CAUSE AND CURE OF SICKNESS 



143 



(about ten grains) of sulphur in the 

 morning meal, but at this season of 

 the year I am afraid, as sulphur opens 

 the pores, that the fowls might take 

 extra colds. Will you let me know 

 if you give eucalyptus oil and the re- 

 sults, as it may help another. 



Congestion of the Lungs Knowing 

 that you are a very busy woman, it is 

 as a last resort in our trouble that I 

 make this appeal to you. We are on 

 forty acres of new land since April, 

 never having been occupied except as 

 stock or grain land before. The land 

 is light adobe soil, being porous in 

 summer, not cracking as some adobe 

 does. For grit I furnish coarse sand 

 and decomposed granite, which seems 

 very sharp grit; have fed cracked 

 wheat, chick feed, raw chopped meat 

 sparingly, chopped vegetables and 

 plenty of clean water. Have had three 

 hatches; the first at three weeks old 

 the brooder took fire in the night and 

 burnt everything up; total loss. The 

 second about 70 per cent hatched, and 

 I brooded them in boxes 18 by 24 in. 

 filled with straw, nest and hover, and 

 no artificial heat, and had none sick; 

 all vigorous Plymouth Rocks, until 

 two months old, when suddenly I no- 

 ticed one at a time get droopy; could 

 find no lice, but white-washed and 

 coal-oiled pens, brooders, etc.; dug up 

 the ground. 



I saw two or three head lice, as I 

 supposed large, long insects just on 

 two or three birds, so I greased every- 

 thing with lard and sulphur, on head 

 and under wings, but the sick ones 

 died just the same. On some of the 

 sick ones I could find no lice of any 

 description, so I opened some and 

 could see nothing apparently wrong, 

 except in the lungs, which seemed to 

 be full of blood, and when they died 

 they would sit for a day or two very 

 weak and breathe hard. They got very 

 thin. They have invariably died, and 

 I have now lost about eighty. I 

 opened one today. It seems to have 

 white or cream-colored lumps through 

 the lungs. 



I have about a hundred and ten 

 healthy chicks three weeks old in 

 brooders, and am afraid for them. We 

 have had no experience of this kind 

 before, and anything so unusual and 

 so menacing to otir only business has 

 prompted me to write to you. I have 

 a roll of clippings of your pieces, but 



find nothing to cover the case. Now, 

 if possible, will ycu please tell what 

 the trouble is? It may save my fu- 

 ture flock and my profits. Yours in 

 hope, H. L. F. 



Answer From your description of 

 the trouble in your brooders I fear 

 that it may be possibly tuberculosis, 

 still there is a great doubt in my mind 

 because you are on a new place and 

 have, as I understand, new boxes or 

 home-made brooders, and therefore I 

 think the trouble is that the chicks 

 have not sufficient room in the boxes 

 at night and are breathing vitiated 

 air. This will weaken in fact, will 

 poison the chicks, and they will "go 

 light" or die of consumption just from 

 not having sufficient oxygen or proper 

 ventilation in their sleeping quarters. 



At four weeks of age there should 

 not be more than two dozen chickens 

 in a box 18 by 24 inches, and the 

 brooders should be sunned every day, 

 and one side of the box brooder 

 should be open so the chicks will have 

 plenty of fresh air. Another thing 

 has certainly injured the chicks, and 

 that is greasing them. It always will 

 make the chickens sick, especially if 

 greased under the wings; a little, very 

 little lard on the top of the head and 

 under the chin does not seem to hurt, 

 but if it is used at all freely on the 

 body and especially under the wings, 

 it will often kill them. 



Instead of coal-oiling the brooders, 

 if you had washed them with boiling 

 hot suds it would have been much 

 better. The fumes from the oil is in- 

 jurious and is utterly useless for kill- 

 ing body lice. Boiling suds is harm- 

 less for the chicks and will destroy 

 mites, lice, fleas and many infectious 

 germs in . the brooders and costs a 

 good deal less than oil or any of the 

 liquid lice killers. After carefully 

 studying your letter, I feel sure that 

 the trouble commenced with over 

 crowding and lack of ventilation in 

 the brooder. Then the greasing fin- 

 ished it, and when the chickens began 

 to be sick, others caught it, for it is 

 a strange thing, but sure, that one 

 sick chick will infect its neighbors no 

 matter what disease it has. Also, 

 when a chick for any reason is weakly 

 it will take any disease that is in the 

 air. 



Now for those that are left, keep 

 their sleeping coops clean and well 

 sunned and keep the chicks entirely 



