926 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 22, 1922 
The Henyard 
Diseased Liver 
We have lost several hens: they jusr 
stand around a day or two, then die. I 
found the liver in one examined was cov¬ 
ered in spots. Could you tell me what 
causes it, what it is and what to do for 
it y u. \. w. 
Greenwood, R. I, 
Tuberculosis frequently affects the liver 
of fowls, in which case the liver will be 
found to he more or less covered with 
whitish or yellowish nodules. Fowls with 
this disease may live a loxip time, dually 
dying in an emaciated condition, but giv¬ 
ing no symptoms that the pouli rynmu 
who does not handle his fowls will note 
until the last stages of weakness. There 
is nothing to do for it. Bury the dead 
fowls where no other animal will get at 
the carcass. M. b. d. 
Sour Crop 
I have lost three nice hens this week; 
they are tw T o years old and have always 
becu well. Their crops are soft and mushy 
and their bowels very loose. I gave them 
castor oil, about two teaspoons, but didn't 
seem to help. Some fluid runs out of 
their mouth if they lean over, like brown¬ 
ish water. I had a lot of stale bread 
given toe, and they had it two or three 
times a week, and whole corn besides. 
They are out of their chicken yard al¬ 
most every evening for a few hours, and 
have all the grass they want. w. w. 
Ridgefield, Conn. 
These hens may have catarrh of the 
crop, or “sour crop/’ This is character¬ 
ized by the filling of the crop with a sour, 
fermenting liquid that will run from the 
mouth if the hen is held head downward. 
Remove such hens from the flock and 
place them by themselves whore they can 
be lightly fed upon soft food after the 
crop has been emptied as well as possible 
by gentle manipulation with the bird up¬ 
ended. and a little soda in water has been 
given to correct the acidity. A half grain 
or one-grain quinine pill given twice daily 
is recommended as a hastener^uf recovery, 
which should occur if the fowro are not 
too far advanced in illness. M. B. D. 
Powdered Milk in Place of Meat Scrap 
Can one feed the powdered sweet milk 
in mash for hens, and would it a take the 
place of meat scrap? I can buy it a great 
deal cheaper than meat scrap, c. A. B. 
Randolph, N. Y. 
Yes, powdered milk will replace meat 
scrap in a mash for either laying hens or 
growing chicks, and many poultrynien be¬ 
lieve that it is a better source of animal 
protein. If you can buy a good grade of 
powdered milk cheaper than meat scrap, 
buy it and feed it by all means. You 
probably refer to dry skim-milk or dry 
buttermilk, rather than to powdered 
whole sweet milk, M. B. D. 
Another Case of Gapes 
I have some chicks six weeks old. They 
stretch their necks and open their mouths 
and sneeze every little while. F. T. 
Waterville, N. Y. 
These chicks may bo suffering from 
gapeworms. Place two horsehairs side 
h.v side, tie a knot in both near one end. 
cut that end off just beyond the knot. 
Then pass this knot carefully down the 
windpipe of an affected chick, turn and 
withdraw it. If there are anv gape- 
worms there you will be likely to dis¬ 
lodge some, and they will be coughed 
out. Repeated trials should remove most 
of them. If there are no longer any 
horses in your section, there is no 
part of an automobile from which suit¬ 
able hairs may be taken, and you can 
strip a feather down to about a half inch 
of the tip. moisten this tip with tur¬ 
pentine and use it in the same way. A 
careful trial should disclose whether or 
not gapeworms are present. If they are. 
ihe chicks must be placed upon clean 
ground that has uot been infected by 
other fowls or chicks. Keeping chicks 
confined to board floors until after the 
dew is off and after showers will help to 
keep them from picking up the gape¬ 
worms. M. B. D. 
Hens with Obstructed Throats 
Gan you tell me what is the trouble 
with my hens. They get droopy and act 
as if they were stiff in their legs. They 
sit down most of the time and eat very 
little, hut drink freely. After a time they 
refuse food and water. Their heads are 
red; they are heavy at first, hut get so 
weak they cannot stand up before they 
die. The droppings are water at first : 
after two or three weeks white and yel¬ 
low. and sometimes green. This sickness 
lasts from one month to three or four 
months. Only one or two are sick at 
once. New eases are coming every few 
weeks. I feed scratch grain, oats, boiled 
potatoes mixed with corn meal and wheat 
bran, plenty of green feed. I have lost 25 
out of a flock of 75. 1 have also lost sev¬ 
eral with some throat trouble. A yellow 
growth seems to till the throat, and they 
breathe with difficulty, making a rattling 
noise all the time. Can you tell me what 
to do for these hens? i>. E. u. 
Iloosick Falls, N. Y. 
Those fowls are evidently suffering 
from the presence of a fungus growib in 
the air passages, derived from moldy lit¬ 
ter or other vegetable matter on which 
the fungus grows, and from which it is 
taken into the respiratory passages of the 
birds. Whether the other trouble, charac¬ 
terized by loss of weight and diarrhoea, is 
from the same source or uot I do not 
know. By opening the mouth of a fowl 
that is breathing with difficulty you may 
be able to see a yellowish ring of this 
fungus growth at the entrance of the 
windpipe and to remove it with a sliver 
of wood. You should remove and bury 
all sick fowls and thoroughly clean up 
their quarters, disinfecting eating and 
drinking utensils with boiling water, and 
whitewashing the poultry house walls and 
perches. Then replace rue old litter with 
bright clean straw or other litter materi¬ 
al, being careful not to use any musty or 
decayed stuff. ^Vdmit all the air and sun¬ 
light possible tn the poultry house, and 
keep it dry. If the building is dark from 
lack of sufficient window space, make 
other openings. Fungus growths and 
other disease germs thrive in dark, damp 
quarters and are killed by sunlight. Se¬ 
cure plenty of it, if you have to remove 
the whole side of the building, m. b. d. 
Depth of Litter in Henhouse 
Where baled straw is used for litter for 
White Leghorns wholly confined, how 
deep should this litter be when first placed 
in the pens? IIovv often should the lifter 
be chauged where dropping boards are 
used under the roosts? In our plant we 
have been putting in our pens of confined 
birds straw litter about 2V, to 15 ft. deep, 
which is tramped down to about G or 8 in. 
within a day or two, We have a valuable 
market for hen fertilizer, provided it is 
sufficiently rich, but we find the heavy lit¬ 
ter we have been using destroys the value 
of tlio litter when the pens are cleaned 
for fertilizer purposes, and it is this prob¬ 
lem we would wish to solve. M. V. R. 
It is well to have a litter for confined 
hens about as deep j.s that you have been 
using, though, of course. ere is no rule 
in the matter, and one can use as little 
as he likes. As this litter is a by-product 
of comparatively little importance in the 
sales from the flock, it would hardly seem 
worth while to use too little for the com¬ 
fort and welfare of the fowls. It would 
be better to sell the manure from the drop¬ 
pings hoards and the litter separately. 
The straw in the latter is of considerable 
value in itself as a source of organic mat¬ 
ter in the soil to which it. is applied, and 
if is reinforced by a considerable quantity 
of a highly nitrogenous animal fertilizer. 
While it may not have a high commercial 
value, it should not he despised by any 
gardener who has a light soil and needs 
rotted organic matter for its amendment. 
Again, there is no rule for changing litter 
in the pens. So far as the fowls are con¬ 
cerned. the oftener it js changed, the bet¬ 
ter. but the considerations of expense and 
labor have to he taken into account. 
Change it as often as you feel that you 
can afford to. M. b. d. 
Hatching Questions 
How long after setting eggs are laid 
are they all right for hatching? Is it 
unwise to remove the unhatehed eggs 
from under the hen in •'»(> hours from 
time the first are due to hatch, or should 
they he left longer? 1 believe they 
should. A neighbor thinks there is ho 
chance of any more hutching after 36 
hours from first out, even though the eggs 
had been held more than u week before 
they were set. J. E. H. 
Eggs should seldom be kept over two 
weeks, though conditions under which 
they are kept influence their bafchability. 
If kept at temperatures of between 50 
and GO, and turned frequently, many eggs 
will hatch after having been kept much 
longer than two weeks, but that is about 
the limit for good results. Early hatching 
is an evidence of good vigor, and I should 
uot consider a delay of more than 30 
hours for late comers advisable. Eggs 
ordinarily begin to hatch on the twen¬ 
tieth day, and the hatch should be com¬ 
pleted by the end of the twenty-first. If 
any hutch at all after that they are 
likely to he weak and undesirable mem¬ 
bers of the flock. M. B. D. 
Woodchucks and Chickens 
Bringing up this subject of groundhogs 
again, we think they catch chickens. Let 
US have a little light on this side of their 
nature. o. k. s. 
New Jersey 
We never knew a woodchuck to catch 
and eat chickens, and do not believe they 
have this bad habit. Wo thiuk the wood¬ 
chuck is a vegetarian. Some of our 
readers claim that they have seen the 
’chucks act as chicken killers, and one 
man says he found chicken bones in a 
woodchuck’s stomach. We doubt, it, but 
we are ready to accept facts. 
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