One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered

by Edward J. Wickson

At from six to eight weeks old the chicks should be taken from the brooder quarters to the colony houses and range, or wherever they are to be located, and at this time they should be taught to perch. Have the new quarters arranged with low wide perches (1 by 3-inch scantlings); also make slatted frames by nailing lath or other such narrow strips two inches apart. Set these frames against the wall so that they will extend slant-wise under the perches, and have the corners on the other side of the room cut off by nailing boards across them. The chicks will run up on the frame to find a huddling corner and land on the perches, as they cannot rest on the open slanting frame. A little care for a few evenings in putting up those that remain on the floor and straightening them out on the perches will teach them the ropes. Where there are but a few to be taught, all that is necessary is to provide the low wide perches and shut out the corners, and a few of the smart ones will soon take to the perches, and gradually others will follow until all will be roosting.

Liver Disease.

I have hens which seem well in every respect up to the time of their combs changing color, when they die within three days. The combs turn a faint yellow, almost white; they are heavy, have their usual appetite up to the lost 24 hours. I have treated by giving small doses of castor oil and Douglas mixture in the drinking water, feeding on dry mash with plenty of green feed. There is no tendency to lameness nor limp neck. The droppings are loose and very white.

The fowls were victims of jaundice, which is a form of liver disease and caused by over-feeding on rich starchy foods that also cause fowls to become overfat. However, at the end of the laying season and the beginning of the molt the poultry keeper will lose some hens, even when kept under the best conditions, and especially hens of that age. In doctoring such cases in the way described, if the fowl does not improve in a couple of days, the hatchet cure is the most profitable.

Rupture of Oviduct.

I have had two other hens die suddenly when on the nest. The second one - we opened and found one egg broken near the vent and another with shell formed ready to be laid.

Rupture of the oviduct was probably the cause of the hens dying on the nest and is due to the same condition in the hens; that is, the straining to expel the egg necessary in the engorged condition of the internal organs from overfatness.

Melons for Fowls.

Have "stock melons" or "citrons" any merit as a green food for laying hens? Are the seeds of the above injurious to hens or cows?

Stock melons are desirable for chicken feeding if other succulent materials are scarce, but they are inferior to alfalfa and other clovers. Seeds are not injurious to stock unless possibly one should feed to excess by separating them from the other tissues. If melons are fed as they grow, no apprehension need be had from injury by seed.