The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-28

! confined to their quarters forenoons so IS
to be sure of their laying in the trap
nests. Usually they were given the free
/ dom Of the yard, around the dwelling
house, afternoons.
Homes for the Midgets
The boys made thefr bantams homes
out of dry goods boxes by simply covering
the tops with roofing paper and the front
with one-inch mesh wire netting putting
the netting on a frame and attaching
| this by hinges and latch so as to use it
as a door. Perches were made of the
| straight limbs of a tree, the ends of the
perches resting in holes bored in the sides
of the house about IS inches above the
floor. Six inches below the perch in
each house, a platform was placed to
catch the droppngs. which were sprin-
ltled daily with loan or road dust and
cleaned out every Saturday, for use for
the garden to help grow nice fresh let
| tuee and finest cucumbers.
| A drinking dish and grit box were hung
against the side of the coop and a feed
box was placed on platform a foot
| above the floor against the walD, so
that the lively scratchers could not flirt
dirt into 1t when they were hunting for
small grain in the litter of straw or
| leaves on the floor An empty orange
box made two nice, roomy nests. 1t was
placed just under the droppings board at
| It's front edge A place about foot or
! so square was filled with mellow garden
| loan, in which the birds could take their
daily dust baths.''
Perhaps, when you make a house for
| your 4bantams, you will wish to use that
| piano box that has been standing in the
| back yard so long, or may be some kind
| friend will be glad to give you one or
two such empty cases. The pictures here
given show how to make three shapes of
bantam houses out of piano boxes. .
Anyone who can handle saw, ham
mer and carpenters square win be able
to make any of these types oe hen
! houses in short time. All of the types
are airy and well lighted. BY placing
| them on skids or runners as shown in
the pictures, they can be easily moved
| from one place to another This IS a
great advantage where the poultryman
wishes to move his birds often to fresh
ground.
| If one wishes he can divide the house,
| by a partition of boards or muslin into
| two rooms, one for roosting and laying
| the other for a scratching place. Keep
| the front of the scratching room open
| except in very stormy weather, when a
muslin-covered frame may be used to
protect the birds and keep the litter dry
| Thus the birds get good fresh air all the
| time. They have lungs and, like boys
must breathe pure air to get the oxygen
| for keeping the blood good and red. A
boy who has not bright red blood in his
| arteries isn't of much account, and it's
| the same with a bird.
Some people have an idea that bantams
| don't amount to much because they lay
| small eggs. But they lay lots of them.
and the cook can use two bantam eggs in
place of one ordinary sized hens egg.
| The bantams are not big eaters, and 1t is
| real economy to KEEP them and have
| them eat the scraps left from the table
A few bantams of the right kind will
supply an average household with plenty
| of fresh eggs right through the year.
| The little fowls can be kept in such small
quarters that almost any one, even in
| the city, can have a small flock and en-
| joy both the birds and the eating of the
nice things made from their eggs.
| Don't imagine, however, that Archie and
| Mike let any of their bantam eggs GO
| into the pantry during the breeding sea-
| son. Oh. no, They saved every egg
| and as fast as a clutch was ready they
set the eggs under Rhode Island Red
| hens which had before proved to be
good sitters and faithful foster mothers
| The eggs We're tested on the sixth or
seventh day after setting them and the
! clear-looking eggs were removed and
| saved to be boiled hard and fed to the
| little chicks that should come from the
| live eggs. Most of the bantam eggs We're
fertile and contained live embryo chicks
Il
| BOYS in a swimming pool.
| OF all the experiences of the young
| poultrymen the most interesting was at
Matching time. The boys couldn't see the
| chicks coming out of the eggs (as you
| can in an incubator), because the broody
| hens would allow no meddling. If any
| one tried to lift them and peek under he
| got his hands well pecked by their sharp
| beaks. After Matching, however, when
| the chicks had dried off and become
rested and warm they would peek out
! from under the mother hen and blink
| their eyes at the waiting lads After q
while two or three grew bolder and began
to creep out from under the hens breast
| feathers and one fell out of the nest 1t
was one of Arches blacks, and he grab
| bed it quickly. OF all the pretty things
| in this beautiful world, a little puffy
| fluffy, shining, soft black bantam baby
! is the prettiest or at least that is what
Archie thought. The little fellow began
| to peep" peep" and that made the
mother hen wifd so Archie slyly slipped
| the baby chick back under the hen with
| one hand, while he waved the other hand
in front of the hens eyes.
Care After Hatching
The foster mothers were left on the
| nests for a day after the Matching of the
| eggs so that the little chicks could rest
| and gain strength for their life in the
| big world. Each hen was given water
| to drink and whole corn to fill her crop,