MID-SUMMER AND FALL WORK 



CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG AND OLD STOCK, IN AUGUST, SEPTEMBER 

 AND OCTOBER— PREPARATION OF WINTER QUARTERS— THE MOST UP-TO-DATE 

 AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF FUMIGATING THE POULTRY HOUSES IN SUMMER 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



MIDSUMMER with its extreme hot weather is often 

 a trying time for both young and old stock. It is 

 of the utmost importance at this time to keep the 

 house open and cool, all quarters and yards clean, and to 

 supply an abundance of shade and shelter from sudden 

 showers. 



Overcrowding must be avoided, as crowding and filth 

 in poorly ventilated coops or houses is always dangerous and 

 almost certain to result in heavy losses. Diarrhoea is one 

 of the most common hot weather troubles in poultry of all 

 ages. When it first makes its appearance, charcoal freely 

 fed may check or control the disorder. The diarrhoea may 

 be due to food or drinking water being foul with droppings 

 or other filth; to feeding impure, musty and mouldy food; 

 to overheating; to feeding in dusty, musty or mouldy litter; 

 to unclean quarters and dampness;. to overfeeding on meat 

 food or feeding spoiled meat; to eating poisonous substances 

 or to indigestion from any cause. 



The first thing to do when diarrhoea makes it appear- 

 ance is to find the cause and remove it. Drinking from filthy 

 pools in unclean runs after a sudden shower, or drinking 

 barn-yard seepage is a common^ cause of diarrhoea ("bowel 

 trouble") in hot weather. If after removing the cause, char- 

 coal fails to remedy the trouble try the following treatment: 



For Young Chicks 



Withhold all food for twenty-four to forty-eight hours 

 and give only scalded sweet milk thickened to the consistency 



A desirable type of portable, apex, colony houee, for growing chicks. It 

 admirably suited for moving about orchards. 



of cream with well-boiled bread flour. This is to be lightly 

 seasoned with salt, ginger and nutmeg. Let them have all 

 they will drink. Return to the regular ration gradually, 

 making sure that the food given is -pure and sweet. Provide 

 if possible, a good, clean, bright, grass run. 

 For Adult Stock 

 When diarrhoea makes its appearance in adult birds in 

 warm weather remove the sick birds at once to hospital 

 quarters. If any of them are passing a blue-grass-green dis- 

 charge they should be given at once a one to three drop 

 dose of creolin in a tablespoonful of water. Clean up and 

 disinfect all droppings. Add five drops of creolin to each 

 pint of drinking water allowed the sick birds. If the diar- 

 rhoea persists, and becomes greenish-yellow, yellowish or 

 blood-streaked, obtain from the nearest homeopathic phy- 

 sician or pharmacy some trituration tablets of mercury 

 bichlorid 1-1000 of a grain drug strength each (3x). In 

 severe cases one of these tablets may be given to the sick 

 bird morning and night. For flock treatment dissolve 

 twelve of these tablets in a pint of drinking water and aUow 

 the sick birds no other drink. For the first few days while 

 under treatment, feed only easily digested soft food. Fresh, 

 bright, succulent green food should be fed freely. White of 

 eggs may be given in severe cases, but meat should not be 

 fed to fowls having diarrhoea. 



Work With Adult Stock 

 If you have not already done so, it is time now to care- 

 fully cull your adult breeding stock. FemaleSi which you 

 intend to keep over another winter 

 should be given open-air quarters 

 with a good sized, well shaded, 

 green grass range. Do not allow any 

 male birds to run with them. They 

 need a rest. Choose only the best 

 year-old, and in some cases two- 

 year-old, stock that is in good 

 order — sound, healthy and vigorous. 

 Male birds which j-ou intend to 

 keep over, you should give small 

 colony coops and runs on grass land. 

 Do not hold over any males unless 

 you are sure that you wish to 

 breed them another season. All 

 iidult stock which is culled out and 

 which you do not intend to keep 

 should be sold according to quality 

 either as breeding stock or as 

 market poultry, making sure to 

 dispose of them before the birds 

 begin to moult. Be sure the adult 

 birds in summer quarters are not 

 too heavily fed. 



A light diet of the best heavy 

 white oats, whole or cracked corn 

 and wheat with a very little beef 

 scrap and an abundance of green 

 food usually makes the best ration. 

 Pure clean water in a clean foun- 



has a board floor and is 



