Building Poultry Houses. 



211 



to frighten the fowls. Fig. 45-C is a " Dutch " door, the upper and 

 lower halves opening separately. While generally not to be recom- 

 mended, this type of door is found convenient to permit the upper part 

 to be opened to allow the fresh air and sun's heat to enter, while the 

 bottom prevents the wind striking the fowls. The door Fig. 45-Z) 

 opens outward instead of inward, which generally is not satisfactory, 

 owing to the fact that it is not so handy to pull and open as it is to 

 unlatch and push. Fig. 45-H is a double door that swings both inward 

 and outward. It is the most unhandy of all except when it is necessary 

 for a trolley to pass through. Fig. 45-F swings on double, reversible 

 hinges, which is a convenience and works well, provided the springs 

 are heavy enough to swing quickly and firmly against a rubber pad on 

 the door to prevent back motion. All self-closing doors have the disad- 

 vantage of occasionally injuring fowls. The rolling door. Fig. 45-G, 

 is not tight enough for outside use, but may be used to good advantage 



Fig. 45. — Types of doors and methods of hanging them 



for partition doors. The track should be inclined to permit the door to 

 close quickly and automatically. All doors should be raised above the 

 floor six inches so that the bottom will clear the litter ; and a space should 

 be left between the bottom and the sill on interior doors to prevent decap- 

 itation of fowls that might get caught while the door is swinging. 



Interior doors should be fitted with spring hinges, weight and pulley 

 or other device to obviate the loss of time in opening and closing latches. 



The ventilation 



Most poultry houses, if properly built, will not need ventilators. The 

 large amount of air-space in a poultry house makes the systematic change 

 of air less certain and satisfactory than in buildings for larger animals. 

 The fact that the domestic fowl is a hot-blooded rapid-breathing animal, 

 and therefore requires a constant and abundant supply of fresh air, indi- 

 cates, what in practice proves true, that fowls must live in pure air or 

 they will suffer from illness due to impure blood. Pure air is as neces- 



