56 POULTRY DISEASES 



the kerosene lasts longer, and has given better results in our 

 tests. The perch poles should be free from cracks and, if 

 possil)le, should not touch the wall. For that reason many 

 swing the perch poles from the ceiling. The dropping boards 

 should be cleaned twice a week, or once a day is better. Elites 

 nuiltiply in the droppings as well as in the cracks of the 

 perch pole and cracks where the pole rests upon its support. 



WATER SUPPLY 



Fowls require water in abundance at all times for the best 

 production of eggs (which are sixty per cent water) and flesh 

 (which is sixty to eighty per cent water) and to avoid great 

 suffering during hot weather. 



The water should be clean, supplied fresh every day, and in 

 vessels so arranged that the birds cannot get into them and 

 thus contaminate it with the filth from the yards which ad- 

 heres to their feet. As is shown under the discussions of the 

 various infectious diseases and j)arasitisms. these are spread 

 in most cases, not by direct contagion ])etween the sick and the 

 well birds, but, indirectly through the medium of the soil and 

 the roosts on which the lairds live, the food that they eat, and 

 the water that they drink. 



The vessels containing the drinking water should, under 

 normal conditions, be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected daily 

 in hot weather, and once a week the remainder of the year. 

 AVhen disease is present in the flock, the vessels for drinking 

 water should be cleaned daily, regardless of the season, and 

 tliis practice should be continued for several days after all 

 symptoms of the disease have ceased to appear in the flock. 

 Vessels containing water for small chicks should be cleaned 

 daily. 



The cleaning is mainly a matter of thorough washing; the 

 disinfection of drinking vessels can best be accomplished with 

 a five per cent solution (in water) of carbolic acid. 



Chickens tolerate certain antiseptics internally very well 

 and do not resent the taste of them in drinking water to the 

 extent that other animals do, and it is a wise policy to use 

 antiseptics in the drinking water whenever an infectious dis"-' 

 ease is present on the premises or when the purity of tlie 

 Avater is under suspicion. 



The most desirable aiitise])tic to use in llic drinking water 

 is potassium permanganate. I Mace a ({uantity of the crystals 

 in a large l)ottle or jar and fill with watery of this solution use 

 sufficient in the drinking watci- to give it a slight color which 

 will rcmnin for some hours. ^More Avater can be nddcd 1o the 



