108 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



A little sulphur in the bathing water when birds are lousy is 

 not a bad plan, provided you can get your birds to bathe in it, 

 but the easiest and surest way is to keep the house well white- 

 washed and to use tobacco stems for nesting material. When 

 they are not convenient, or obtainable, an ordinary moth ball 

 dropped in the corner of each nest box acts as good lice pre- 

 ventative. 



Pigeons bathe regularly and can keep themselves clean, which 

 is one reason why they are not bothered very much with lice. 



Chicken lice do not seem to stay on pigeons very long at a 

 time. They are very annoying and destructive, however, during 

 the period that they stay and will cause pigeons to leave their 

 nests and often make them slow up in their work, besides caus- 

 ing the squabs to be small and poor. So it is well to guard 

 against them even though they are not a permanent nuisance. 



Should it be your misfortune to have your birds in or near 

 an old chicken house, or one that is alive with lice or mites, 

 and should these pests get a hold on your squab plant to such 

 an extent that a mild treatment does not seem to do the work, 

 you can clean the entire place of lice and mites by one gigantic 

 effort if you proceed as follows: 



First take out and burn all the unused nest material, feathers 

 and dirt from your squab house and the surrounding yard, then 

 start in with your nest room. Dip each bird with a warm solu- 

 tion of sheep dip, which is a coal tar product and can be pur- 

 chased at almost any drug store. To dip the birds use a good size 

 bucket with sufficient enough liquid to enable you to immerse 

 the bird completely under except its head. Care should be taken 

 not to get any in its eyes. As a preventative it is not a bad plan 

 to grease the bird around the eyes with a little vaseline or tal- 

 low. The dip should be diluted with warm water to about one- 

 half the strength required by the directions. 



When dipping a bird churn it up and down a time or two 

 in the liquid so that it will get completely wet clear to the skin, 

 otherwise the feathers, being oily, the dip will not take hold. 

 After the birds are dipped put them out in the fly pen to dry, 

 providing it is a warm day. They should not be dipped except 

 on warm days so that they will dry quickly. 



If the bottom of the fly pen is inclined to be dirty it is best 

 to lay down a few boards for the birds to sit on while drying. 



