Oct. 15, 1911 



641 



PCD^LTT^W [ffiEf^^^T 



DRUGS AND "DOPES" FOR CHICKENS AND 

 — FOR "HUMANS." 



Prof. A. W. Bigham, one of our best au- 

 thorities on poultry, of Brookings, So. Da- 

 kota, gives us the following in the October 

 number of the Western Poultry Journal: 



It Is simply silly to allow conditions to exist 

 which invite disease, and, when the scourge ar- 

 rives, resort to the use of drugs. I wonder how 

 many cases have been reported to me this year In 

 which the poultry-keeper used, in the drinking- 

 water for his fowls, carbolic acid, permanganate of 

 potassium, sulphate of iron, and patent poisons ga- 

 lore. The digestive system of the bird is adapted 

 to taking in pure water to mix with the solid food 

 to a reasonable extent. Certain juices and secre- 

 tions are supplied in the food tube by glands to 

 help digest the food. What is the effect of the poi- 

 sons added to the drinking-water? Usually digest- 

 ive disorder is increased, because these drugs are 

 not adapted to aid in the digestive processes. They 

 upset the natural plan, and disarrange the digest- 

 ive system. Try a little kerosene or carbolic acid 

 in your own drinking-water, or add a little per- 

 manganate to your coffee some morning, and note 

 what a pleasant, exhilarating, super-digestive in- 

 fluence results. 



VALUABLE VENTILATION. 



Again, how often the mistake is made of gather- 

 ing in the beautiful healthy pullets from colony 

 houses on free range and placing them in closed 

 houses ! Perhaps the house is a new one, all so 

 clean and nice, but not completely dried out. 

 Very quickly the confined birds catch cold, and 

 probably roup results. Then comes the dosing 

 with ■■ roup cures." Write it down, please, in your 

 Bible among the records of the family births and 

 deaths that pure fresh air and sunshine are better 

 for fowls (and humans too> than all the medicines 

 listed in the pharmacopoeia. Ventilation has a 

 value, because, when correctl.v provided, it pre- 

 vents illness and contributes to the health and 

 , proper productiveness of poultry, 



■ Amen and amen to the above sentiments. 

 "We make our chickens sick (and people 

 too) by shutting them up in close rooms, 

 cutting them off from God's free air, and 

 then try to cure them by dosing them 

 with jjoisonous drugs — drugs that have 

 about as much to do with the disease in 

 question as the absurd remedies among the 

 heathen doctors. In many of our poultry- 

 journals you will see a long list of remedies 

 (one for each "disease," real or imaginary) 

 for chickens — 50 cents a box — when the real 

 cost of the ingredients in the box (if the 

 stuff really wan needed), is probably less 

 than 5 cents. Of course the chickens often 

 I get well in spite of the drugging; but the 

 ' medicine has no more to do with the recov- 

 ery than does the horseshoe nailed above 

 the door to bring " good luck " and ward off 

 disease. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS. 



We clip the following from The Farmer'' s 

 Guide: 



Indian llunner ducks will grow and mature three 

 times as fast as any variety of chicken or any other 

 animal that wears feathers. We have a bunch of 

 them, just five weeks old yesterday, that are now 

 half grown and nearly feathered. When full-feather- 

 ed they will be ready for market — and that is where 

 all culls should go. One breeder of Runners, living 

 near a good-sized town, has a contract with a large 

 hotel to supply young ducks at fifty cents per head, 

 and nice fresh eggs at quite an advance over the 

 usual market price. This provides an outlet for all 



surplus stock and eggs. Those making a business 

 of rearing Pekin ducks for market dispose of them 

 at nine weeks of age. Runners could easily be made 

 ready for market at eiuM weeks of age. 



Of course, these ducks had good care and a plen- 

 tiful supply of correctly balanced food. One would 

 not expect them to grow bones, muscles, leathers, 

 eggs, etc., on thin air and water, fond as they natu- 

 rall.v are of the latter. 



Their vitality is extremely strong. For example: 

 We had a colony of seven hens hatching ducklings. 

 After we supposed they were through, the few un- 

 hatched eggs were gathered into a basket, out of 

 the way of the young ducklings. I^ater in the day 

 we went out and found in the basket a duckling. 

 It had insisted on coming into the worid, even if 

 he had to do it alone and unheated except by the 

 warmth of the sun whose intense rays were veiled 

 by clouds. We gave him into the care of one of the 

 good motherly hens, aiad he is still alive. 



Another great point in their favor is their im- 

 munity from the little ills that carry awa.v so many 

 young chicks. Poultry-raisers know, to their sor- 

 row, how difficult it is to rear chicks upon the same 

 ground year after year. Now, while it is vastly 

 Ijetter to renovate the ground for any kind of fowls 

 by growing some kind of crop on it after having 

 " chicken-cropped " it for several years, we have 

 started young ducks in coops right at the back door, 

 where chicks have been reared ever since the red 

 men roamed the wilds, and where chicks developed 

 gapes and runtiness whenever permitted to roam 

 there; but the ducks did not mind it at all. They 

 gre« and thrived, and soon got so saucy that they 

 had, perforce, to be taken to their little wire runs 

 where they could be kept under surveillance. 



Our neighbor passing by the other day. and not- 

 ing our growing ducklings, remarked that she was 

 sorry she had not arranged to rear more of them, 

 ■■for." said she, ■'you can keep them where you 

 want them,'^ This lady has been quite unfortvinate 

 in having her chickens taken by crows, hawks, etc. 

 It is true, the ducklings are easily restrained. An 

 eighteen-inch-high one-inch-mesh wire fence will 

 do it, and they soon become accustomed to their 

 narrow limitations, and are happy, busy, and hun- 

 (iru. Mrs. J. B. Howe. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKLINGS; ANOTHER 

 SIDE OF THE QUESTION. 



The next time "A. T." writes about Indian Run- 

 ner ducks, please have him tell us how to feed and 

 care for the small ducks. I find them very hard to 

 raise here. They have fits, and get weak in the 

 legs, crawl around a few days, and die at the age of 

 about three or four weeks. I can not get them to 

 live at all. They get out in the sun, and are too 

 weak in the legs to get back, and just lie in the sun 

 and die. I keep plenty of water by them all the 

 time: feed two parts bran, one part shorts, one 

 part corn meal, all they will eat, moi.stened. If he 

 will tell us how to produce the desired results it 

 will be of much greater value to us than all of 

 these big reports, which are of no account to us, 

 unless he will show us how to produce such results, 



Boyd, Ky. H, C, Clemons, 



]My good friend, I have had no such trou- 

 ble at all as you mention. My ducklings 

 were hatched under hens. Their first food 

 was bread and milk, but they were permit- 

 ted to run out over the grassy lawn when- 

 ever they felt inclined. After they were 

 about a week old I gave them bran and 

 shorts mixed with water, just as you did, 

 except that I did not use any corn meal. 

 It may be something in the locality, or pos- 

 sibly something in the strain of ducks. I 

 fed mine whenever they seemed hungry, 

 and most of the time they had bran mash 

 where they could get it whenever they 

 wanted it. Whenever the sunshine was too 

 hot they had easy access to shade. 



