- 
15; consuming 13,426 pounds feed, costing $201.39. The 
average was 13 93-100 eggs per pullet for the month. 
The 300 unacclimated pullets and the bad feeding of 
December and January have held this house back, but 
now with plenty of sprouted oats, clover hay chopped 
and green bone, they are swinging into line. The 
warm weather stopped the green bone too soon, for it 
came raw and cold later, and we could have fed it for 
three weeks longer. The bill of fare for the month 
may be interesting: Beef scrap, 420 pounds; buck¬ 
wheat, 300 pounds; bailey, 192 pounds; corn, cracked, 
1,804 pounds; cornmeal, 50 pounds; clover hay, 250 
pounds; grit, 200 pounds; green bone, 1,261 pounds; 
Kaffir corn, 400 pounds; sprouted oats, 949 pounds; 
oyster shell, 400 pounds; wheat, 6,310 pounds; fine 
feed mixture, 590 pounds; popcorn, ground, 300 
pounds; total, 13,426 pounds. The beef scrap, fine 
feed mixture and popcorn, mixed together, are before 
them all the time, and so are the mixed grains, the 
mixtures varying each week. The next three months 
will show where all the year eggs pay better than 
Winter eggs, which are a source of disappointment. I 
am getting 2,000 pullets ready to put in these houses 
next year (I already have 1,000 in No. 4) that will, I 
think, show a better record or else my theories and ex¬ 
perience are all wrong. If you will have patience we 
will carry this lot to October 1, when their year be¬ 
gan, and then follow with their successors until March 
next ' pyCSAHAN BUBK, 
LEARNING TO HANDLE BEES. 
A great many farmers have a few hives of bees for 
the sake of a little honey for home use. With a large 
number of them the handling of the bees is a dreaded 
operation, and is often put off too long for best re¬ 
sults. It is impossible in a short article to write a 
bee book, but I will try to show how anyone may 
handle bees with confidence, if not with impunity. 
The honey bee has been domesticated for ages, and 
has been the subject of much superstition because of 
the fact that man was afraid of stings, and not know¬ 
ing the instincts of the bee, was not able to learn their 
secrets. With the invention of the frame hive in 1852 
by Mr. Langstroth began an era of investigation that 
has made bee keeping one of the best of rural occupa¬ 
tions for those who have studied and made it a business. 
I am often told of some one who will take bees by 
the handful and do all sorts of things with them, and 
great wonder is shown that he is not badly stung. Any¬ 
one could do the same thing with the same bees at the 
same time, as every experienced apiarist will tell you 
if he tells the truth, but a great many like to keep an 
air of secrecy and will tell you they know how to 
tame bees, or that the bees know them, or like them, 
or some other reason, knowing that you are too much 
afraid ever to learn the truth that bees are no re¬ 
specters of persons; have no friends or favorites; will 
never attack anyone away from their hives, or molest 
anyone who lets them alone. If this were not the case, 
no one would be safe in the fields or orchards, for 
they swarm with bees during bloom. There is also a 
very great difference in different races or strains of 
bees, some being much more vicious than others, there¬ 
fore being more disagreeable to handle. 
For a first lesson in handling bees, put on your bee 
hat or veil, whichever you have, also your gloves, if 
A SATISFACTORY SEEDLING PLUM. Fig. 360. 
See Ruralisms, Page 736. 
you are afraid. I don’t care for any; I want my fin¬ 
gers free. Fill the smoker and light it so that it will 
stay lit. A wise general lays his plans ahead, and is 
not taken by surprise, so we will take the safe way un¬ 
til we get confidence enough to take chances or try to 
show off. The entire secret of handling bees lies in 
frightening or demoralizing them so that they run to 
the honey, and fill their honey sacks so full that they 
can hardly fly, and scarcely bend their backs enough 
to use their stings if they want to. There are several 
ways of opening hives, but we will leave the slam-bang 
method for experts who have much of it to do, and 
take the quiet, slow way, until we become expert our¬ 
selves. You take the smoker and puff a little smoke 
into the entrance. You should not stand right in front 
of the hive, but a little at one side. Give them another 
puff or so and quickly jar the hive a little. Keep the 
smoker ready so they will not come out much. Do 
this three or four times a minute apart, when we may 
safely raise the cover or quilt. Raise one corner and 
blow just a little smoke under it.; then give it a few 
flops up and down, blowing just enough smoke under 
to keep the bees back; then quickly lift it off and puff 
a little smoke across the tops of the frames or sec¬ 
tions. When the hive is open let us examine it; first 
let us see if the sections are ready to take off. If they 
are all capped at the top, we will lift the super off. 
We will not use the smoker needlessly, but the jar of 
tearing the super off will be apt to bring trouble, unless 
we are ready to quell it on short notice; just a little 
puff and the bees are on the run again. We can now 
sort out the full sections, and replace them with empty 
ones. Shake off the bees in the air; they will go 
straight to the entrance and go in with their load. Take 
your knife, or fingers and loosen a frame; lift it out 
and look it over. Push the bees around with your 
fingers, being careful not to pinch one. Take the frame 
in one hand and hold your other hand over the hive 
and shake the bees from the frame over your hand; 
they don’t hurt you, but be careful that they don’t 
crawl up your sleeve and get pinched, as that will make 
them sting, and it is the only thing that will. Bees in 
this condition may be handled as much as you like. 
Replace the comb carefully so as not to hurt any bees. 
You may need to use a little smoke before replacing the 
frames and super, but always move slowly and steadily; 
never dodge, or jerk back your hands; if you do you 
will get a few stings, while otherwise the bees will often 
bump against your hands several times and not sting. 
If you do get a sting don’t let the bee sting hard, but 
at the instant you feel the first prick, rub your hand 
against your clothes, and brush off bee, stinger and all, 
and don’t go to doctoring stings. There is nothing 
known that will cure them. Keep right at your job, 
and in two minutes you will forget all about it. If 
you get a severe sting don’t rub it, a s this will work 
the poison in more and only do harm. If you must 
do something for it, make a wad of soft mud and put 
on a big plaster an inch thick and keep it moist, the 
pain will soon be gone. 
This is the only secret there is in handling bees; 
frighten the bees and you conquer them. In many cases 
half the smoking and jarring referred to will be 
enough. Open your hives often and get confidence in 
yourself, and get the last edition of the best bee book 
published; it will pay you a profit if you only have one 
colony of bees the first year you own it. 
Wayne Co., N. Y-_ j. a. crane. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH DIVINING RODS. 
I have just read Prof. T. C. Chamberlin’s account 
of the farmer finding water “by the rod’’ on page 
681. He calls it an experiment, yet he does not 
try the man, only looks on and “thinks.” This is 
what spoils the work of nearly all the professors 
and experts who try to tell the farmer how and 
why to do things. If he had experimented, why 
did he not first blindfold the man and lead him 
over the lots? Why did he not hold his hands to 
see if there were any “muscular efforts” in the 
movement of the twig? Why did he not take him 
into fields he was not used to? He speaks of the 
looks of the land. How can he tell by the looks 
of a field whether there is a stream running 20 to 
50 feet under ground or not? Then he speaks of 
the natural lay of the land where the stream 
should be. Here in Orleans County the surface 
drains northeast, the underground streams run 
southwest. My well on the highest ground I have 
is only 19 feet, and never fails; the water comes in 
at the northeast side of well and goes out the 
southwest side. This stream can be traced over 
the high land plainly with a twig, while a deep 
" ell four rods south of it dried up every Summer 
until we filled it up as useless, yet the trees and 
crop dry up just as quickly over this stream as 
anywhere else. The twig will not work in my 
hands, but I held a man’s hands so tightly as he 
crossed it that the skin on the inside of his hand 
was torn so the blood came. I was taught it was only 
sleight-of-hand, but I wish the professor would experi- 
men t- _ S. A. ALLIS. 
A POINT OR TWO ABOUT SOW THISTLE. 
This weed has for some years been steadily on the 
increase in this section of Ontario. It is a shallow- 
rooted, vigorous plant that will, if not timely resisted, 
take full possession of any ground it invades except 
sod. Its forcefulness lies chiefly in its root growth. 
The roots, however, cannot endure free exposure to dry 
air. You can almost kill it by shallow plowing and 
frequent cultivation, but it is next to an impossibility 
to get thoroughly rid of it in that way, because the 
roots are brittle, and every little bit that remains in the 
ground will grow, and, if permitted, will spread. You 
must follow up the advantage you have gained. It 
takes time for these pieces of roots, or rather under¬ 
ground stems, to shoot up above ground and leaf out 
into the sunlight to live, which they must do or smother 
and die. Now that you have your adversary down, 
you have got to keep at him. Do not let him up to 
breathe. Sow buckwheat or other similar crop that 
admits of the ground being cultivated till some time 
in June, when it becomes time to sow, and that will 
then grow quickly and cover the ground. The season 
following I would plant corn, and at its last cultiva¬ 
tion sow Timothy and clover. After that the sow this¬ 
tle, if not entirely banished, I would expect to be so 
reduced in amount as to be regarded as a mere casual, 
practically negligible except as a warning ever calling 
for vigilance and when needed, for prompt action. No 
good farmer can afford to neglect any persistent weed. 
\v. o. E. 
. 
