The Farm.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 495, 6 October 1882, Page 25

The Farm.

PotX«BY Fabmikg.— There has been for seveial yeais a constant supply of advice from sections of the public who are blessed with more theory than practice upon the subject of poultry farming. Some who ought to know better have described systems showing how profitable the idea might be made, while others, who never kept more than a score of fowls in a back garden have ventured to teach the public and to mislead them. It is of no use for people to quote what in done in other countries, and then apply the idea to thii», although, as a matter of fact, poultry farming is less often attempted than it is in England ; and it would be difficult to find at the present moment any single undertaking in France which can possibly be termed a poultry farm. Just as there are fowls and fowls, so there are farms and farms—the one an establishment which has resulted from some hair-brained enthusiast, replete with fine buildings, machinery, systems of heating appliances, and all the pure races you can same ; the other, which is not a poultry farm at all, but merely a farm on which poultry are kept, ha ving nothing of the fantastic or expensive about it, but merely the plain, unpretending sheds and buildings which are found upon an. ordinary farm, and which are converted for the purpose with as little expense and trouble as possible. The misfortune is that, in spite of all practical teaching, people will base all eorts of ideas upan the most elaborate calculations and come to the conclusion that a profit is certain and assured ; whereas if a little trouble is taken <:t first to ascertain the probabilities of return, a better idea will be obtained. Presuming that an individual is able to place 1000 new-laid eggs in the market every morning, I would ask, where would he find a customer at a price which would remunerate him ? I would undertake, at almost any season, to supply such a customer, if lie could name him, at a lower price still, by means of a few large farmers, who would be only too glad to sell their eggs at anything buyond country prices. Inquiry at any large retail establishment hs.s had but one result, such as would be enough to depress any but the most determined enthusiasts ; for when they tell you that the best French eggs are quite as good as English new-laid and much cheaper, what is the answer to be ? London shopkeepers do not care for English eggs, if they cost more than the French ; and they are certainly not willing to pay new-laid prices, because they would be robbed of so much of their profit. For some time eges have been in the country as low as 14d. a score, and I have no doubt that any dealer could place them upon the market at 15d. to 16d. Drives Bbbs, — Although a svrarm containing from three and a half to four pounds of bees will in & good season be able not only to fill a large hive with comb and brood, but to store surplus honey and give off a late swarm as well, a moment's thought will makeit evident that the same quantity of driven bees would not be able to do snything like the same amount of work, the reasons being that as the season is much later, the days are shorter and sometimes too cold, and there is much less time for the been to work in getting their hive furnished and stored with honey for the winter. It follows, then, that to make up a good strong colony of driven bees we must put at least eight or nine pounds of bees in each hive, and they must be liberally fed with sugar syrup as a substitute for the honey which they are unable to gather so late in the year. For the purposes of this article we will assume that the weight of the bees in such skeps as are generally to be met with in Ireland is about four pounds, and two lots of driven bees will be required for each frame hive. To unite two such lots all we need do is, on the morning after driving, to turn them up and sprinkle them with syrup scented with a few i. rops of peppermint, etc., etc., and throw the be- s out of one skep into the other, and tie up as rapidly as possible. If this is done properly the beeß out of one stock will not be able to distinguish those from the other, and there will be no fighting amongst them. After being hived, the bees will require from twenty to thirty pounds of sugar made into syrup, which, supposing them to have been driven not later than the middle of August, will enable them, to store the hive with' sufficient food for winter consumption. Stocks built up in this way almost invariably turn out well in spring, and are, as a rule, ready to swarm or store honey earlier than* old-established stocks. Its cheapness will make this plan commend itself to persons who wish to begin bee-keeping in frame hives with the smallest outlay. To make this clear, we will suppose that for eight pounds of bees we pay six shillings.; for twenty-five pounds of sugar six shillings and three pence , we have, at a cost of a little over twelve shillings, a good strong stock of bees, the only drawback being that no return of profits need be looked for till next spring. It is unnecessary to point out that the cost of the hive itself has not been taken into account, as its price may be anything from ten shillings to almost as many pounds, according to the length of purse and taste of the purchaser ; but as a hive should be bought in any case the cost will not effect our calculation. It must be understood that the bee-keeper cannot utilise his own beeß as described for the simple and sufficient reason that the diffierent lots of bees forming the stock would, on returning from the fields after their first flight, separate, and the bees of each lot would return to their respective stands, where, as there were no hive to receive them, they would hover about till they became exhausted and fell to the ground. As bees at this time of year do not fly very far from home, two bee-keepers living a couple of miles or more apart might exchange; baes, and each lot would then keep together. If a frame hive is not at hand, the best plan will be to advertise the bees for sale, and plenty of customers will turn up. The frames of the hive in which the bees are set to work must be fitted with sheets of comb, foundation from three to seven inches in depth. Although the first cost of the full sheets will be double that of the smaller ones, it will be more economical in the end to use them if possible, but in case they have to be fixed in the frames where the hive is bought, it will be safer to use sheets not more than three

inches deep, as larger ones sometimes get broken from the frames by the knocking about which the hive undergoes while on its way home. — Dublin Freeman. Egg- Producing.— -"Fanny Field," whose exceptional achievement in egg-production daring the cold months has been heretofore chronicled in these columns, reports to the Prairie Farmer her i methods of feeding, about which some of our readers have inquired. , Hens must be supplied with egg-making material, and this must not be consumed as fuel to keep them warm. Success presupposes comfortable and clean quarters. Corn is fattening, but on this ration alone, even in abundance, " there will not be eggs enough to pay for the shelling of the corn." "My way of feeding fowls in winter — and it works wonderfully well — is to give them a warm breakfast every morning just as soon as they can see to eat, a few handfuls of grain at noon, and a full feed of grain at bight. The warm breakfast is made of vegetables, turnips, beets, carrots, or potatoes, boiled and mashed up with wheat bran ; or oatmeal scalded with skim milk ; or refuse from the kitchen boiled up, and the soup thickened with bran ; and when sweet apples are plentiful, we boil them and mix them I with cornmeal — sometimes one thing and sometimes another. We ! don't believe in feeding on one thing all the time, and the hens don't believe in it either. I don't think that my biddies need the noon food because they are hungry, but I give it to them to make them scratch — for exercise, and to keep them out of mischief. I scatter it around among the litter under the shed, and let them dig it out. This ' lunch ' is generally oats or buck wheat, and once in a while sunflower seed. At night I generally feed with corn ; but if I could get wheat cheap enough, I should feed that at least half of the time. My fowls have water or milk by them all the time, and green food is supplied by fastening cabbage-heads up where the fowls can help themselves. Sometimes, when somebody has time t« attend to it, we give them a change of green food in the shape of raw turnips or sweet apples chopped fine. Two winters ago I took a new departure on the meat question, and now, instead of fussing to cook it and deal out a little at a time, I just hang up a piece and let the fowls eat all they want. When they have meat within reach all the time there is not the slightest danger of their eating too much. I get cheap meat from the butcher, and I am sure I am paid twice over for the outlay." —The Field.