The trouble is chicken pox, which is a very contagious disease.  A treatment which has been successful consists in bathing the sores with strong salt and water and giving the fowls a mash containing one teaspoonful of calcium sulphide for each 25 hens.  With a large flock of hens the method successfully employed by one of the large coast ranches in stamping out an epidemic of the disease was to place a sulphur smudge, to which had been added a little carbolic acid, in the poultry house after the fowls had gone to roost.  This was allowed to remain till the fowls began to sneeze, when it was instantly removed.  The affected fowls were also treated by dipping the heads in a solution of permanganate of potash.

Roup in Turkeys.

My turkeys have a disease that is spreading rapidly.  They commence with a running at the nose, have swelling under the eyes which are filled with pus.

This is clearly a case of cold developing into roup.  Get one ounce of permanganate of potash and pour a quart of boiling water over; after it is cold, bottle for use.  Now take an old tin can, three parts full of warm, not hot water, and drop in enough of the permanganate of potash to make it dark red.  Hold the turk’s head under in this can until it needs breath then give it time to breathe, and dip again.  Press the fingers along the swollen parts towards the nostrils and get out all the pus you can, then take a sewing-machine oil can and fill it with a little of the mixture, and part olive oil, inject the liquid up the nostrils and in the cleft of the mouth.  Put a little of the permanganate in the drinking water for all the flock.  Make the water a light red, later it will turn to a dirty brown, but don’t mind that.

Disinfectants.

What can I use to disinfect poultry belongings?

Sulphuric acid spray is good, but you will need to be very careful that you do not get it on the hands or clothing.  Get 16 ounces sulphuric acid (50 per cent solution), water 6 gallons.  Have the water in a wooden tub or barrel and add the sulphuric acid to the water very slowly, in order not to splash it on the flesh or clothes.  But mind:  nothing but wooden vessels to mix it in.  When made according to directions, and of this strength it is a very valuable disinfectant, but is dangerous to use of any stronger mixing.  After mixing, it can be stored in glass bottles or earthenware jugs.  Another very good disinfectant for poultry houses and runs is the formaldehyde disinfectant.  Formaldehyde 1 pint (40 per cent), water 2 gallons.  This is fine for houses that you can shut up.  Turn the fowls out of the building, close all windows, and spray thoroughly, then close the door and leave it do the work.  Air well by opening windows and door several hours before the fowls go to roost.

Cloth for Brooding Houses.

Would some good grade of white cloth on a frame do as well, or would it be better than glass, for a brooder house, or would it keep out too much sun-heat?