886 
•P>e  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
June  23,  192:: 
The  Henyard 
Controlling  Roup 
I  am  having  trouble  with  my  hens; 
they  have  the  roup.  Is  there  anything  I 
ran  do  to  cure  them?  I  have  read  some¬ 
thing  about  vaccinating  them.  Is  it  all 
right,  and  what  is  used?  w.  w. 
Spring  Creek,  Pa. 
If  you  are  sure  that  your  fowls  have 
roup,  remove  all  sick  ones  from  the  flock 
and  kill  and  bury  those  that  are  evidently 
severely  affected.  Treat  the  milder  cases 
by  frequently  eleasning  the  eyes  and  nos¬ 
trils  with  a  solution  of  boric  acid  in 
water,  one  onuee  to  the  quart,  and  once 
daily  put  a  drop  or  two  of  a  15  per  cent 
solution  of  argyrol  into  each  eye  of  the 
fowl  treated,  after  cleansing.  Then  clean 
up  the  quarters  in  which  the  sick  birds 
have  been  kept  and  disinfect  all  their 
utensils  by  thorough  cleaning  and  the  use 
of  boiling  water.  The  disease  is  very  con¬ 
tagious,  and  no  sick  bird  should  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  mingle  with  healthy  ones.  This 
is  a  troublesome  disease  to  get  rid  of,  as 
partly  cured  fowls  are  very  likely  to  carry 
it  over  from  season  to  season,  subsiding 
in  warm  weather,  only  to  break  out  again 
when  it  becomes  damp  and  cold. 
The  vaccination  treatment  consists  in 
administering  by  means  of  a  hypodermic 
syringe  of  protective  vaccines.  This  treat¬ 
ment  is  perhaps  best  used  as  a  preventive. 
Reports  of  its  success  vary  from  those 
that  are  highly  enthusiastic  to  those  of 
failures.  It  seems,  however,  to  promise 
much  in  the  control  of  a  very  intractable 
disease.  m.  b.  d. 
Blackhead  and  Liver  Disease 
I  am  raising  30  young  turkeys,  from 
two  to  four  weeks,  with  more  hatching, 
and  am  using  ipecac  as  suggested  in  ar¬ 
ticle  a  year  ago.  but  unfortunately  have 
lost  the  copy  and  would  be  glad  for  your 
assistance  in  this  matter  as  I  am  very 
much  interested  and  desirous  for  success. 
I  purchased  powdered  ipecac,  the  box 
in  which  medicine  came  being  labeled, 
not  guaranteed  after  Oct.  1,  1922.  I 
have  been  giving  three-fourth  teaspoon¬ 
ful  twice  a  week  in  drinking  water.  Two 
of  the  oldest  turkeys  died  today  and  upon 
examination  I  find  livers  of  each  spotted 
with  yellow.  I  have  ‘been  recommended 
to  use  pills  for  the  liver  disease,  which 
1  remember  your  article  mentioning  as 
being  cured  by  a  drug  called  “catechu.” 
I  have  been  giving  two  liver  pills  twice  a 
week  also,  alternating  with  ipecac  in  wa¬ 
ter.  Will  you  advise  me  of  diagnosing 
the  two  diseases,  blackhead  and  liver 
diarrhoea,  and  of  the  proper  treatment 
of  each,  both  as  prevention  and  cure  of 
the  individual  diseased  birds.  h.  a.  r. 
Pennsylvania. 
Blackhead  is  a  disease  of  the  intestines 
and  liver,  in  which  there  is  inflammation 
of  the  blind  gut,  which  may  often  be 
found  filled  with  cheesy  matter,  and  in¬ 
volvement  of  the  liver,  shown  by  yellow¬ 
ish  spots  of  varying  size.  If  these  condi¬ 
tions  are  found  in  birds  dying  after  or¬ 
dinary  symptoms  of  blackhead,  droopi¬ 
ness.  diarrhoea,  emaciation,  exhaustion 
and  death,  the  diagnosis  may  be  made. 
Coccidiosis  is  a  disease  with  very  similar 
symptoms,  but  caused  by  a  different  or¬ 
ganism.  For  this  latter  disease,  the  giv¬ 
ing  of  catechu  in  the  drinking  water  is 
recommended,  one  teaspoonful  to  each 
three  gallons  of  water.  For  blackhead, 
the  ipecac  treatment  seems  to  be  the 
latest  and  possibly  most  hopeful,  but  it 
has  not  been  established  as  an  all  cer¬ 
tain  remedy.  Either  disease  should  be 
prevented,  if  possible,  by  the  early  ad¬ 
ministration  of  the  remedies,  these  being 
given  continuously  from  an  early  age,  in 
the  hope  of  forestalling  damage  by  the 
disease  producing  organisms.  I  know  of 
no  cure  for  blackhead,  if  ipecac  fails. 
M.  B.  D. 
Rations  for  Hens  and  Other  Stock 
1.  When  feeding  chickens  or  laying 
hens  on  cracked  corn  and  dry  mash,  how 
much  corn  should  be  fed  to  50  hens  each 
feeding?  They  have  access  to  plenty  of 
green  grass,  etc.  2.  What  is  the  proper 
feed  for  a  young  calf  one  week  old,  as  I 
want  to  use  the  milk?  3.  What  should  a 
cow  be  fed  after  freshening,  being  with¬ 
out  hay  at  present?  4..  Is  the  balanced 
ration  put  up  in  bags  at  the  feed  stores 
as  good  as  home  preparations  for  cattle 
and  chickens?  T  feed  by  the  quart  in¬ 
stead  of  weight.  s.  n.  w. 
Connecticut. 
1.  If  a  dry  mash  is  kept  before  the 
hens  all  day,  or  is  fed,  moistened  once 
daily  at  noon,  give  the  fowls  a  small 
feeding  of  cracked  corn  in  the  morning 
perhaps  a  quart,  and  all  that  they  will 
clean  up  the  last  thing  at  night — several 
quarts.  A  light  feeding  in  the  morning 
will  encourage  activity  and  search  for 
food  upon  their  range,  while  a  full  feed¬ 
ing  at  night  will  insure  that  they  have 
what  food  they  need. 
2.  A  calf  will  do  much  better  if  it  can 
have  whole  milk  for  the  first  three  or  four 
weeks,  but,  if  milk  is  not  to  be  had,  one 
of  the  commercial  calf  foods  may  be  sub¬ 
stituted.  using  this  according  to  the  di¬ 
rections  of  the  manufacturers.  Skim- 
milk  will  replace  whole  milk,  if  you  have 
that. 
3.  A  cow  should  have  either  hay  or 
some  other  roughage,  like  corn  fodder  or 
straw.  I  know  of  nothing  that  can  re¬ 
place  one  of  these  except  grass.  The 
poorer  the  roughage,  the  more  grain  she 
will  need. 
4.  Some  of  the  commercial  rations  are 
as  good  as  can  be  mixed  at  home.  If  you 
can  get  a  good  standard  commercial  mixed 
cow  or  poultry  ration,  the  choice  will  lie 
between  that  and  a  home  mixture  of 
known  composition.  (Where  but  a  limited 
amount  is  used,  the  commercial  feeds  offer 
a  convenient  means  of  getting  a  good  ra¬ 
tion.  M.  B.  D. 
Rupture  of  Oviduct 
During  the  past  few  weeks  I  have  lost 
about  five  hens  in  laying.  In  taking  the 
eggs  from  the  nest  I  find  blood  all  over 
them.  After  the  chicken  lays  the  egg 
the  blood  just  seems  to  stream  from  her. 
These  are  pullets,  and  have  been  laying 
from  four  to  five  months.  Will  you  please 
let  me  know  the  cause  of  this  and  the 
remedy?  J. 
These  pullets  are  evidently  suffering 
from  ruptured  blood  vessels  in  the  ovi¬ 
duct,  possibly  from  rupture  of  the  ovi¬ 
duct  itself.  This  not  infrequently  occurs 
in  pullets  laying  very  large  eggs  or  those 
forced  by  heavy  feeding  to  egg  production 
that  they  are  not  physically  equal  to.  I 
should  remove  any  pullets  showing  evi¬ 
dences  of  this  trouble  and  give  each  a 
small  teaspoonful  of  Epsom  salts  dis¬ 
solved  in  a  little  water,  and  then  feed 
lightly  until  recovery.  If  a  pullet  con¬ 
tinues  to  have  trouble  of  this  kind,  there 
will  be  little  use  in  trying  to  keep  it  as 
a  profitable  layer.  m.  b.  d. 
Obstructed  Crop 
I  have  lost  a  few  chickens  which  had 
such  full  crops  that  they  were  as  big  as 
one’s  hand,  and  contents  will  not  pass 
from  them,  even  by  giving  them  oil? 
Do  you  think  it  is  the  mash?  What 
could  I  try  to  help  this  trouble?  I  mix 
the  mash  myself ;  bran,  middlings,  corn- 
meal,  ground  oats,  beef  scrap,  each  the 
same  amount.  a.  w. 
Obstruction  of  the  passage  from  the 
crop,  which  causes  it  to  become  enlarged 
and  hard,  is  usually  caused  by  eating 
dried  grass,  feathers,  or  some  other  indi¬ 
gestible  substance,  not  by  eating  a  mash 
of  any  kind.  If  this  mass  cannot  be 
softened  by  giving  warm  water  or  oil  and 
gently  kneading  it  with  the  fingers  until 
it  leave*  the  crop,  it  may  be  removed  by 
a  simple  surgical  operation,  and  one  that 
is  not  necessarily  fatal  to  the  bird.  Pluck 
the  feathers  from  over  the  upper  part  of 
the  crop,  and  with  a  clean,  sharp  blade 
make  an  incision  that  will  permit  the 
removal  of  the  crop  contents.  After  they 
have  been  removed,  sew  up  the  incision  in 
the  crop,  using  a  fine  thread  and  ordinary 
needle.  Then  sew  the  skin  together  sep¬ 
arately.  Confine  the  fowl  by  itself  and 
feed  only  soft  or  liquid  foods  until  the 
incision  has  healed.  The  incision  should 
not  be  over  an  inch  in  length,  and  a  but¬ 
ton-hook  may  be  used  to  remove  the  im¬ 
pacted  contents  of  the  crop,  or  perhaps  a 
pair  of  pincers  or  a  wire  hook.  If  you 
are  cleanly  in  the  operation  and  careful 
not  to  injure  the  tissues  by  unnecessary 
force,  and  have  the  surgical  instinct,  the 
patient  is  quite  likely  to  survive  as  a  tes¬ 
timonial  to  your  skill.  If  it  dies,  you 
have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  you 
have  done  all  in  your  power  to  save  it. 
M.  b.  o, 
Pullets  Eat  Eggs 
What  makes  my  pullets  (I  have  no  old 
hens)  eat  the  eggs?  Occasionally  I  lose 
two  or  three  a  day.  They  hav'e  charcoal, 
oyster  shells,  grit,  green  stuff,  corn  and 
wheat  for  grain  and  corned  mash  to  go 
with  this  grain,  plenty  of  clean  drinking 
water,  etc.  They  are  laying,  and  have 
been  laying  great  all  Winter.  I  only 
have  48,  and  from  them  I  have  as  high 
as  36  a  day  sometimes,  but  my  average 
is  between  25  and  30.  Had  748  eggs  for 
month  of  February.  With  good,  healthy 
chickens  and  good  layers,  I  can  see  no 
reason  for  not  leaving  the  eggs  alone.  I 
collect  during  severe  cold  weather  every 
three  hours,  giving  them  plenty  of  warm 
water.  p,  a. 
New  York. 
There  are  many  “well  recommended” 
remedies  for  egg-eating  in  a  flock  ;  among 
the  latest  are  the  hanging  of  a  piece  of 
salt  pork  in  the  pen  for  the  fowls  to  pick 
at  and  the  mixing  of  a  little  vinegar  in 
the  mash  fed.  If  these  fail,  and  I  should 
expect  that  they  frequently  would,  the 
best  plan  that  I  know  of  is  to  let  the 
flock  have  its  freedom  out  of  doors  for  a 
while,  meanwhile  gathering  the  eggs  sev¬ 
eral  times  daily  to  remove  temptation 
from  before  it.  Sometimes  the  culprit, 
or  culprits,  may  be  found  by  a  little 
watching  and  removed  from  the  flock. 
Letting  a  flock  that  has  been  confined  all 
Winter  out  of  doors  is  not  likely  to  im¬ 
mediately  improve  egg  production,  but  it 
is  better  to  have  fewer  eggs  laid,  if  they 
can  be  marketed  without  letting  them  go 
in  the  form  of  meat.  m.  b.  d. 
Poor  Incubation 
Why  do  the  chicks  die  in  shell  in  incu¬ 
bator?  AVe  have  run  one  several  years, 
and  have  no  difficulty  in  keeping  temper¬ 
ature  exact,  and  never  have  had  a  very 
satisfactory  hatch,  while  eggs  treated  in 
exactly  the  same  manner,  saved  from 
the  same  pen,  under  hens  hatch  90  to  100 
per  cent.  Has  anyone  with  experience 
anything  to  offer  as  explanatory? 
Colrain,  Mass.  p.  i.  a. 
I  do  not  know  why  eggs  that  will  hatch 
under  a  sitting  hen  may  not  hatch  in  an 
incubator  ;  nor  why  the  most  expertly  fed 
and  cared-for  infants,  artificially,  stand 
less  chance  of  withstanding  the  ills  of 
babyhood  than  those  fed  in  the  natural 
manner.  The  explanation.  “artificial 
methods  are  not  equal  to  natural  ones,” 
will  do  as  a  statement  of  fact,  but  it  does 
not  tell  why  they  are  not  equal.  As  to 
that,  I  think  that  no  one  knows.  We 
know  simply  that  it  takes  a  more  vigorous 
germ  to  reach  full  development  and 
emerge  from  the  shell  if  kept  in  an  incu¬ 
bator  than  it  does  if  kept  under  a  hen ; 
that  is.  the  incubator’s  ability  to  bring 
out  of  the  shell  the  weaker  germs  is  less 
than  that  of  the  natural  hen  mother. 
AVhen  we  find  out  just  why,  incubators 
will  be  made  that  will  equal  hens,  provid¬ 
ing  that  there  is  no  insuperable  obstacle 
to  this,  and  until  then  we  shall  have  to 
be  content  with  somewhat  smaller  hatches 
from  machines  than  from  hens  and  strive 
to  so  cultivate  vitality  in  hatching  eggs 
that  even  a  mismanaged  incubator  will 
not  fail  to  give  us  good  results.  M.  b.  d. 
Diarrhoea  Infection 
Can  you  tell  me  the  trouble  with  a 
batch  of  chickens  hatched  May  10?  For 
the  first  few  days  they  seemed  to  be  get¬ 
ting  along  fine,  and  all  at  once  they  began 
to  die.  Part  of  these  chicks  were  with 
hens  and  part  of  them  in  a  brooder'That 
never  failed  to  give  good  results.  This 
is  the  only  hatch  this  season  that  we  have 
had  any  trouble  with.  These  chickens  are 
fed  on  Cornell  feeds.  r.  s,  s. 
Maryland. 
Yes,  chicks  may  be  infected  by  the 
germs  of  white  diarrhoea  carried  in  the 
eggs  from  which  they  are  hatched,  these 
eggs  in  turn  getting  them  from  the  ovaries 
of  hens  that  have  had  the  disease  and 
become  carriers.  In  this  way  healthy 
chicks  may  become  infected  by  their 
mates,  through  contact  with  droppings 
containing  the  germs.  This  is  not  proof 
that  the  red  chicks  in  your  flock  were  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the.  trouble,  but  if  these 
chicks  were  to  display  evidence  of  the 
disease  first,  we  should  consider  them  the 
probable  source  of  infection.  It  is  quite 
possible,  however,  that  you  have  some 
adult  carriers  of  white  diarrhoea  germs  in 
your  own  flock.  Infected  chicks  that  do 
not  die  may  live  to  become  adult  carriers 
of  the  germs.  m.  b.  d. 
Powdered  Milk  for  Chicks 
I  would  like  to  feed  skim-milk  to 
chicks,  but  cannot  get  it.  Would  pow¬ 
dered  milk  do  as  well?  I  can  get  this 
for  6c  per  lb.  My  idea  is  to  mix  it  dry 
with  the  mash.  r.  g.  b.  .  . 
Darifen  Center,  N.  Y. 
Powdered  milk  may  replace  fluid  milk 
when  the  latter  is  not  to  be  had,  but  I 
should  feed  some  sour  milk  for  the  first 
week  or  two,  if  necessary  to  buy  whole 
milk  and  sour  it.  Sweet  milk  may  be 
fed  instead  of  sour,  but  the  latter  has 
the  advantage  of  being  available  in  warm 
weather  when  it  is  difficult  to  keep  milk 
sweet,  and  the  lactic  acid  contained  is 
believed  to  account  for  much  of  its  value. 
At  any  rate,  I  should  provide  liquid 
milk  in  some  form  for  the  first  few  weeks, 
with  little  regard  for  the  expense. 
M.  B.  D. 
Improving  Floor 
I  built  a  chicken  house  with  very  rough 
floor,  plenty  of  holes  and  large  cracks. 
Jt  will  be  necessary  to  cover  it  with 
something.  Which  would  be  the  cheapest 
and  best,  cover  with  a  floor  of  ship-lap. 
or  cement  floor  about  2  in.  thick?  If 
cement,  would  I  cover  it  with  wire  mesh 
so  cement  would  be  less  liable  to  crack’ 
How  many  bags  would  it  take?  What 
is  the  right  mixture?  Coop  is  22x12  ft. 
B  ould  it  be  all  right  to  make  it  less  than 
-  in.,  say  1  in.  thick?  t  t 
Such  a  floor  would  certainly  be  much 
improved  by  a  smooth  covering,  and  I 
have  seen  floors  that  have  been  very  sat¬ 
isfactorily  covered  with  concrete  ' in  a 
layer  2  or  3  in.  thick.  A  mixture  of  one 
Pa  cemeilL  two  of  clean,  sharp  sand 
and  four  of  clean  gravel  would  be  satis¬ 
factory.  A  reinforcement  of  wire  net¬ 
ting  would  be  advisable.  About  1  in  of 
the  concrete  should  be  laid,  covered  by 
the  wire,  and  the  floor  then  completed  to 
its  full  thickness.  I  do  not  think  that  I 
should  make  this  less  than  2  in.  All  this 
is  upon  the  assumption  that  you  wish  to 
lay  concrete  over  a  wood  floor  raised 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground.  If  your 
building  is  a  permanent  one,  it  might  be 
3 list  as  cheap  to  tear  out  your  wood  floor, 
fill  in  with  stones  and  gravel,  or  stones 
alone,  to  within  2  in.  of  the  height  that 
you  wish  the  completed  floor  to  be,  then 
complete  with  2  or  3  in.  of  concrete. 
There  would  then  be  no  question  of  the 
concrete  cracking  and  breaking  up: 
though,  as  said  above,  I  have  seen  wood 
floors  satisfactorily  covered  by  a  thin 
layer  of  concrete,  even  in  portable  brooder 
houses.  m,  B.  D. 
