POULTRY FOR PROFIT 69 
hen, and that are detrimental to her progress. 
There are quite a few various insects that de¬ 
pend upon the hen for their existence, but for 
our purposes we can consider them in a general 
class of lice and mites, as the treatment for 
each class is practically the same. v 
Let us first consider the case of lice. These 
insects live upon the body of the hen, eating 
the flesh, and dead skin as it peals off. They 
never leave the hen, and if conditions are favor¬ 
able, will lay their eggs on her body, thus mul¬ 
tiplying rapidly if precautions are not taken to 
look after this matter. It is always well to 
treat a setting hen for lice before she is placed 
on the nest, and then once or twice after she 
has started her job, because these lice will very 
readily transfer from the mother hen to the 
young chicks, as soon as hatched, and a great 
many chicks clie every year from these lice. 
It is a splendid idea to grease all baby chicks, 
especially those hatched by natural incubation, 
with blue ointment, around the head parts, and 
wings. The hens can also be greased in a 
similar manner over the whole body. 
Here is where the dust box that we discussed 
briefly in the previous chapter comes in, as the 
