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floor, and furnish no dusting material. If sand or loam cannot 

 be used for the entire floor, a box 2 or 3 feet square placed in 

 a corner of the house and filled with wood ashes, a little sand or 

 loam will be very inviting to the hens. However, if the hens 

 are badly infested with body lice they should be dusted with 

 some reliable commercial powder. In applying this the hens 

 should be held with head down, the feathers spread open and 

 every part of the body covered with the dusting material. The 

 feathers should be fairly well filled with it. 



Mites. 



Mites are very troublesome in the poultry house. They are 

 small, and, when filled with blood, red in appearance, but when 

 kept away from hens for some time are gray, due to the lack 

 of blood in their bodies. They live in the cracks about the 

 droppings board, in and under roosts, and, in many instances, 

 get into the nest boxes. By examining closely the cracks or 

 hiding places about the roosts they can easily be seen with the 

 naked eye if present. A whitish powder, offal from the mites, 

 is evidence of their presence. They do not live upon the bodies 

 of the hens, but are nocturnal in habit and crawl from their 

 hiding places when the hens are on the roost, and after sucking 

 themselves full of blood return to their hiding places and wait 

 until the next evening. They multiply very rapidly in warm 

 w^eather, so weekly observations should be made. They can 

 easily be eradicated by painting the roosts and adjacent parts 

 with the mixture mentioned above. It should be applied 

 freely. 



Rearing Chicks. 



Most back yard poultry keepers prefer to buy pullets in the 

 fall rather than raise them. In congested districts, where the 

 amount of space available for poultry is small and cats and dogs 

 numerous, I am sure the people are justified in not attempting 

 to raise chicks. This is especially true if they are compelled to 

 be away from home a large part of the time, as chicks need 

 considerable attention the first few weeks. On the other hand, 

 there are sections in towns and cities more thinly populated 

 and back yards comparatively large where chicks can and 



