118 Farm Poultry 



to a minimum. While it may not suffice to cure the 

 habit when once well formed, yet it should pre- 

 vent, in a large measure, the development of this 

 vice. It is the duty of those constructing poultry 

 houses to arrange them so that this vice, together 

 with other undesirable features of poultry-keeping, 

 may be avoided so far as possible. Another ar- 

 rangement of nests, in which they are attached 

 to the side or end walls, and therefore do not 

 occupy floor space, is recommended by many 

 practical poultry-keepers. 



It is important to arrange the nests so that 

 they may be readily cleaned and disinfected, for 

 it is well known that if the perches and nests of 

 the fowls can be kept free from mites, or so- 

 called summer lice, the fowls themselves will be 

 entirely free from them. If the nest boxes, 

 therefore, are movable and can readily be taken 

 out of doors for thorough cleaning it will be 

 found somewhat easier to keep them entirely free 

 from these pests than if stationary nests -are 

 used, and it will certainly be easier to exter- 

 minate them should they once gain a foothold. 



Nests of Leghorns, Hamburgs, and Minorcas 

 may be constructed of boards, six inches wide, 

 making boxes 8x10 inches in the clear. The 

 American breeds and Asiatics should have some- 

 what larger nests . 



Fine hay is satisfactory for nest material and 



