CHAPTER XVII. 

 The Health of the Hen. 



IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTION.— Vermin, germs and impropei 

 cape are re.sponsible for most poultry diseases. Yet when the conditions 

 favoring sanitary care of the flock are understood probably no other animal 

 can be more safely raised in large numbers. The slight value of the indi- 

 vidual fowl makes the employment of a veterinarian out of the question ; 

 most that he can do is to advise as to stamping out disease and preventing 

 future outbreaks. It is sometimes claimed that successful doctoring can be 

 done at long range and at a considerable lapse of time, but the bodies of 

 fowls are as delicate and complex as those of other animals, and imme- 

 diate attention and nursing are needed. Ideally the poultryman should so 

 care for the flock that it could not have disease. The remedies of the 

 poultryman are not quinine, calomel and aconite, but the axe, the fence 

 and quick lime or other disinfectants judiciously used. 



HEREDITY. — Hereditary diseases among fowls are few. Probably the 

 most important is lack of vitality inherited by young chicks as a result 

 of too close inbreeding of the parents, or the fact that either parent is 

 too fat. Inherited weaknesses, the result of inbreeding, cannot be cured. 

 The poultryman must either begin with new stock or replace some portion 

 of it with new blood, and so breed out the weakness. Very close inbreeding 

 may result in deformed bodies, wings or feet, in deranged nervous systems, 

 or in sterility. On the other hand, advocates of line breeding have secured 

 good results while trying to avoid the faults of very close inbreeding. 



CORRECT FEEDING.— Improper feeding with the usual foodstuffs 

 does not cause many diseases, but it may cause loss in the productivity of 

 the underfed or overfed individual. Starvation and obesity approach dis- 

 eased conditions as extremes are reached. Overfeeding is iattended by 

 the most serious difficulties. The fat being deposited to excess in various 

 organs as the liver, heart or oviduct muscles weakens them and often ends 

 in the destruction of the fowl. Ruptures of the liver and various veins 

 of the body seem to be brought about by fatty degeneration ; also a failure 

 of muscular power to extrude the egg. Clean, uncontaminated water aids 

 in dissolving the food, and grit, to assist in grinding it, should always be at 

 hand. While it is possible that chickens may survive some time without 

 grit it is certain that they grow much better and keep healthier when it is 

 at hand. The diagnosis of disorders from incorrect feeding is difficult. 

 The scales should soon tell whether the fowls are too heavy, even if the 

 caretaker has not discovered when handling them on the roost that their 



