1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
439 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Leg Weakness in Chicks. 
I have a lot of incubator chicks and several 
of them have something the matter with their 
legs and feet. They are all right otherwise 
and have a good appetite. Seems to be a 
sort of paralysis; they can't walk and crawl 
around. I feed coarse meal and bread 
crumbs. I use the Mapes ration for my fowls; 
is that fit for little chicks? Chicks are near¬ 
ly four weeks old. w. h. m. 
New York. 
This brings up the question of leg weak¬ 
ness. Many attribute it to bottom heat 
in the brooder and I should probably have 
suggested this to the above correspondent, 
but it happened that his letter reached me 
at a time my own chicks were badly af¬ 
fected in the same way. My brooders do 
not have bottom heat. I have been using 
the very same brooders for a number of 
years and never had a case of leg weak¬ 
ness before. 1 accordingly told him that 
I did not know. Having heard so many 
favorable reports from the use of dry 
feed for chicks I concluded to try it my¬ 
self this Spring. Our first three hatches 
(about 600) were being fed on oat flakes, 
cracked corn and cracked wheat, with a 
little fresh cooked liver occasionally and 
dry bone meal. On this they did misera¬ 
bly; had leg weakness the worst way, 
and were dying off fast. Had I been a 
novice and this my first experience I 
might easily have given up in disgust. 
Before they all died I quit on the dry food, 
got some balanced ration and began feed¬ 
ing mash, using skim-milk with which to 
wet the balanced ration. Thrift among 
the chicks dated from the day the change 
was made. Only one dead chick could be 
found this morning in a flock of over 
1,000 in the very same brooder. It looks 
as though some of the trouble should be 
sought in the feed. I am suspicious of 
that cracked wheat. One of our feed deal¬ 
ers induced me to try a ton of the new 
macaroni wheat a while ago, offering it at 
a low figure. It happens that it was some 
of this that was cracked for the chicks. 
It also happened that our egg yield fell 
off from 200 to 200 a day just after the 
new wheat was first used. This was in 
April when there should have been no 
shrinkage. The macaroni wheat tastes 
and acts unlike ordinary wheat when 
chewed, and I have since learned that it 
also analyzes differently. Within a few 
days after that ton was gone and the 
ordinary wheat substituted the egg bas¬ 
kets filled up again. I have long had an 
ambition to see our hens lay 1,000 eggs a 
day, but have not quite touched the goal 
yet. Only lacked eleven eggs one day last 
week, with an average of about 950 for the 
week. If a change from one kind of 
wheat to the other will affect the egg-yield 
so noticeably, and also the thrift of chicks, 
how important becomes the question of 
proper feeding! 
Care of Yarded Fowls. 
I have a small fiock of Liens, numbering not 
over twenty, which I wish to confine for the 
greater part of the day in a yard. This I 
purpose making in an apple orchard in the 
rear of the poultry house. 1 wish to raise as 
many chicks as possible, 100 or more, and 
keep these in part or the yard, and separate 
from the other fowls. Will you please tell 
me how large the yard should be? Would the 
orchard he a suitable place? What would he 
a good Summer ration for hens thus confined? 
The yard would contain grass and also some 
hare * ground for dust baths, etc. Do you 
think they would do as well as if allowed free 
range? My purpose in yarding them is to 
protect growing crops and to facilitate gath¬ 
ering eggs. Would they he likely to secure 
enough meat food in hugs, worms, etc., or 
should some he fed them? They have had 
free range so far and are now laying well and 
picking their own living entirely. I think 
of letting them out a short time each day 
after laying time. What kind of drinking, 
vessel is" best for fowls and what for small 
chicks? 1 have just had three hens come off 
with a total of 37 chicks, one hen, a Huff 
Cochin, hatching 15 of her 16 eggs. The 
Huff Cochins ancl Plymouth ltocks make splen¬ 
did sitters and mothers, hut I should like to 
secure a breed combining those qualities with 
better laying ability. Should 1 he likely to 
accomplish this by a cross between these and 
Hrown Leghorns, or would it he better to keep 
fowls of both breeds for the separate pur¬ 
poses? L N. 
A yard for twenty hens need not be 
very large if allowed free range at even¬ 
ing each day; 12x16 feet would do, but 
larger will do no harm. The chicks can 
do little harm to crops while small, and 
I would provide small opening through 
which they can emerge from the yards 
which confine the mothers. Animal food 
will be needed to get highest results in 
eggs, though the hens may not live quite 
so long. Unless animal food is given to 
yarded hens, I should not expect them to 
lay as well as when unconfined. For 
drinking fountains for young chicks we 
use an old tomato can from which one 
end has been removed and a notch cut in 
the side. This is filled and inverted in a 
shallow basin about l l /2 inch greater 
in diameter than the can. 1 his allows 
little chicks to drink and prevents drown¬ 
ing. After chicks are two weeks old I 
nnd nothing better than shallow bread 
tins. These pans are little over an inch 
high and should not be filled quite full. 
Chicks two weeks old can drink over the 
side, and if they happen to step into the 
\yater they can walk put easily. As a 
matter of fact, very few will step over 
into the water if the water is not allowed 
to become scarce. I have such shallow 
pans of water sitting in brooders contain¬ 
ing 100 or more chicks, and the floor under 
and around the pans is entirely dry. Should 
tne pan get empty, and the chicks become 
very thirsty, they would crowd into and 
around the water when first supplied, 
until both chicks and floor would become 
wet and soiled. Drinking vessels should 
always be kept clean and wet, with em¬ 
phasis on the latter. 
Ailing Hens. 
I have 200 White Leghorns; feed, in the 
morning, bran and middlings, equal parts, 
nine pounds: beef scraps, one and one-half 
pound, mixed with warm, sweet skim-milk. 
Middle of forenoon I give 5 medium cabbages; 
at noon buckwueat, corn (whole or cracked) 
or heavy oats, 10 quarts in litter; 4 I’. M. 
corn or oats alternately, all they will eat. 
Water, grit, and shells are always by them. 
House new in 1902, 50x16: five pens: eight 
feet to ceiling: dirt floor, fairly dry, but not 
entirely so. hirst Fall 8 or 10 pullets had 
conjunctivitis, two or three last Fall. Occa¬ 
sionally one has a cold, swollen head or sore 
eye, but not often. Hut they have been al¬ 
most continuously troubled with something 
like piles; ihe first symptom is a bloody egg. 
In a clay or two feathers are bloody: bad 
cases die in a day or two; others get well in 
from 10 to 20 days; 15 per cent die in first 
stage. There is a slight, protrusion, some¬ 
thing like small blood blisters just inside; 
some seem to develop a kind of dysentery, 
thin, white, watery discharge. Except in the 
fatal cases they do not seem to be much sick, 
but eat well and sometimes lay. I wrote .1. 
II. Koblnson about it a year ago. lie thought 
the pullets had burst blood vessels, but I 
think this is entirely different. I had but 
little trouble in the Winter when feeding 
green hone, but had plenty of it when trying 
to double egg production in latter part of 
February, feeding throe pounds of bone and 
meat meal ground very fine. I have Hose and 
Single Comb W.vckoff stock. Do you know 
what is the trouble? T . F. p. 
New Y'ork. 
Readers will pardon me for again say¬ 
ing I do not know. I wish I did. A large 
proportion of our hens that die are trou¬ 
bled just at this correspondent’s arc. With 
so many hens visiting the nests from 100 
to 200 times a year it is not to be wondered 
at that some ruptures should occur. I 
have examined a good many and found 
the oviduct ruptured, but not always. 
Heavy feeding of meat and bone seems to 
occasion more such losses. On the other 
hand, it also brings more eggs, and I pre¬ 
fer to have liens wear out rather than to 
rust out. I have heard of a contagious dis¬ 
ease among fowls sometimes called cloaci- 
tis. This is said to be transmitted from 
bird to bird. I suspect that both this cor¬ 
respondent’s birds and our own are thus 
affected. Can anyone give us more light 
on the subject? o. w. mapes. 
THE SPRING 
WORK 
la sure to bring acre 
shoulders. You need not 
lay your horse oil a day 
Abort tr&do mark on every box. H you use 
GALL 
CURE. 
It’s the sovereign remedy tor all Callm, Scratches, 
Wire Cuts, Crease Heel, etc. In horses. Torn or 
Cracked Teats, etc. in cows. Sold by local dealers 
everywhere, who are directed to refund money If it 
fails. Enclose us 10 cents for testing sample. 
BICKMORE GALL CURE COMPANY, Box 519, Old Town, Me. 
ADOTCvniuwuiiMa vu evcij UV*. 
BICKMORE’S 
SPAVINS, 
Splints, Curbsand all other 
forms of Lameness are quick¬ 
ly and permanently cured by 
using KENDALL'S SPAVIN 
CURE. $1 a bottle; 8 for <5. 
Alldruggists. Uncqualed tor 
family use. Book“ATreatla«oa 
the Horse’’ sent free. Address 
DR. B. J. KENDALL CO., 
Enosburg Falls, Vt. 
COOPER 
P SHEEP PIP 
Standard of the World 
for GO yearn. Used on 250 millions 
annually. One dipping kills Ticks, 
I Ace and Kits. No smell. Keeps flock 
clean a longtime. Increases growth of wool. 
Oijtping Tanks at cost. 
Send for Pamphlet to Chicago. 
Tf local druggist cannot supply 
send $ 1."So for $2 (IOO gal.)pkt.to 
CYRIL FRANCKLIN. 72 Beaver St., N. Y. 
WALKER & GIBSON, Albany, N. V. 
WM. COOPER & NEPHEWS, Chicago. 
U/je 
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let. “Milk and Its Oare.** Full Hoe of| 
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_ Champion Milk Cooler Co. 
117 Squires Street, Cortland, New York. I 
A Milk Cooler 
is a device for cooling milk quickly 
just after it is taken from the cow. 
.The object is to expose every par. 
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L. R. LEWIS, Manlr.. Box 12, Cortland, N. Y, 
DE LAVAL 
CREAM SEPARATORS. 
LEAD WHILE THE OTHERS FOLLOW 
Merely using as much of the older De Laval 
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Send for new catalogue and name of nearest local agent. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
Randolph & Canal Sts., 
CHICAGO. 
1213 Filbert Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
9 & 11 Drumm St., 
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CREAM SEPARATORS 
•saw 
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3 6 5 _ 
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It Kills Pain and Kills Germs 
