What can I do to cure my chicks of eating each other? Some kind of animal food is necessary when the chicks begin to pick toes, wings and vents. But the meat must always be cooked, the least bit of raw meat drives them wild as does the blood they can bring on each other. For that reason a strict watch must be kept to detect any case before blood is brought. Remove all weak chicks as they always go for the weakest, and as soon as one chick is picked on for a victim, remove it at once. Some people paint the toes with tar or liquid lice paint, but I have had the best success with bitter aloes mixed with water. A nickel's worth covers a lot of toes. It is best to buy a powder, then dissolve in a little water and paint wings, vent and toes. They won't take many pecks at them when they find they are so bitter. Sunflower Seeds for Poultry. What is the food value of sunflower seed as a ration for fowls, mostly laying hens? Should it be fed whole or crushed? Sunflower seed is rich in oil, having the same proportion as flaxseed; otherwise it rates in value the same as grain. A little, not too much, fed whole is well relished by fowls and is said to give luster to the plumage in fitting birds for shows. Sunflower is greatly overrated for poultry purposes. It is an ungainly plant of no use for forage and its seed is so well liked by the sparrows that the only way to keep them till ripe is to cover the heads with netting. Clipping Hens for Cleanliness. My hens foul all the feathers below the vent; they appear healthy, but do not look nice. What can I do? Take a pair of scissors and clip the fluff away from that part of the abdomen, give a teaspoonful of olive oil, and notice of they have any discharge that is of an offensive color or odor. Sometimes it is nothing but pure laziness with hens of the large breeds that causes this matting together of the fluff below the vent. We rarely see hens of the small breeds so affected. Whenever a hen soils her feathers clip her at once, and, in fact, it is a good custom to follow in any case. When hens are very heavily fluffed it interferes with the fertility of the eggs. In such cases there is not anything for it but the scissors. Bowel Trouble in Chicks. What is the cause of bowel trouble in young chicks, and what to do for it?