The Boy's Hens. 79 



kept plenty of clean water and oyster shells before the hens at all times, 

 and he kept the house clean. The hens responded — at least some of them 

 did — and owing to the low cost of the table scraps gave us eggs that cost 

 less than half a cent apiece while they were worth four cents in the local 

 market. 



A LARGER FLOCK. — Of course the boy, like all poultrymen, wanted a 

 larger flock. Somehow we all come to think that if we could only have 

 more land, or more cows, or more hens, we can make growth on our 

 ability as we do on our stock. When we came back to the farm the boy 

 found nine more hens, and a White Wyandotte rooster. The hens were a 

 mixed lot, but the rooster was a good one. They had all had a hard 

 Winter, sleeping in the barn or in an old henhouse without much care. 

 The old farm chicken-yard was to be used as a garden, so the boy cut poles 

 in the woods and helped to build a new yard at the back of an aban- 

 doned ice house, which was a henhouse years before. He dug holes for his 

 posts, and then a six-foot chicken fence was tacked around with a base- 

 board nailed at the bottom. We have tried piling stones around the 

 base, but this does not answer. The boy made clean nests of straw, dust- 

 ing them well with his chicken powder. The roosts were not nailed 

 down, but put in sockets, so that they can be lifted out and cleaned easily. 

 Every morning he took a pickax and spade and dug up the ground in the 

 yard, thus providing worms for the hens. There were many leaves and 

 parings in the table scraps, but the boy pulled grass and weeds and fed 

 them freely, for hens like green food. The boy began to understand 

 something about the different kinds of lice that make hens miserable. 

 The little mites that pass the day on the under side of the roost are bad 

 citizens — night robbers, for they crawl up at night and attack the hens. 

 We can make life a burden to them by keeping the under side of the 

 roost well smeared with grease. Every now and then the roosts must be 

 taken out and washed with boiling water, and then painted with kero- 

 sene. The large gray lice that stay on the hens are easier to fight if we 

 give the hens a fair chance to keep clean. A vigorous hen will dust in the 

 dry soil or in a box of dry coal ashes and free herself of most of these 

 lice. A good dusting with some "chicken powder" or fine tobacco will 

 finish up. I know of people who read somewhere that kerosene is the 

 thing to kill lice with, so they took some hens and rubbed kerosene over 

 them ! They could not have done a worse thmg, for it took hide and 

 feathers off the hens. A mixture of lard and sulphur rubbed under the 

 wings and at the base of the neck will help, but do not put pure kerosene 

 on the hen. The boy found that there is little use fighting the lice on the 

 hens if the building is neglected. Most old farm buildings are alive with 

 vermin, which breed in filth, so that they must be kept clean. The manure 

 ought to be scraped out twice a week at least. In spite of the "chicken 



