Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-04-19
POULTRY
CONSULTING DEPARTMENT
Loss to PouItrymen by Lice

Very few people seem to realize the
tremendous amount of damage done
to the poultry industry by lice. have
heard many people wonder why hen
should leave her nest and deliberately
stop after setting for week or two.
The reason is always the same. She
is driven wild by the continual biting
and irritation of the lice. When hen
first sits she may have only few lice
upon her, but they breed so rapidly
and increased in such numbers that in
week or so she simply cannot endure
the maddening irritation: so she
leaves her nest and seeks natures
way to find relief for her suffering.
Oftentimes, after a hen sits for
short time, the eggs are broken and
the balance spoiled. This is simply
the result of the hen fighting, scratch
ing and picking at the lice upon her
body.
A louise on hen bites and irritates
her body just the same as any biting
insect bites and irritates an animal.
There is maddening desire to scratch
the bitten part, and in this way the
eggs are broken or laying hen ex-
ponds her energy and vitality in kill
ing insects, when she would expend
it in egg production. In my 20 years
experience in growing poultry, have
always found that a brood of chicks
mothered by lousy hen will not-in
fact, they cannot-thrive and grow. In
recent years / wondered why two
broods of chicks, Matched and cared
for under identically the same condi-
tons, should bring such vastly differ
ent results. But upon inspection /
find that lousy BROOD no matter how
well they were fed, nor how carefully
tended, will not nor cannot thrive and
grow. The first few days they seem
as bright and smart as any young
chicks can be, but the minute the lice
begin to work they begin to droop and
fade away. They lose their ambition
in life, and if they make a life of it
they are always a dumpy, scrawny,
undergrown lot, simply because the
very life blood has been sucked from
their bodies. The nourishment and
vitality that should have gone to make
big, healthful, robust fowls have gone
instead to feed and nourish a horde
of insects. This enemy is the worst
that poultry raisers have to contend
with.
My own personal experience has
been that a flock of birds kept free
from lice are very seldom bothered by
any form of sickness. But a flock
whose vitality, strength and ambition
have been reduced by lice are always
the ones to be first stricken by disease.
The body lice on a bird are Just the
same as on any other living thing.
They must have drink and they come
TO the vent to obtain it; but these
They are not blood suckers, but they
keep biting and gnawing on the out
side of the skin. This is the way they
ton, find on the feathers below the
vent space three or four inches
square, cells like a bee comb. and the
lice come from these cells. Ii is said
that i'm eight weeks time one louise
and its offspring will produce $4,000
lice.
Head lice bury themselves in the
skin and live on the head of the bird,
just behind the comb. These lice do
not live on the body of the bird.
neither do they need drink, as they
get it out of the head of the bird.
Many poultryman believes that any
dust will kill the lice, but it is well
TO remember that in order TO kill body
lice on bird all pores Of the louse's
body must be filled with dust before
he dies.
The louise has no lungs IL breathes
through the pores Of the skin, and il
louise will stand still long enough to
fill all of its pores it will die. There is
only one more way TO kill lice, and
that is TO feed them poison, as they
live on the skin of the birds and come
to the vent for moisture.