172 POULTRIY-CRAFT. 
absence of a mark for mating No. 1, and the 
positions of the punch marks for Nos. 2 to 16, 
inclusive. 
247. Keeping Chicks Free from Lice. — If 
the sitting hens have been treated to prevent the 
rapid increase of lice while they are incubating, 
the chicks should be quité free from lice when 
taken from the nests; but, as lice are elusive 
creatures, and not always found when wanted, 
and as a very few of them can do a great deal of 
damage to a young chick in a short time, it is best 
to powder all the young chicks when taken from 
the nest, and at intervals of about a week, until 10 
three or four weeks old. After that they need 
not be powdered unless unmistakable indications ; 
CO CO st &> At AW Go dD = 
of the presence of lice are observed. 12 
The easiest, quickest, and surest way to treat 13 
chicks for lice, is to powder them in the coops in 14 
the evening or early in the morning, using a large 
powder gun, which can be bought at any store; sh) 
or a box with a perforated cover, giving the chicks 16 
a good sprinkling of it —the hen being meantime 
held in one hand, — working it well into the 
feathers of the hen, held head downward, and 
puffing it into every corner of the coop, which should then be closed. If the 
work is done at night, it should be left closed; if in the morning, it should be 
kept closed for half an hour or so. When coops like that in Fig. 44 are used, 
the coop is tipped back during the operation of powdering. At first thought this 
may seem an awkward way to go at it, but it will be found that neither hens 
nor chicks can get out through the slide door as they can through a hinged top 
when it is moved. Some poultrymen use lard on the heads, under the wings, 
and at the vents of young chicks, to kill lice. This mode is effective, but too 
slow, as it necessitates the handling of each and every chick. With the 
powder twelve or twenty chicks are treated as quickly as one, and with fresh 
strong powder the treatment is effective every time. 
PDDPPSSSPIPII99> 
DPPSSPSDIPI PDIP? 
Fig. 78. Punch Marks for Chicks. 
248. Colors of Chicks When Hatched.— Those not familiar with the 
appearance of chicks of the various pure breeds when first hatched, are often 
disappointed when they see the color of the chicks in the down so different 
from that of the mature fowl, and imagine that there is something wrong with 
the stock. Chicks of white varieties are generally canary colored when 
hatched; but White Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte chicks are often quite 
dark gray. Light Brahma chicks are mostly canary colored, or canary. colored 
with one or two small irregular black spots on head and back. A few are 
