The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1897-11-02

SpdrluS1y OF II VIII
kill more chicks
than it cures, yet it can be used ju-
dicially on old fowls. If lice have ac-
cumulated during incubation they will
easily be seen on the heads of the
chicks. When you take the mother hen
off with her brood rub her well under
her wings and body with grease. When
she broods her chicks their heads come
in contact with the grease, which the
lice can not long endure. Give her a
good place to dust herself in and she
will soon rid herself and chicks of the
pests. Keep the chicks from budding
in heaps at night after the hen leaves
them, lest some get too warm, after
wards taking cold, which ends in roup,
the dreaded disease. I fear 1t more
than cholera, although I never had the
latter in my flock, and by keeping
everything strictly clean you need
never fear it.
OFTEN read in the poultry journals
that 1t is not much work to take care
or poultry. l have always found it
Just the reverse. Still, like it for the
outdoor exercise and natural love |
have for pets. / also found it very re-
muneratlve, but find there is as great
a demand for that article called COM
mon sense in poultry raising as in
everything else. The third year / gave
poultry my attention I kept a strict
account with the biddies. I had thir-
ty-tWo Light Brahma hens and forty
half-bloods for sitters. In the early
spring l sold ninety-two sittings of
eggs, twenty-five half-bloods for sit
tiers, and raised near 700 chicks. I sold
some for broilers and some for breed
ing purposes, and packed over $50
dozen eggs during the summer. / sold
all the culls Thanksgiving, and at the
end of the year the books showed
balance in my favor Of $791.34. Since
that time | have kept no accurate ac-
count, but am satisfied to continue I'M
til | find something better. Most of
the farmers have their poultry yards
oversuocked; hence it costs more to
feed them, and they are not SO remun-
erative. Gull your 1ocKs in early fall,
and the remainder will do better and
be more profitable. The cost Of feeding
varies with the price of grain. Farm
ers do not leel this as we who have it
to buy. If the fowls have their lib
erty, the cost of feeding is mere trifle.
1t is estimated that one and a half
bushels of corn will keep a hen one
year. Our estimate of the cost Of one
hen one year, in confinement, was
eighty-seven cents, but she had a vari-
ETY. of food. Where they are comfort
ably housed it. costs less to feed them,
and they will lay more eggs.
few timely hints in regard to treat
ment as the weather grows warmer,
term, all kinds of vermin propagate
rapidly, and, if allowed, will prove to
be the pest whose name is legion"
Examine your fowls frequently to make
sure they have no lice upon them. and
watch with jealous eye for the ap-
pearance Of the tiny, but abominable
pests-the poultry parasite The
ounce of prevention" should be
brought into requisition now, if ever
If hens are kept sitting for late chicks.
have special care to provide a cool.
quiet place on the ground for them. A
little hollow made in the earth. with a
lining of clean, fresh grass, is suffi-
Gent. If the eggs get foul, wash them
clean in tepid water, line the nest with
fresh grass and replace the eggs Care
fully study the habits of your hens with
chicks. They will be found to vary as
much as other folks in disposition and
habits. Such as prove quiet sitters,
careful and successful mothers, and
tractable when their keepers approach,
should be spared for another years SER
vice. l have one (Old Brownie) seven
years old, and she now has seventeen
hearty chicks. The great value of milk
as food for poultry seems to be over
looked by farmers and those who have
plenty. 1t is good for them in all
shapes. 1t is eagerly eaten by them,
and they will thrive on it as they will
on nothing else. The above is largely
my own experience, and hence I know
whereof / speak, and / find that by
proper devotion to the demands Of the
nature of our fowls, one will have but
little use for the study of diseases. But
there is work about it, and there is
about anything we undertake if we do
it successfully. Constant vigilance is
the price of success in almost every
undertaking, and in none other is it
more applicable than in the breeding
and management of poultry, whether
pure bred or not, if profit is the desir-
ed result.