St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-10-10
MANAGEMENT OF CHICKENS
Hints and Suggestions for Poultry RaiserS
and Farmers.

should be allowed. Shallow and un"
galvanized iron dishes are to be pre-
ferred.
Gapes and many of the ills that fowls
are heir to are often contracted by
drinking sewage or impure water. ale
though this is generally the fact from
over-crowding or rearing too many ON
the same ground, and especially year
after year.
The use of little common tar water
occasionally is of great service, being
an excellent disinfectant. 1t may easily
be kept in readiness by getting an empty
barrel that has contained tar; fill this
with water and it becomes sufficiently
impregnated with tar to effect its pur-
pose, little being put in the drinking
vessel along with the pure water.
Chickens so treated rarely suffer from
gapes, and should the disease be con.
tracted the chances are that the treat
ment will effect cure, if not of too long
standing, and the chicken too weak.
When two or three days old the brood
may be put in the rearing coops, which
should be made in two parts, one for
shelter and for night, and the other for
run during the day.
That for the night should be entirely
of wood, finished with coat of hot
coal tar inside and out, and should be
"a inches square, 20 inches at the front:
falling to II inches at the back and
caves, the floor of wood and half the
front covered, the rest being left open
for entrance. A little saw-dust may be
spread on the bottom when in use, and
if pitch pine saw-dust can be secured
no insects will lodge in the place or on
the birds.
The run in front should be from five
tosix feet long, and from eighteen inches
to two feet wide, and eighteen inches
high at the sides, the whole being COW
cred with inch wire netting or lathes.
These runs are placed close to the
front of the night box, and in suitable
weather are removed few inches off to
allow the chickens free road through.
while still retaining the hen until she
commences to lay or it be time to wean
the young birds.
The whole is best whitewashed from
time to time, and especially when the
broods are changed and fresh ones put
in. The roof of the coop should also be
Whitewashed, as the latter is, to some
extent, non-conductor of heat, and
serves to keep the place cooler inside.
The whole should be moved on fresh
ground every day or two, as the weather
may be dry or sloppy.
When the hen begins to lay or It is
time to wean the chicks, she may be re-
moved and the chicks left for short
time longer, care being taken to close
the front of the coop at night, if cold
weather, with piece of thin board in
serted between the coop and the run.
The great object in keeping the hen in
semi-continement in this manner is to
prevent the young birds from being
trailed about and lost in long, wet grass,
as is often the case. A bad nurse, in one
Of these runs, will rear quite as good as
a nurse with her liberty.
Two or three broods may be placed
together in one large nursery yard or
pen for few weeks, until it appears
time to sort them for different runs, or
to let them have their liberty. They
should not be allowed, however, to run
or perch with the old fowls. in which
case the chances are that they will be
mauled, scalped or killed outright.
When first removed the floor of the
roosts should be covered with saw-dust,
or short straw or chat, as many chick
ems prefer to sitin patches on the ground
to going on to perches. Care should be
taken that no soft food be given in these
roosts, as the sawdust, getting mixed
with the food, causes them to be crop
bound, which in young birds is very diff
fculr to cure. A box with plenty of
wheat may be placed within reach.
Chickens are marked by cutting holes
in the webs of their feet. The punch
cuts a small, circular hole, and the chick
walks off as unconcerned as though
nothing had happened. The holes never
grow up, so the poultry raiser can al-
ways tell the old hens from the pullets.
Mark the pullets of this years hatch
with one hole in the web of the right
foot, next years chicks one hole in the
left foot, and the third year one hole in
each foot Farmers and poultry raisers
who desire to mark the chicks from diff
ferent sittings of eggs, so that they can
be distinguished when grown, will find
this a convenient method.
The best methods of curing fowls
from brooding or sitting is to drive the
birds out of the henhouse and leave them
at liberty, to purge them by forcing
them to swallow a teaspoonful of cas-
tor oil, compelling them to sleep out Of
doors for several nights, and giving
them plenty of green stuff and laxative
food. After about three days of this
treatment the tendency to incubate win
disappear Dublin (lrelGnd) Farme ~