POULTRY NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18797, 19 November 1932, Page 19 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

HAVE YOUR FOWLS INSECTS? Every care must be taken to prevent insects In poultryhouses, on perches, on broody hens, and ohlokens of all ages, during tho hot months. I wonder how many of my readers oatoh their fowls onoe & month and turn up tho feathers to see If they have any Insects—l know g-ome people ■do —but there are oortalnly people who think fowls have them, while others never trouble themselves to examine a bird properly to Bee whether it is covered with various kinds of lnseots or Is free from these pests. As we are now expeotlng hot weather, It Is well to look out for these pests, and I advise everyone to Cat oh their fowls, hold their hoads downwards, gripping the body between the two knees, and separating the feathers around the abdomen; then, If a fowl has inseots at all, they will bo located around this particular spot. Inseot powder should, of course, bo dusted next to the skin. I have actually seen people scattering powder on tho top of tho feathers, but In all oasos It Is- necessary to open up ■the feathers, so that the insect powder goes next to the skin and on to It. Under a fowl’s wings, on the thighs, and under the neolc hackle, are other haunts for Insects, which are usually found thero during the warmer weather. If, in examining a bird around the abdomen, one finds clusters of

-while growths attached to the feathers near the sldn these should he carefully pulled out and burned, as they are the eggs laid and deposited by the Inseots, and, during the hot months, will hatch In thousands. These live on the blood of the fowl, and spread to every orevloe In the poultryhouße. Some people are under the Impression that fowls’ Inseots will get on and worry people, but this Is not so, and even If the house Is infested with Inseots one may get them on the hand, but they will not live long on a human body. This has been proved over and over again, and I have heard people say that they wore afraid of having insects In thoir gardens in case they got on their ohlldron or themselves.