Hubbard's poultry secrets. 77 



The best time to do this work is at night, when they are 

 roosting. You can catch them easily and in one evening can 

 go over a large flock of chickens. Leave them on the floor 

 after you have dusted them and the lice will fall off into the 

 litter. In the morning, clean all the litter out of your house, 

 and set fire to it. Spray your houses all over well with the lice 

 liquid, then put in clean litter, and your chickens will be free 

 from lice for some time. Do this at least four times a year, 

 though once a month would be better, especially during the 

 summer. 



One-quarter of a poultryman's time should be used in fight- 

 ing lice. My method of keeping lice and mites off from grow- 

 ing chicks is as follovv's : 



You should not call yourself a chicken man if you allow 

 >our hens to hatch a brood of chicks that are covered with 

 lice. Some writers claim that a chicken is born with head 

 lice, whether hatched by hen or incubator. I can't say whether 

 this is true or not, but I, myself, have never found any head 

 lice on a chicken that was hatched in a clean incubator. I 

 have noticed that almost all chickens hatched by a hen have 

 head lice. When the chicks are strong enough to leave the 

 nest and go to the brood coop, the first thing I always do is 

 to take the hen in one hand and with the other hand I grease 

 her feathers and skin using pure olive oil. When the chicks 

 crawl under the hen, they moisten their down with the oil, and 

 if there are any lice on her, or them, they will leave, for lice 

 do not like grease of any kind. It not only rids the little 

 chicks of lice, but seems to strengthen them. You must be 

 careful not to put on too much of the oil for by using just a 

 small quantity, the chicks will look bright and clean when they 

 come from under the hen. Moisten her feathers with olive 

 oil once a week for four weeks. After that add to the olive oil 

 a few drops of oil of sassafrass. Keep up this method of 



