CHAPTER XLI 



PARASITES AFFECTING POULTRY AND METHODS OF 

 EXTERMINATION 



While we are exempt from some of the various troubles of poul- 

 trymen in other States, we have an extra share of lice troubles, for 

 these pests flourish winter and summer in our mild climate, and if we 

 keep the birds free it must be one continual fight, not to get rid of 

 them but to prevent them getting a footing. Prevention is easier 

 than cure, even with lice. 



Lice. — The true chicken louse is a six-legged large variety; they 

 do not suck the blood of chickens but live on the skin and feathers, 

 going to the vent to drink. When the numbers get so large that they 

 annoy the hen the poultrj^man begins to take notice, because the egg 

 supply is less, but if he would attend to it in time these pests can be 

 eliminated and kept down. 



For laying hens and young stock before laying, the following 

 ointment will be found efficacious, and as one treatment will last at 

 least three months there is no reason for paying feed bills to support 

 millions of lice. 



Get one pound, or half a pound, according to size of flock, of mer- 

 curial ointment, U. S. strength. Mix with this twice its bulk of good 

 tallow; mutton tallow is best. It must be mixed thoroughly or it will 

 not be good. Now take a small piece about as large as a bean and, 

 holding the chicken in the left hand with head under the operator's 

 arm, rub the ointment well into the skin just below the vent. Rub 

 in the skin well; the lice must go through that place to get a drink 

 from the vent; the ointment should cover a spot as large as a fifty- 

 cent piece and be well rubbed into the skin. 



But this is not safe to apply to breeders, now mind what is said on 

 this subject; the mercurial ointment is harmless to the stock that are 

 used for commercial purposes, but ruinous to breeding stock. 



Why this is so I do not know, but I do know, because 1 have ex- 

 perimented with it that the eggs do not hatch well; in fact, they are 

 over SO per cent infertile. The mercury was the cause of this con- 

 dition in two pens tried out at different times. So for breeding stock 

 we must resort to a good powder to keep the hens free, and if we 

 would get good results we must keep them free from lice. They 

 worry and annoy the hens night and day so that life is made miser- 

 able, and when hens are miserable they do not lay many eggs. 



