AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 



with suspicion and examine it carefully for lice, as 

 they are almost certain to be present in force when 

 least suspected. 



When the beginner finds his houses or fowls so 

 badly infested with vermin that the trouble is easily 

 apparent, he will find he has more of them on his 

 hands than he can well realize until he finds how 

 hard they are to exterminate. The fowls them- 

 selves and the roosts and nests are the leading 

 habitations of the pests, and these should come in 

 for first attention. In bad cases the vermin spread 

 to the walls, ceiling and other parts and fixtures 

 of the house. During the summer time is when 

 lice are the most troublesome, because warm 

 weather is more favorable for their rapid increase. 



While there are quite a number of different 

 kinds of lice and mites which prey on domestic 

 fowls, they may, with chickens, for all practical 

 and elementary purposes, be divided into two main 

 classes (i) body lice, which stay on the fowl 

 nearly or quite all the time, and may be detected 

 traveling around over the skin, especially on the 

 neck or under the wings, or nestling among the 

 fluffy feathers around the vent; and (2) the red 

 mites or lice which infest the poultry house fixtures, 

 hiding in cracks and crannies during the day and 

 coming forth after night to seek their prey. 



I am a strong believer in the efficacy of the dust 

 bath as a means of ridding the fowl's body of 



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