PRECAUTION SEEMS TROUBLESOME 



337 



pit or abandoned well. It may be that the hole is covered over 

 so that other fowls or animals cannot gain access to the carcasses, 

 but the chances are that flies will have no trouble in finding them. 

 Maggots, the larvae of flies, worms and other "crawling things" 

 abide in putrid matter. Later these insects may be eaten by the 

 chickens. 



The most careless method is to throw the dead bodies under 

 buildings, into hedge rows, along fences, on rubbish heaps or 

 other seemingly out-of-the-way places. Fowls and dogs, not to 

 mention rats, cats, skunks, crows and other flesh-eaters, soon 



Fig. 219. — Choose a secluded spot 

 for the brood coop. 



(Courtesy Kansas Experiment Station) 



Fig. 220. — Open-front colony 

 house with hinged front to exclude 

 driving rains. 



learn the whereabouts of such places, and thereafter they will 

 make a practice of haunting them, like scavengers. If they 

 would consume all of the waste matter, it would not be so bad, 

 but they do not. They eat portions, and distribute the balance 

 around the grounds. 



Bad eggs, especially those removed from the incubator, are 

 often left lying about, together with the empty shells and a small 

 percentage of dead chicks gathered at the close of a hatch. On 

 some of the largest hatcheries I have seen whole barrels of un- 

 hatched eggs, in various stages of decomposition, standing un- 



