SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEHimo 



body, and of eggs produced by fowls, is water. They need a 

 constant supply of clean, pure, fresh water at all times. It 

 should be drawn from a source from which we would be willing 

 to take our own supply. Disease will spread through impure 

 or polluted drinking water more quickly than in almost any 

 other way. Where a gpod, pure, fresh running stream can be 

 had it will serve well for watering the fowls, but as a rule running 

 streams are not fit for drinking purposes. No stock should 

 be permitted to drink from streams which run through foul 

 barnyards and piggeries, or which receive the seepage from 

 manure heaps, privys and piggeries. Neither should streams 

 into which factories empty their waste be used for watering 

 stock of any description. Where a stream has its source in a 

 pure spring or springs and runs through clean open land or 

 woodland, and is not contaminated from above mentioned 

 sources, it may be safely made use of and proves an ideal means 

 of watering, provided it is so placed that it will not receive the 

 wash of crowded poultry yards. 



Drinking fountains should be cleansed frequently. For 

 adult fowls 10 or 12 quart galvanized iron pails make the best^ 

 drinking vessels, as they are easily handled and may be thor- 

 oughly cleaned with very little labor. Good galvanized iron 

 drinking fountains are best for little chicks, although easily 

 cleaned earthenware, glass or cast-iron water fountains may be 

 used when convenient. It is seldom wise to allow more than 

 one pen of fowls to water from the same pen or bucket where 

 birds are kept in continuous houses, since by watering two pens 

 from one receptable you simply double the chances of infection 

 should sickness break out in either one of the flocks. 



All food should be sound, sweet and free from must and 

 mold. Never use sour, musty or moldy grain. It is a pro- 

 lific source of bowel troubles in both young and old stock. 

 Cracked grains when purchased in this condition should be care- 

 fully inspected, as they are very liable to be musty. Fowls 

 need a variety of food to keep their appetites in good condition, 

 which means keeping them healthy. Grain may be supplied 

 mixed or separately, and it is wise to feed at least two or three 

 kinds such as wheat, corn and oats. Barley, buckwheat, kaffir 

 com and other grains and seeds may also be used to advantage 

 by way of variety. Green food is of the utmost importance 

 and some fresh raw food should be fed at all seasons of the year. 

 The ideal way to feed green food is to give the birds a good 

 pasture on clover or grassland. If this cannot be supplied, 

 furnish them with an abundance of raw vegetables such as 

 mangels, beets, turnips, cabbages and small potatoes, as much 

 as they will clean up during the day. Vary this supply occa- 

 sionally by giving cut clover or cut alfalfa. By keeping an 

 abundance of green food sufficient for each days' needs before 

 the birds all the time, you will prevent many common ailments 

 and discourage feather picking. 



Oyster shell, grit and charcoal are necessary to the health 

 of the birds, and should be kept before them at all times. Oyster 

 shell is particularly necessary and it has been found by careful 

 tests that birds supplied with grit alone do not do as well as 

 those that have oyster shell and no grit, while those having both 

 grit and oyrster shell do best. Charcoal is necessary as a cor- 

 rective. The fowls will not eat more than they need of it and 

 it keeps their digestive organs in good condition and prevents 

 diarrhoea. 



CARE OF THE POULTRY HOUSE 



Poultry houses should be kept reasonably clean. By this 

 we mean filth must be avoided. A little dust will do no harm, 

 but extreme dustiness is dangerous to the health of the birds. 

 You will generally find more or less catarrhal trouble in build- 

 ings that are exceedingly dusty. Sand or gravel is preferable 



as a filling for poultry houses to loam or other dusty soil. Road 

 dust should not be used as it is necessarily of a filthy character 

 containing all sorts of impure matter. Fowls will enjoy and 

 take benefit from a good dust bath and such should be supplied 

 in some sunny portion of the pen. Clean, sandy loam mixed 

 with a little sifted coal ashes makes a very good dust bath, and 

 the fowls will prefer it in summer time kept a little moist. 



VERMIN •\' 



You cannot expect fowls to be very healthy and do well if 

 they are subject to continued attacks of lice and mites. These 

 poultry vermin must be gotten rid of if we are to get best results. 

 With a little care one can enjoy almost entire freedom from 

 these pests. A good liquid lice killer used freely about the 

 roosts and droppings boards will insure freedom from mites. 

 To get rid of the body lice on the fowl, dust the birds once in 

 three months with pure Dalmatian or Persian Insect Powder. 

 This powder should be made of the pure fresh ground Persian 

 insect flowers, or Pyrethrum, and should be purchased of a 

 reputable drug supply house. The price varies from 25 to 30 

 cents a pound, and it is well worth the money to any poultry- 

 man. In dusting the fowls they should be dusted thoroughly, 

 working the powder well into the feathers down to the skin all 

 over the body. If all birds are given a thorough dusting and 

 a little of the powder is scattered in each nest, there will be no 

 more trouble from lice for some time. We seldom find it nec- 

 essary to dust brids oftener than once in three months, but it 

 is absolutely necessary to use the pure, fresh, unadulterated 

 powder. 



AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE 



Among the avoidable causes of disease are poorly ventilated 

 poultry houses, overcrowded buildings, crowding on the roosts 

 at night, dampness, filthy quarters, impure food and water, 

 the use of moldy or musty litter material, and breeding from 

 unsound, unhealthy or debilitated stock. All of these causes 

 can be avoided with a little care. 



All new fowls received should be quarantined for a short 

 time before being introduced to a flock. Sick birds when found 

 should be immediately removed from the flock, and if seriously 

 sick had best be killed and cremated. It is never wise to spend 

 five or ten dollars' worth of time and medicine doctoring a bird 

 whose carcass is only worth about a dollar at market prices. 

 If it were simply a matter of doctoring the bird alone, the matter 

 would not be so serious, but as a rule when time is taken 

 to treat sick fowls the danger of infection of the balance of the 

 flock is not reckoned with. If a sick bird is promptly disposed 

 of and the carcass cremated the danger of infection of the bal- 

 ance of the stock is reduced to the minimum. If the bird is 

 simply placed by itself on some other part of the farm and the 

 attendant goes from treating it to the buildings occupied by the 

 other stock, or if contagion is carried in some other way, there 

 is always liability of spreading the disease. 



As a general rule the best way to treat simple sickness in 

 fowls is to provide a range for them on some remote part of the 

 farm where they will be obliged to rough it in open front sheds 

 with the roosts well elevated in the rear part where the birds 

 can sleep free from drafts, but at the same time have the benefit 

 of practically living in the open. Keep a mixture of dry grains 

 always before these birds and plenty of oyster shell, grit, char- 

 coal and pure water. See that they have an abundance of 

 green food. Any that are worth saving will usually come through 

 without the necessity of special treatment. The outdoor natural 

 "roughing it" life will be all that is necessary to bring them, 

 round in good shape. Seriously sick birds had best be killed 

 at once and the carcasses cremated. 



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