The Butler weekly times., 1910-06-23
Poultry Notes.

Exchange.
Because chickens do well and re-
turn profit when unfavorably locat-
ed, too little consideration is given to
the choice of a favorable location.
Fowls must be fed and watered; their
houses must be cleaned, and their eggs
gathered; therefore the houses should
be located where most convenient for
the attendant, provided the location is
a fairly sanitary one. The wise poul-
tryman will supply what nature fails
to provide in the situation. If it
seems best to locate the poultry house
on low ground, he will build a base
ment; will study his situation, keep
ing the interests of the fowls in mind,
showing that the increased cost of the
basement house over the house built
on the ground will be more than
made up in the benefit to the fowls.
A gentleman who built his poultry
house on low ground was at loss to
know from what cause the epidemic
of colds came with the fall rains. A
visiting poultryman took him after
night to the poultry house standing
in fog of damp night air, then up to
the higher levels where the air was
dry and fresh, and the source of the
colds was no longer mystery.
Locate the poultry houses on high,
well-drained land, with a south or a
southeast exposure by choice. Plenty
of sunlight and protection from winds
are essentials. Farmers should take
more care in choosing suitable loca-
ton for the chicken house than the
professional poultryman, because the
latter is always about the chickens,
and can quickly correct wrong condi-
tions, while the farmer during the
farming season may not look inside
the house for weeks.
One of the ugliest diseases the chick
is heir to is chicken-pox. These
ugly ulcers form on the head and
face, sometimes on the back and in
the eyes, making the chick thorough
ly repulsive as well as thoroughly un-
comfortable. Much of this disease
could be avoided if the chicks were
kept out of the weeds. A dense
growth of weeds seems to spring up
in night, there is other work to be
done, and the thicks forced to wander
through this underground wet with
dew each morning, become draggled
and sick before we know it. A chick
will not thrive where the sunshine
does not 90; the little chicks need
short grass to range over. To keep
them well and thrifty, keep them dry
and comfortable. The hen rarely
carries summer hatched chicks over
three or four weeks. 1t is these
weaned chicks cheeping about after
their truant mother which usually fall
victims to the chicken-pox. Another
reason for keeping the weeds well
cut about the chicken coops is that
they furnish barber for rats.
Lettuce is one of the best of green
foods for chicks and older birds as
well. Cut up and mixed with table
scraps or mash, the chicks love il,
and will soon eat il alone. Ducks
and goslings should have all the green
food they will eat, in fact, gosling
requires pasture more than grain,
and if given run on tender grass
will eat very little grain.
Teach each brood Of chicks to come
at your call. Clapping the hands or
tapping on the feed buckets is an
easier way Of calling than by using
the voice.
Gull out the inferior birds this
month while prices are high; when
spring chickens are on the market
there will be very slow sale for hens.