SUMMER AND WINTER CARE 



71 



"Besides the hopper in each house we have located in 

 various places on the farm large hoppers containing three 

 apartments, one apartment filled with dry mash, another 

 with the bran mixture and the third with the grain mixture 

 above given. I find that these field hoppers are often visited 

 by the chicks and more feed is eaten from them than from 

 the house hoppers. The chicks seem to think that they are 

 stealing this food, therefore they eat more of it. 



"As the chicks increase in size, the feed is changed to 

 whole wheat, corn and oats, these grains being soaked in 

 warm water before feeding during the fall months. 



"By the above simple methods we have no trouble in 

 growing large-boned, strong, vigorous fowls — in fact, I 

 claim that no variety possesses stronger vitality than Fishel- 

 ton White Plymouth Rocks. My customers can testify as 

 to this. 



Keeping Things Clean 



"All our brooders, colony coops and colony houses are 



cleaned every day, without exception. I attach great im- 

 portance to clean sleeping quarters for healthy chicks and to 

 plenty of fresh air, but without drafts. Our chicks are regu- 

 larly supplied with pure, fresh water. As the result of these 

 methods our death loss is small indeed. 



"We do not separate the sexes at all, so far as growing 

 stock is concerned. When birds have unlimited free range 

 it is not necessary to separate the sexes. 



"The first of each month, beginning November 1st, our 

 entire flock of from six to twelve thousand birds (depending 

 on how many we have brought in from neighboring farms) 

 is carefully gone over, and all birds not coming along well 

 as to weight, vigor, etc., are culled out and sent to market. 

 Only healthy, strong birds are retained in the flocks. 



A weakly or a sick bird is a costly piece of property. 

 We want nothing to do with them.'' 



POULTRY PESTS 



SIMPLE METHODS OF RIDDING FOWLS OF THE COMMON AND MOST 

 ANNOYING INSECTS— HOW TO FUMIGATE THE POULTRY HOUSE 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



Lice and Hites 



IN THE early spring is a good time to begin to fight lice 

 • and mites. A little thorough work at this season of 

 the year will save a great deal of labor and many losses 

 later. Lice and mites breed rapidly in the spring and make 

 their appearance in great numbers long before the advent of 

 warm, settled weather. 



All kinds of poultry and birds have lice and are apt to 

 be troubled with mites. Don't imagine for one moment 

 that they are confined to fowls (hens and chickens) alone. 

 Pigeons, ducks, geese, turkeys, pea fowl and guineas as well 

 as all wild and domesticated birds have lice and mites. 

 Prof. Theobald has named as affecting common fowl alone 

 some seventeen varieties of mites, ten kinds of lice, three 

 sorts of fleas, two parasitic flies and two dangerous preda- 

 tory bugs. That makes a formidable and rapacious army 

 of pests too dangerous to life and health of our flocks to be 

 carelessly ignored. 



Don't say "my fowls are not lousy.'' We don't believe 

 it. We have never seen a toyfl that was entirely free from 

 insect pests, unless it had been very recently and thoroughy 

 treated to get rid of them. Get busy and look for them. 

 Examine all cracks and crevices about the poultry house, 

 joints and rests of roosts, droppings-boards and nests for 

 mites. Look over the fowls carefully, opening the feathers 

 up down to the skin. There are some four varieties of body 

 lice that may be found anywhere on the fowl running about 

 on the skin; two kinds are common to the rump and wings 

 and may be found on the skin or hiding in the soft feathers, 

 lying low to escape notice; two more frequent the head and 

 neck; these are a lazy sort and will be found feeding close 

 to the feather barbs or lying close to feathers near the skin; 

 two more make their home on the primary and secondary 

 feathers; these are long, narrow gray fellows and not easily 

 discovered except on spreading the wings and looking closely 

 at the under sides of the feathers near the shafts; they are 

 usually quiet but can move lively enough when they wish to. 

 All of these are dangerous to the life and health of chickens 

 and injurious to fowls. 



Some people claim that' "a reasonable amount of lice 

 don't harm a fowl and that they help clean up the dead skin 



and feathers." That may be true to a very limited extent, 

 that is, a few lice may be present all the time on adult fowls 

 without any injury being apparent. The lice are biting ani- 

 mals and are not equipped with sucking apparatus like the 

 lice of humans. They feed on the scales of the skin and on 

 the feathers, eating away the soft parts, and such fluids of 

 the body as they may obtain they get through scratches or 

 abrasions of the skin or feathers. They have sharp claws 

 and cause intense irritation of the skin, by scratching and 

 crawling, when present in large numbers. They make the 

 feathers ragged and frayed by eating and chewing parts of 

 them. They act as carriers of disease germs and the seed 

 of intestinal parasites. You cannot hope to have healthy 

 fowls or chicks if you permit them to remain lousy. 



Some mites, notably the common red mite, are poultry 

 bed-bugs. They can live a long time in cracks of woodwork 

 and they prey on the fowls at night or when they are on the 

 nests. They suck the blood of the fowls and have been 

 known to kill sitting hens or to drive them from their nests. 

 They cause sickness, debility and may carry disease germs. 

 Other mites cause skin diseases, still others cause disease of 

 the respiratory organs, and one of the most common sorts, 

 next to the red mite, is a scab mite that causes "scaly leg;" 

 another scab mite plays havoc with the plumage and is known 

 as the depluming mite. It does not pay to raise and feed a 

 big crop of lice and mites; it eats up your poultry profits. 

 Comparative freedom from the pests may be had by the ex- 

 ercise of a little care and preventive treatment. 



Some fowls harbor more of these unfriendly insect guests 

 than others. Usually it is either an ill or lazy bird that is the 

 most lousy member of the flock. Failure to use the dust 

 bath freely is one of the most common causes in such cases 

 and the fact that idle, sick or debilitated fowls are commonly 

 very lousy leads to exaggerated statements of the ill effects 

 of vermin. Then too, just as some fowls are more suscep- 

 tible to certain diseases so some are more prone to be affected 

 with insect pests. Lice breed on the fowl. Scab mites, 

 tissue mites, air sac mites and their kind breed in or on the 

 fowl. Red mites and other blood-sucking bugs breed in the 

 cracks of the woodwork, in old straw and in dust and filth 

 in dark corners. 



