44 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



quickly die from suffocation. The addition of a few 

 wood ashes to the dust bath is a great help in keep- 

 ing down body lice. 



Poultry on Shares — If A furnishes B with poultry 

 to raise on shares, B doing all the work and supplying 

 the feed, he should receive one-half the poultry, A to 

 take his half and the original flock at market time in 

 the fall. 



To prevent frozen combs keep the poultry in their 

 houses on very cold days, particularly when the cold is 

 accompanied with a high wind. Make a burlap curtain 

 to hang over the roosts and down around the fowls 

 to keep them warm at night. 



The color of the yolk is influenced by the food. 

 Feed plenty of cut clover and some corn, and the yolks 

 will be yellow enough to suit you. Fowls fed largely 

 on buckwheat and wheat often lay eggs with light 

 colored yolks; but it does not affect the fertility of 

 hatching. 



Dehorn Roosters — It sometimes becomes quite a 

 problem what to do with the old males after the breed- 

 ing season is over. If turned out on the range with 

 the cockerels, they tyrannize over them, driving them 

 from the feeding grounds, injuring and even killing 

 them by their assaults. If put into an inclosure 

 together, a series of fights will immediately begin, and 

 when it is over the birds will be hardly worth keep- 

 ing. Cut off the spurs with a very fine saw within 

 one-half inch of the leg and put on a little powdered 

 chalk or sulphate of iron to prevent bleeding, then 

 trim down the beak until the blood shows close to the 

 cut. Then the birds will run together as quiet as a 

 lot of pullets and by the time the beak grows out they 

 will be living in peace and harmony. 



Crooked breast bones are commonly caused by the 

 chicks going on the roost too young, as a chicken's 



