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MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Answer The beef scrap that you 

 sent me certainly does not smell at 

 all good. It often occurs in the sum- 

 mer that beef scrap that may have 

 been good earlier in the year has 

 become moist or heated and a poi- 

 son has developed in it, so in the 

 summer I advise poultry raisers to 

 buy it only in small quantities and 

 try to have it as sweet as possible. 



You know I feared it was the beef 

 scrap and so advised you to use milk 

 and wild game and to avoid the beef 

 scrap. You will have to skin the 

 rabbits or squirrels and then you can 

 surely grind them up in your bone 

 cutter or if you cannot you might 

 hack them up with at hatchet on a 

 block of wood, or you can boil them 

 and let the hens peck the meat off 

 and then chop the bones up on the 

 block. The hens will come running 

 when they hear that hatchet chop- 

 ping. I have had them running a 

 quarter of a mile to get the bones 

 that were flying off the hatchet. The 

 rabbit and squirrel bones chop very 

 easily and the hens do love them. 



Poison I want to know what is 

 the matter with my friend's chickens. 

 They are a mixed flock, one year old, 

 all laying. They are fed on scraps 

 or garbage. 



The first thing she noticed they 

 were on the roost hanging their 

 heads down as far as they could 

 stretch. Then they fall on the ground 

 and run their heads out as far as they 

 can, and die three or four days later. 

 She has lost seventeen. Mrs F. 



Answer This is what is called 

 "limber neck," and comes from poi- 

 soning by bad (putrid) meat, fish, 

 or garbage that is moldy. Tell your 

 friend to put a little bicarbonate of 

 soda in the drinking water a small 

 teaspoonful to a quart and to give 

 also ground charcoal in the food and 

 give each hen that is so affected a 

 dose of either Epsom salts (half a 

 teaspoonful) dissolved in water, or a 

 teaspoonful of castor oil. 



Mildew Poison Will you kindly 

 answer the following questions: "My 

 White Leghorns are dying from 

 bowel trouble. Two were sick for 

 two days. I have noticed this since 

 I began feeding a dark variety of 

 wheat or mildewed wheat. The hens 

 have not laid well and their combs 



are dark. I think it is the wheat. 

 Will you please tell me a remedy? 

 Do you think it is the wheat? Mrs. 

 J. W. H. 



Answer Mildew is poisonous to 

 fowls and the wheat you are feeding 

 them is killing them. Stop giving 

 them that wheat, and give them a 

 little charcoal in their food and also 

 a little carbonate of soda in their 

 drinking water, about a half-teaspoon- 

 ful of bicarbonate of soda to a quart 

 of drinking water. But there will be 

 no use in doctoring if you keep on 

 feeding them the poisonous wheat. 



Pip I have read your remarks 

 carefully for over a year, but do not 

 remember anything about pip. All 

 my flock have it, one year and three 

 days old. How do they get it? Is 

 it hereditary? If so, is it in the 

 strain or the breed, White Wyan- 

 dottes? Is it fatal? If so, in what 

 time? What is your treatment? 



Thanking you for your reply, I am, 

 very respectfully. W. H. 



Answer I have not seen a genuine 

 case of "pip" for many a long year 

 in fact, never in California. The 

 poultry medical books here assert 

 that it is only a symptom of a dis- 

 ease and not a disease at all; that it 

 is only a dryness of the tongue pro- 

 duced by feverishness and rapid 

 breathing. However, I well remem- 

 ber the disease at my grandmother's 

 in Europe and there the cure was 

 very simple. 



The pip there was a real disease. 

 It was a small horn or scale that 

 grew on the end of the tongue. The 

 tip of it was quite sharp, almost like 

 a thorn, and the edges were almost 

 as sharp as a knife. The sharp point 

 and edges seem to prevent the fowls 

 from picking up and swallowing the 

 grain and they die of starvation. 



When we noticed a hen which drop- 

 ped the grain we examined her and 

 if we found a hard, sharp scale on the 

 tip of the tongue we would remove 

 it with the thumb nail, scaling it off, 

 commencing under the tip of the ton- 

 gue. Then we touched the spot with 

 borax and honey and gave the hen a 

 dose of Epsom safts, about a quar- 

 ter of a teaspoonful, or a lump of 

 very salt butter. We fed soft food 

 for a few days. The hens recovered 

 quickly. 



