Fig. 13.—Inclosure for hen and chicks with box used as a coop at the end. Both coop and run is moved each day to a fresh spot of ground. A burlap bag thrown across the top of the yard provides shade. Twenty-five chicks were put with a hen in this yard and 24 of them were raised, making good growth.
The hens should have access at all times to a supply of grit or stones of a size small enough to be swallowed readily. Grit is used by the hens to help in grinding in their gizzards the hard grains which they eat. A supply of ordinary gravel will answer the purpose of grit very well. Crushed oyster or clam shell also should be given to the hens and be kept before them at all times. If this is withheld the hens are likely to lack sufficient shell-forming material in their feed, with the result that they lay many soft-shelled or thin-shelled eggs. Grit or shell can be purchased in small quantities at any feed or poultry supply store.
A plentiful supply of clean, fresh water must always be available to the hens. The fowls drink freely, especially when laying heavily, and should not be stinted of such a necessary and cheap material as water. The water pan or dish should be kept clean. If it is not washed out frequently a green slime will gather on its inner surface. This should not be allowed to happen. It is well to keep the water pan outside the house and in the shade in the summer, but in the winter, when the water may freeze, it is best that the pan be left in the house, and it should be raised about a foot above the floor so that the hens will not kick it full of straw or other litter when scratching for their feed. When the nights are cold enough so that the water is likely to freeze the pan should be emptied each night and refilled in the morning.
Lice and Mites
If the best results are to be expected from the flock, the hens must not be allowed to become overrun with lice or the house with mites. Usually there will be a place in the yard where the hens can dust themselves in the dry dirt. If such a place is not available, a box large enough (about 2 feet square) for the hens to get into it should be provided in the house and a quantity of dust such as ordinary road dust or fine dirt placed in it to allow the hens a place to dust themselves. A dust bath aids the hens in keeping lice in check and therefore adds to their comfort. Usually the lice are not present on the birds in sufficient number to prove particularly harmful. However, it is better to keep the hens as free as possible from this pest, and if they are not able to keep them in check by dusting themselves, other measures can be undertaken.
To rid the hens of lice, each one can be treated by placing small pinches of sodium fluorid, a material which can be obtained at most large drug stores, among the feathers next to the skin—one pinch on the head, one on the neck, two on the back, one on the breast, one below the vent, one at the base of the tail, one on either thigh, and one scattered on the underside of each wing when spread. Another method is to use a small quantity of blue ointment, a piece about as large as a pea on the skin 1 inch below the vent. If mercurial ointment is used instead of blue ointment, it should be diluted with an equal quantity of vaseline. Any of these methods will be found very effective in ridding the hens of lice and should be employed whenever the lice become troublesome. Two or three applications a year usually prove sufficient.
Mites are more troublesome and more harmful than lice. They do not live upon the birds like the lice, but during the day hide in the cracks and crevices of the roosts and walls of the house, and at night they come out and get upon the fowls. They suck the hen’s blood, and if allowed to become plentiful—as they certainly will if not destroyed—will seriously affect her health and consequently her ability to lay eggs. They may be eradicated by a few thorough applications of kerosene or some of the coal-tar products which are sold for this purpose, or crude petroleum, to the interior of the poultry house. The commercial coal-tar products are more expensive but retain their killing power longer, and they may be cheapened by reducing with an equal part of kerosene. Crude petroleum will spray better if thinned with 1 part of kerosene to 4 parts of the crude oil. Both the crude petroleum and the coal-tar products often contain foreign particles, so should be strained before attempting to spray. One must be sure that the spray reaches all of the cracks and crevices, giving especial attention to the roosts, dropping-boards, and nests, and the treatment should be repeated two or three times at intervals of a week or 10 days.[3]
[3] For further information on the subject of poultry lice and mites and their control the reader is referred to Farmers’ Bulletin 801, “Mites and Lice on Poultry,” by F. C. Bishopp and H. P. Wood, of the Bureau of Entomology. Copies of this bulletin may be obtained free on application to the Division of Publications, United States Department of Agriculture.
Hatching and Raising Chicks
Often it is inadvisable to attempt to renew the city poultry flock by hatching and rearing chicks or buying and rearing day-old chicks. Previous experience in the raising of chickens often increases the chances of success. However, the land available is usually small in area, and no attempt should be made to raise chicks unless a plot can be provided separate from that to which the hens have access and upon which there is grass, or a supply of green feed can be furnished. Where these conditions are not available, it is better to kill the hens as soon as they have outlived their usefulness and replace them by well-matured pullets in the fall. Where it is found desirable to hatch and rear a few chicks this can best be done with hens. Where a few day-old chicks are purchased to rear and no hens are available for the purpose, it is possible with little trouble and expense to construct a fireless brooder which will answer the purpose. Full directions for making such a brooder are given in Farmers’ Bulletin 624, page 10[4].