16 
HED AMUSE MEY IEE CHADIAN TONS 
January 1, 1908 
ditions, one or two be found on the fowl’s 
body such need cause no alarm. 
Mites are the most dangerous of the 
external parasites, from the fact that they 
are blood suckers, and of the several 
varieties, what is known as the red mite 
is most to be dreaded. They live and 
breed in the cracks of the roosts and 
crevices in, under, and about any building 
convinient to the fowls, are most partial 
to the rcosts, and are frequently fonnd in 
masses under heaps of accumulated fewl 
droppings. Mites donot live on the fowls 
but visit them at night in myriads, and 
suck their blood. 
They are of gray, brown, or dark color 
but when filled with the fowl’s blood they 
become red. They are able to live a long 
time without food, and have been found 
in old poultry houses, iwelve months after 
the fowls had been removed. It is to the 
sitting hens they do most haim, particu- 
larly in the hot sun mer months, this belng 
one of the reascns why some youltrymen 
cesse hitching in Octoter. When the 
sitti1 g hen has keccme infested they are 
literaJly in millicns, and have been fcund 
in handsfull beneath the nesting material 
and eggs, the Jaiter beccire spotied with 
the filth from them. and in pronounced 
instances the hen is a mess cf living 
veimin. the head and eyes become covered 
with them, and she frequently dies 
through eraciaticn due to loss cf blocd. 
Tn cases where the mites are not m mer- 
ous enough to cause the hen’s death or to 
be 1espcnsible fcr her abendoning her 
ecgs,as soon as ihe chicks are hatched 
pumbers of mites leave the hen and attach 
themselves to the chickens, swarming 
arcund their heads and eyes in myriads, 
and when examined are full of the young 
chicken’s blcod. In these instances, ifthe 
fest is not immediatly ariested it is res- 
porsible for the de:th cf their perhaps 
but day-old hosts. 
Fleas are perhaps the least dreaded 
enemy of the poultry yards, stil] they 
have been seen in hot sandy 1uns, houses 
and other places where the fowls frequent. 
Species of them feed upon the fowl’s blood 
and precautions should be taken against 
them. The fowl flea, like the mite, is 
termed a partial parasite—that is, it goes 
only to its host to feed, and for this pur- 
poie has a sharp piercing mouth. From 
THE AUSTRALIAN 
BEE BULLETIN 
A Monthly Journal devoted. to 
Bee-keeping: 
- Edited and Published by E. Tipper, West 
Maitland; Apiary, Willow Tree, N.S.W. 
Circulated in all the Australian Colonies, 
New Zealand, and Cape of Good Hope. 
_Per Annum 5s,. booked 6s. 6d., in Aus- 
tralasia, outside N.S.W., add 6d, postage. 
the fact that they only feed at night, they 
they are rarely noticed on the fowls,but 
they are the cause of mnch irritation and 
loss of blood. 
The female flea lays her eggs amongst 
the dust and dirt and in the cracks of 
walls and roosts, and entomologists tell us 
that nits of the ilea develop into small 
white maggots, and pass through several 
stages before they become true fleas. 
They breed all the year round, but mostly 
in warm weather. 
All the lice breed rapidly. The eggs 
are laid upon the downey feathers and 
hatch in six or eight days. They live a 
considerable time, and can be kept alive 
on fresh feathers. 
Mites, as has been said, are the worst 
form of external pests, but owing to their 
depredations being done at night, they 
are rarely noticed until they have become 
so numerous as to seriously affect t! e bird 
or they may be first discovered when a 
visit is paid to the broody hen to test her 
eggs, the vermin soon becoming apparent 
on the hands of the person handling her. 
When it has become known that there is 
an infestation, the first thing to do is to 
makea complete clearance of every in- 
ternal fitting of the house—perches, boxes 
or aught else should be removed out of 
the poultiy-yard and given a thorough 
painting with kerosene, and repeated the 
second day. The inside walls of the house 
should ke given a good brushing down 
then athorough painting with kerosene, 
to be followed with a coating cf white- 
wash {o which has been added, say 1 pint 
of crude carbolic to each gallon of the 
wash, Should the poultiy-house be ex- 
tensive and kerosene be considered too 
expensive, an emulsion of such will be 
effective. viz 1 gallon of kerosene, 1 of 
water, and 1 lb. of soap boiled together 
forabout half an heur, One authority 
recommends for a wash for the house and 
fittings a decoction, made by boiling 40z 
of tobacco ina gallon of water. The writer 
has tried this and found it most effective 
A generous application of crude carbolic 
is another excellent remedy. A cheap 
quality of this can be procvied, and a goud 
way to apply it is with a garden sy1inge ~ 
which will drive it into every crevice of 
the house, and what runs down the walls 
on to the floor of the house will be equally 
useful there. A crude petroleum can also 
be had cheaply, and is as effective as the 
finest kerosene. 
Lewis Wright on this subject says:— 
“The red mite lives mainly in the crevices 
of house and roosts, coming out at night 
to feed on the birds. Itisnaturally white 
but becomes red when fed with blood. 
The eggs are seen in crevices, especially 
where the ends of perches rest, as white 
dust. All should be removable, and the 
surfaces of such places washed daily with 
kerosene, This and frequent carbolic 
lime: washing and removal of manure will 
be effectual. The following is a cheap 
and easy method of preparing carbolic wash 
Boil half lb. of soft soap in 3 quarts of 
water. and while boiling hot agitate with 
it a quart of thecrude carbolic acid. Keep 
this corked and labelled ‘ Poison;’ when a 
wash is wanted mix a pint with a bucket 
of water, and syringe with it freely. 
Another wash quite as good is made by 
shaving up 1 lb. ef yellow soap in 3 pints 
of boiling water, keeping hot till all is _ 
dissolved. Then remove from the fire 
to avoid danger, add 3 pints of kerosene 
and a gill of crude carbolic acid and agitate 
briskly for fifteen minutes, which will 
make acreamy emulsion When well 
emulsified add 12° quarts of weak soap. 
solution and mix, well. This is to be 
sprayed freely over the interior.” 
(To be continued). 
Fattening Poultry, 
Many people who keep poultry in the 
suburbs are'in the habit of shutting up. 
roosters, with the object of fattening them 
for table. The birds are fed usually on 
the everlasting maize or chick-wheat. 
They are often shut up for a month or 
six weeks, yet they obstinately refuse to 
get fat, and after a few weeks eat very 
sparingly, and instead of fattening they 
become thinner every day. The reason is 
that no bird can bear confinement and 
heavy feeding for moro than threo weeks. 
Then again the feeding is all wrong Maize 
or wheat will not achieve that object. Birds 
that are fattening should have very little 
grain food. If they are given boiled 
potatoes, pumpkins and other vegetables, 
mixed with boiled wheat or maize, and 
thickened with finely crushed grain as 
much as they will eat three times a day, 
with plenty of green stuff and a littie 
meat or green cut bone together with grit. 
you will see them grow and swell out. 
Some hold that pe: ued cockerels should 
be fed frequently, but sparingly ata time 
during the day. Half fed fowls never pay. 
A fowl cannot get fat on a spare diet. 
To feed poultry requires judgment and 
constant attention and since these are 
far from being general attainments among 
poultry-men, in spite of the constant 
advice cf the Poultry Expert to the 
Department, conditions in m*nj cases 
remain unsatisfactory to themselves and 
disastrous to the fowls. 
“Australian 
Gardener’ Office, 
Corner Pirie & Wyatt Sts. 
Send us along a trial order, 
