204 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Chicken Manure — Please answer im- 

 mediately. How can chicken manure be 

 preserved, and where can it be disposed 

 of, and at what price? Answer and 

 oblige.— Mrs. M. A. S. 



Answer — The easiest way of preserv- 

 ing chicken droppings is by placing dry 

 earth or sand or kainit under the perch- 

 es, sweeping this up two or three times 

 a week and placing it in barrels or 

 boxes. Anyone with a citrus orchard 

 is glad to get it for fertilizing the 

 trees. I know one man who pays $7.50 

 per ton for it. I do not know what the 

 market value is, but I know that it is 

 considered worth just four times as 

 much as stable manure and that it is a 

 most excellent fertilizer. 



FirELESS Brooder — I make bold to ask 

 vou for a little information. Will you 

 kindly tell me of the fireless brooder? 

 Can you give me the plans for construct- 

 ing one, or tell me where I can get the 

 plans? Can little chicks just hatched 

 be put in the fireless brooder? — Mrs. 

 W. W. G. Arizona. 



Answer — Take a box about ten inches 

 deep, and from a foot and a half to two 

 feet square. Rip the box six inches from 

 the bottom to four inches from the top, 

 so there will be two boxes, one six 

 inches, the other four inches deep with- 

 out cover. Hinge them together so they 

 will close as they were before being 

 sawed in two. Near the top make three 

 one-inch holes in the two ends for ven- 

 tilation. For the hover make a frame 

 of one-and-a-half by one-inch lumber, 

 so it will fit inside the box. On the 

 under side of this frame tack cloth 

 loosely, so it will hang in the center 

 nearly two inches below the frame. The 

 cloth is to touch the chicks' backs. Nail 

 cleats across the ends of the lower box 

 to hold the frame in position. The top 

 of the frame should be even with the 

 top edge of the lower box. Cut a hole 

 on the opposite side of the bottom box 

 to the hinges, for the chickens to go in 

 and out. 



A friend who made this brooder 

 tacked a piece of burlap on the floor 

 and then filled it almost up to the cloth 

 on the frame (the hover) with finely cut 

 straw or hay. He then scooped out a 

 nest in the center of it and put the baby 

 chicks into it. The two-foot size is large 

 enough to contain from one dozen to 

 fifty chicks for one week, twenty-five till 

 they are three weeks old, and twenty till 



they are six weeks old, or about that 

 age. On very cold nights at first he put 

 a little piece of blanket on top of the 

 hover. As the chicks grew older he 

 lessened the amount of straw or chaff, 

 when the chicks were large enough to 

 raise the heat sufficiently. After using 

 this brooder (home made) all last win- 

 ter, he said he would never be without 

 it. Personally, I think it would be a 

 good plan to let in a slide of glass at 

 one side, as chickens do not like to go 

 into a dark place. I do not know where 

 you can get plans for making a brood- 

 er, but you can buy fireless brooders at 

 any of the large poultry supply houses 

 advertising in this book. This is Mr. 

 Killifer's brooder. 



Dipping Hens — Would you be so 

 kind as to write and let me know about 

 dipping hens, etc? I have a flock of 

 somewhere between five and six hun- 

 dred. I notice some of them have lice 

 and bunches of nits on their feathers. 

 Whenever I have caught a hen I have 

 greased her well, but this would take 

 too long to go through the bunch. Is 

 there any dip that would be strong 

 enough and do no harm to the birds that 

 would kill the nits with only one dip- 

 ping?— W. B. 



Answer — As you have so large a flock 

 of hens and do not seem able or inclined 

 to pull out the feathers that have nits 

 on them, I think you will have to dip 

 them twice, with an interval of five or 

 six days. The nits are sure to hatch 

 out in about five days after they are de- 

 posited by the lice, and by twice dipping 

 them you should get most of them. It 

 is an excellent plan in warm weather 

 just at the commencement of the moult, 

 to immerse the fowls, in a diluted kero- 

 sene emulsion, wetting them, thoroughly 

 to the skin, or dip them in strong to- 

 bacco water, or a solution of two per 

 cent creolin or chloro naphtholeum. A 

 well-known poultryman gives the fol- 

 lowing advice : Take the strongest and 

 purest tobacco, 25 cents' worth being 

 ample to clean off three hundred fowls. 

 Make a decoction quite strong. If the 

 user will observe a few points, no one 

 will ever regret .using tobacco to kill 

 lice and not a solitary one will be left. 

 First, if the dipping is done out of 

 doors, the thermometer should be at least 

 80 in the shade ; second, the water 

 should never be more than blood warm, 

 say 98 degrees ; third, and this is the 

 most important point, every solitary 



