Hen Health. 53 



The combs will not easily become frosted on cold days if 

 they are anointed with glycerine. Birds with long combs and 

 wattles should drink only from vessels into which they can get 

 their beaks alone. A hen with a 'frosted comb will not lay. 



Never use kerosene on the legs or body, as it often irritates 

 and does damage. 



Have roosts low. Many birds gradually droop and die 

 from internal injury due to the constant jumping to the floor 

 from high roosts. 



As to Hen Lice. They find a rich feeding-ground upon the 

 bodies of the fowls. They breed in filth, swarm under boards 

 and sticks, and spread to every crack and crevice of the poul- 

 try-house. Lice irritate the bodies of fowls, exhaust their vi- 

 tality, and diminish the egg yield. How shall we prevent the 

 ravages of the pests ? First, by never letting them get into 

 the poultry-house. Keep the building scrupulously clean. 

 We never let the stables go day by day without cleaning. 

 Why should the poultry-house be allowed to go dirty, until the 

 owner is compelled to remove the heaps of filth in order to get 

 into the building ? Trash and droppings ought not to accumu- 

 late upon the floor of a building. The platform under the 

 roosts forms an excellent harbor for vermin, unless cleaned 

 often. A sprinkling of air-slaked lime upon the roosts is good 

 against the vermin, but land-plaster is better for the manure. 

 It is almost impossible to keep lice out of a poultry-house 

 made of old sticks, rails, old boards, etc., apparently thrown 

 together in a careless hit-or-miss fashion ; but a substantial, 

 well-built house can be made practically vermin-proof, if all 

 flat surfaces, sides and roof are lined with tar-paper, and a 

 good coat of whitewash is put each year upon the exposed 

 wood surfaces, care being taken to work the brush into all 

 cracks. Brushing the roots with kerosene gives additional se- 

 curity. Sometimes, in spite of all precautions, vermin appear 

 in quantities upon hens ; then it becomes necessary to sulphur 

 each one, or fill the feathers full of Persian insect-powder, by 

 using the bellows made for that purpose. Why do the young 



