The Red Cloud chief., 1904-04-29
POULTRY
Guard Against Gapes.

Gapes are frequently present In a
flock without the owner of the chicks
suspecting 1t. The trouble may be
a cause OF loss year after year and
the poultry raiser imagine bad food
to be to blame, or that the chicks
have some bronchial disease. Gapes
come to the chicks by way of the
angle worms that are fed them. or
that they pick up themselves. We
have known children to take such
an interest in the little chicks shut
up in their coops that they would dig
angle worms for them, not knowing
that they were at the same time sup
plying them with the dea.,ly cape
worm. Feeding angle worms to chicks
Is a good practice IL Il be known that
gapes do not exist In the neighbor.
hood; but IL there have been gapes
on the farm at all. feeding the worms
to the chicks is a dangerous prac-
tice. Angle worms may be fed TO
mature fowls without fear Of in.
ducing gapes. as the cape worms are
able to attach themselves only to the
very tender membranes of growing
chickens. We see the statement made
that o some farms during certain
seasons it seems almost impossible
to rear broods of young chicks that
are entirely free from 1t, particularly
II the chickens are kept under the
ordinary conditions" This is true.
but the trouble can be easily obviated
by keeping the chicks on board floors.
On most farms the chicks can be kept
on grass plots; but where gapes are
bad the board floor will have to be
resorted to as a protection against
the gapes. Some quite complete ex.
periments to demonstrate this have
been made by the experiment sta.
tons. Two lots of chickens were
kept side by side, n on a board
floor and n on the bare earth. In
several repetitions of the experiment
the chicks on the bare ground got
the gapes, while those on the board
floor did not. In another experiment
two broods were kept on board floors.
One brood was fed angle worms and
the other was not. The brood re-
ceiving the angle worms were soon
sick with the gapes, while the other
brood va unaffected.
Formerly the processes of life o.
the cape worm were unknown, but in
recent years they have been discov.
cred, and the cape worm is seer to
be a parasite of the angle worm. The
worm now carries the name of Syn.
gamus t%rachealis. II is reddish in
color and from three.eighths To three.
fourths of an inch long. What ap.
pears like n worm is really two,
the male and the female being per.
manently attached. This led t. the
common name Of the "branched
worm" prevailing in some localities.
The male is the smaller of the two
worms.
These worms attach themselves to
the air passages of young chicks.
They nourish themselves by sucking
the blood of the fowl. and when "A
large number of them collect in the
w%indpipe of a chick the loss OF blood
is great. As many as forty Of these
worms have been found in the wind.
pipe of a single chick. The weaker
ones among the chicks are killed OFF
by the gapes, but the stronger ones
generally survive the attack. The af.
fected chickens cough up the sc worms
and other chicks eat them and be
come affected. 1t Is therefore best
to take away from among the others
the chicks affected with gapes.
Ii is easier to prevent gapes than
to cure them, but there are remedial
measures that may be taken. One
is to put the chick In a barrel
and dust in some all. slaked lime,
This will cause the coughing up
of the worms. A double horse
hair twisted in the windpipe frequent,
|, ly dislodges many. A feather dipped
in %turpentine and turned in the
trachea will cause many To be dis
lodged, and they will be coughed up