POULTRY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 8, 20 December 1911, Page 8

POULTRY COLUMN.

EXTERN AL 1> A R ASITES

FLEAS, LICK, MITES

(By George A. Palmer, in- “Poultry.”)

There are many kinds of external parasites infesting poultry, there are also lloas, lice, ticks, and mites. Fleas are true insects, having six legs, 'they feed upon the blood, but seem to bo capable of living for months away from their hosts. They are rarely found in poultry houses where ordinary care is exercised, but a sitting house vr I litre a succession of hens follows on in the same nests will become infested without the most scrupulous cleanliness.

A nest should always be emptied and remade with fresn soil between each hatch, and the whole house sprayed daily with a disinfectant. After infested nest-boxes have been removed to the open I have known Hear, to live for many weeks, possibly helped on by the skin, dust and animal waste in the crevices. The female lays eggs in all dark cracks and crevices, which mature into fleas in three to live weeks, according to the weather. Once a fortnight all poultry houses should he sprinkled with any of the black disinfectants made from coal tar in about twenty times as much water. A window syringe will spray a house thoroughly in a few minutes, reaching to every corner and crack of the roof, sides, and floor. This will of a certainty keep down fleas.

The lice bite, and are not furnished with a sucker like the Ilea. There are many varieties, Professor Theobald giving eight as being found on the fowl, four on the duck, five on the goose,, and three on the turkey. Not only will the lice peculiar to tne fowls die on water-fowl, but even on their own hosts they have special portions of the body for each variety. The neck hackle, beneath the wings, and round the rectum are tlie spots where they most congregate. If one holds •a fowl by the legs and opens the feathers quickly just below the tail a cluster may often be found. These are Mallophaga, to give them their scientific name. They do not stay to be looked at, but scoot in all directions. As a rule, if there are none to be found there, the birds are fairly clean. Another species, the Menopon palladium, has more roving habits, and is often found in the nests. This is the kind that swarms over the hands when one plucks a dirty fowl. All the lice live upon skin scales and any secretions, and set up much inflammation by biting at the skin. They breed fast, laying their eggs near the base of the feathers, which hatch out in a few days during hoi; weather. These minute lice go through many changes, and moult iheir skins many times before arriving at maturity.

Healthy fowls are rarely found infested by lice, and if the houses are kept clean and a dust hath provided there is usually little trouolo. Tne best dust hath is dry sand, sulphur, and line wood ash mixed. When a fowl is dusting it lies on its side and scratches, rustling as much fine dust as it can into the feathers. It then lies still for a time to allow the lice to get on to the dust, then stands up and shakes itself vigorously, and in doing so rides itself of the parasites wifcn the •dust, a very effectual way of. cleaning itself. An interesting article might be written on (the ablutions of animals, which would, of course, include the nabbing of horses, the licking of cattle, the wallowing of suiue, and the mutual help society of the sheep and the starling.

It is doubtful whether healthy adult farm fowls need hand dressing, blit chickens certainly pay for it, and in a fancier’s yard not a single louse should bo tolerated. A dusting with pyrethrum powder (from which all the insect powders practically are made) is excellent if the flowers have been freshly ground, but the powder soon loses its virtue . It needs three to do a lot, a boy catching in the'house and handing through to the assistant, who holds them in tiiis way. One hand grasps the legs, and the body of the fowl rests upon the other, hand. It is turned in different directions to lie handy for the dresser, who opens the feathers with one hand in about a dozen places on the . fowl’s body and dredges powder on with the other. If the lid of a coffee tin is perforated with a line wire nail it makes a capital dredger. It is of no use dusting the powder on to the outside of tne leathers; they must be opened so that [the powder gets to the skin. If the I neck feathers are drawn up by the : fingers slowly the powder can be dustled in as they fall away. About three 1 places along each side, throe on the back, and one under the tail makes a very clean job and takes less time to do than to.write about. I have often done some hundreds in a morning, and have taken the opportunity of dressing the legs with petroleum at the same time to circumvent the itcli mite, which causes scaly-log. 1 have mentioned pyrethrum as it is so safe and has no injurious effect upon the skin, but an ointment made of lard, sulphur and petroleum melted ‘together serves very well, and a little put on in a few of tho worst places will drive all the lice from tho body. The objection of ointment is that the dust clings to it and makes the birds look untidy for a time. Mercury ointments will soon move lice, but snob poisons are best kept out of the poultry yard.

Thera is a very large louse, resembling a clog tick, which is found on turkey poults’ heads, and a similar one, if not identical, occasionally oh chickens. They can he plainly felt if the hand is passed over. The best plan is to cut them off with a pair of scissors and put a little of the above ointment on. The mites are worse enemies than lice, and must be kept down at any cost, or farewell to the hopes of profit from poultry. The worst of the mites is the red hen-mito (l)ernmnyssus avium), which is oitcu found in large numbers, lurking iinauspectcd by the owners. Many a time have I gone to inspect a yard when working for. the county councils and found sickly, anaemic fowls which the owner could not understand. An examination has revealed the cause. If polos having baric on are used as perches, the bark shells as the poles dry, and if a piece is tram off large clusters of red mites (are found underneath. If movable I perches which have not been attended to for some time are lifted clusters will bo found in the slots where the perches have rested. Dark and damp I houses are sure to be infested. If found in early morning they are bright I red in colour and resemble bladders full of blood. if inspected under a microscope they are found to have eight legs and to be hairy. In the evenings, when getting empty, they in c paler in colour. Tin's is because they crawl out at night to feed upon the fowls, as they arc furnished with a lube through which they can suck up the blood of the bird. These also are most tenacious of life, and can live for months in a house after the fowls arc removed. ' (Another mile (Sarcnptes mntans) I causes as much loss as any one kind. Very few farmyards are free from

it, and the loss to tne country must be enormous. 1 occasionally buy the young stock from my customers to whom i have sent eggs for setting, uul invariably the first thing to do is to dress for sealy-leg. '! ins appears in young stock as a line, white, dusty crust round the hocks, which it neglected develops into those thick scales so often seen on two-year-old fowls, and which if torn oil firing -.kin and all away to the hare hone, the irritation to the poor birds is inconceivable, and for pure humanity's sake, without regard vo profit, everycliiug should be done to keep them down. The remedy is so simple. Pc■iroleum is fatal. All one has to do is to go through tho stock twice yearly and wipe the legs with a cloth foaked in pertoleum, taking especial care round the hocks and a little vay into the feathers of the thigh, Ind they can lie got under. My dace is so clean now that we rarely io the stock more than once, when ibout six months old, whemer they mvo any or not, in fact 1 rarely ivcr' see a sign of it now. When , here is a quantity to get through the ,egs can tie dipped in a howl of pstrooum, but I am inclined to think tiiat libbing with a cloth is better. For i bad c;iso 1 should soak the legs in mt water for a quarter of an hour, pare off all the scurf, dry, soak the .egs in carbolic oil (one in twenty), ind wrap in calico bandages for a few days. On removal a complete uro will lie found. A fowl never .ooks as clean in the leg again, and A is best to destroy the mites as soon is they begin to burrow under the leg scales, and thou tho liens will have logs as clean as chickens up to any ,fgo. Feather plucking may lie caused by pecking at lice in the first instance or »y being fed with soft food which adheres to the neck feathers and dries in, forming a tempting bait to be locked at, but it is often due to a .cry small mite called Sarcoptes laevs, the depluming mite. ’inis is au)ther of the itch tribe, and is akin to mange in horses. Dressings of carbolic hi on the hare parts is always safe, mt although, this may have been the iriginal cause, it quickly becomes a mbit hard to eradicate. The treatneat is to give the birds plenty of neal and green food, a doze or two if Epsom salts (loz to 8), and if all Iso fails in a confirmed feather-piuck-:r, to pare the upper and lower manlibles to the quick. Cleanliness in the houses goes a ong way to prevent these pests. If t loose sawdust deposit is kept on he floor, that of itself is a disinfectnt if deal sawdust is used. When .hat is sprayed fortnightly with tho est of the house, lleas and lice stand .cry little chance. Petroleum is the nost effective weapon against mites, "s'ot only should the perches and the ■dots in which they rest be wiped with t, but the whole of tho 'inside of tho louse may. he brushed over with it ind tho <ioor then left open all day or the .place to sweeten. Sun, air, and .ight will combat ail these low forms if life. All houses should ho so coujfcructed that they can get in freely. j.f tho door is left open all day so that there is a current of air sweep‘ng through so much the better. If die floor deposit is kept forked and luplicate loose nest boxes used so • mat one lot can bo always out of doors .woeteniiig, the parasites stand but .ittlc chance. 'Nothing should be placed in the nests that can taint the they musF'ilot’ come into direct •ontact with eucalyptus or any stronganclling oils of that kind which have men recommended for placing in perorated pot eggs. Tho nests can lie .horoughly disinfected before being ilaced outside to air.

People who think all this too much .rouble should not keep live stock of my kind. An hour once a fortnight ,viil keep a dozen houses clean, and me cost, of the' petroleum and the Jisinfectant is only a few pence-—about ,'d pgr gallon foV the one and Is 6d .’or blip other. But unless one inaitutes a regular and steady warfare ■.gainst external parasites the sooner ao is out of poultry-keeping the bet:er for him and them.