MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY 



of all litter and debris. The interior may then 

 be thoroughly sprayed with a disinfectant 

 composed of some good coal tar preparation, 

 and this repeated in the spring. The surface 

 will need to be painted with a good disinfectant, 

 of which there are a number of commercial 

 preparations on the market. A close watch should 

 be made for vermin in the house and on the 

 birds, and if lice or similar parasites are dis- 

 covered, immediate action should be taken to 

 destroy both the adults and the eggs, since these 

 parasites will debilitate the flock and prevent 

 their development and may seriously check their 

 ability to lay. 



Management of Artificial Lights. The electric 

 lights mentioned in the previous chapter should 

 be turned on about four-thirty in the morning 

 and kept on until daylight or used for an hour 

 in the late evening. When lights are used there 

 should be plenty of food and water available 

 to enable the birds to take advantage of the 

 additional feeding period. The scratch grain 

 should be increased by 2 pounds daily for each 

 hundred birds when lights are used. Many 

 poultrymen find it advantageous to have a low 

 wattage light burning all night so that hungry 

 individuals may get a meal and return to the 

 perches at all times. Three to five kilowatt 

 hours per month for each hundred birds repre- 



H3 



