DISEASES AND ENEMIEU OF THE YOUNG CHICKEN. 25 



these strips nail plastering laths out to half lengths (two feet), so as to make 

 seven hurdles, each two feet wide by six feet long, nailing the laths one and one 

 half inches apart. Set four of these hurdles together so as to make a square pen, 

 tying them or nailing them together at the corners, and cover this pen with the 



Fig. 14. — Feeding Pen. 



remaining three hurdles. This will make a pen in which the chicks can be fed with- 

 out being robbed by the greedy hens or the larger chickens, and the little fel- 

 lows will soon learn to run to it when called. These hurdles will also be found 

 very convenient for making the covered runways shown in Figs. 12 and 13. 



DISEASES AHD ENEMIES OF THE YOTTNG CHICKEN. 



The young chick has little to fear from disease, if it be properly fed and housed. 

 Its worst enemy is the gapes, which is not a disease, but a result of the irritation, 

 caused by a parasitic worm, Sderostoma syngamus, which finds its way into ihe 

 windpipe and so impedes respiration until it finally causes death. The complete 

 history of this parasite has not yet been ascertained. It is of a reddish color; 

 the female is fiive eighths to three fourths of an inch in length, the male about one 

 eighth. In a gaping chicken these worms may be found to the number of three 

 to six or" more pairs, and the body of the female will be found to contain ova of 

 various stages of development, up to the completely grown embryo. It would 

 seem that these worms mnst have another stage of existence, either in the body 

 of some other insect or animiil, or in the soil, but this point has not been investi- 

 gated. The probability is, however, that this stage is passed in the soil, and that 

 they are capable of existing there in the pupse state until iwakened into life 

 again by being taken into the stomach or lungs of the bird. The gapes seems 

 to be more troublesome on a moist soil, and in this it shows a similarity to the 

 disease called Paper-skin in sheep, which is caused by the presence of a thread- 

 like worm, Strcmgylus JUa/ria, in the bronchial tubes of that animal, and which, 

 like the sderostoma, passes from our knowledge after leaving the body of its 

 host. 



The remedies for the gapes are several. The worms may be removed by mak- 

 ing a loop of horse-hair, introducing it intothe windpipe of the chicken, giving 

 it two or three twists, and withdrawing it. A still more satisfactory method is to 

 take a feather, strip off the web to within half an inch of the end, moisten, insert 



