POULTRY RAISING ON THE FARM 293 



seriously affect older fowls. Chicks infected with lice must 

 be treated separately. The lice may be destroyed by greasing 

 the head and body of the chick with a mixture of lard and 

 kerosene, or by the use of sodium fluoride. Dust baths 

 should be provided so that the hens and chicks may help to 

 destroy the lice. Dust smothers the parasites by stopping 

 up their breathing pores. 



Mites trouble the fowl at night only. Keeping the housing 

 quarters clean and spraying thoroughly and frequently with 

 whitewash or with some good insecticide, so that all the places 

 harboring the mites will be reached, are effective means of 

 control. 



After the breeding season is over, the cocks should be kept 

 apart from the hens. The egg production will be. as good 

 but the eggs will not be fertile, and an infertile egg has better 

 keeping qualities than a fertile one. So much loss is oc- 

 casioned by spoiled eggs that every precaution should be 

 taken to prevent it. Infertile eggs produced in clean nests 

 and gathered each day are the least likely to spoil. Dealers 

 in eggs are now protecting themselves by candling all eggs 

 that are received, and eggs that show evidence of spoiling 

 are rejected. This loss generally falls upon the producer who 

 might avoid the loss with a little care. 



