1132 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



the oviduct caused by over-stimulating food, and by the excess- 

 ive use of " egg-food." The remedies are evident. 



Egg-eating. Fowls that have all their wants supplied, 

 and have plenty of exercise, never learn to eat their eggs unless 

 they first get hold of a broken egg, and thereby find out that raw 

 eggs are good. To guard against such accidents, gather the eggs 

 daily, furnish artificial nest-eggs, and do not throw egg-shells 

 to the hens. If you have only one or two egg-eaters, kill them 

 at once (unless they are specially valuable), for one egg-eater 

 will soon teach the trick to every fowl on the place. But if 

 the majority of the fowls have taken to devouring the eggs as 

 fast as laid, arrange the nests so that they will be quite dark 

 inside (better do that any way), and have a few peppered eggs 

 around in sight; also furnish exercise by scattering small grain 

 among the litter on the floor. To prepare the peppered eggs, chip 

 out a small piece of shell from one side of an egg, scoop out 

 most of the contents, fill the cavity with red pepper mixed very 

 thick with the white of an egg, and paste a piece of white paper 

 over the hole. One or two bites of these prepared eggs will con- 

 vince the erring fowls that " things are not what they seem." 



Feather-eating. Use Loomis's poultry-bit; it is the only 

 sure cure that I know of. 



Moulting is not a disease, but it is a critical time for old 

 fowls unless they are well taken care of. Give free range, feed 

 well, give the Douglass mixture in the drink three times a week, 

 and the fowls will come through all right. 



Obscure Diseases of Chicks. It sometimes happens 

 that chicks free from lice, well fed, well housed, and well cared 

 for in every respect, will droop around and finally die without 

 any apparent cause for their untimely taking off. But nothing 

 ever happens in this world without a cause somewhere, and 

 such cases the cause may be found in the parent stock. Chicks 

 from fowls whose constitutions have been weakened by disease, 

 or from those whose vitality has been lowered by any cause, 

 will invariably be a weak, sickly lot, and if they do not die off 

 from sheer weakness they will readily succumb to the first poul- 

 try disease that comes along. 



