298 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



will not be able to stand. The appetite is all right and 

 examination will show nothing wrong except the 

 weakness of the legs. The remedy is to take away all 

 forcing foods, such as meat or green bone, also corn, 

 buckwheat and rye if any of these are fed. Feed 

 entirely on wheat, oats and barley. Give plenty of 

 sharp grit and add fine ground bone or bone meal to 

 the ration. What the chick needs is more mineral 

 matter, which will be supplied in these grains and sub- 

 stances named. One-tenth grain quinine a day will 

 also be a great help. 



Lice and mites are the worst enemies with which 

 the poultry keeper has to deal. There are several kinds 

 but the two commonest ones are the gray body lice 

 which live on the fowls and the mites which live in 

 the houses and go on the fowls at night when they are 

 on the roost. Once let a henhouse become infested 

 with the mites and it is almost impossible to get rid of 

 them. They multiply very rapidly and live on filth and 

 refuse matter. Many houses, unsuspected, swarm 

 with them. The gray body lice can be killed by dust- 

 ing the hens with insect powder, greasing or dipping 

 in sheep dip or tobacco water or confining them a 

 short time in a box or barrel painted on the inside with 

 lice killer. Wood ashes mixed with the dust in the 

 dusting box, equal parts of each, will keep away the 

 lice. A little vaseline on the heads of small chicks as 

 a preventive of lice is better than lard, and if pur- 

 chased by the pound, is not much more expensive. 

 Thorough and persistent Work is needed to rid a house 

 of mites and keep it free of them. If the house is 

 tight, fumigate with sulphur; if not, whitewash with 

 hot lime, to every gallon of which add one ounce crude 

 carbolic acid. Remove the old roosts, nests and other 

 fixtures and saturate with kerosene before putting 

 them back. Also clean out and burn all refuse. Twice 



