404 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



all should be on the same level and far enough apart so that 

 the fowls will not be crowded when the roosts are full. 



Nests may be made of ordinary boxes, large enough so 

 that a hen can sit down in them comfortably, and hung on 

 the walls, or they may be made to look better by any special 

 construction and the use of good lumber. Grit and shell boxes, 

 feed hoppers, etc., may be hung on the walls at convenient 

 places and high enough so that the dirt will not be scratched 

 into them by the fowls. (H. A. N.) 



CHAPTER IV. 



SANITATION. 



The average poultry-keeper pays too little attention to the 

 practice of the principles of sanitation, though it is of the 

 greatest importance that these principles should be thoroughly 

 applied in both the poultry houses and yards, because sanitary 

 measures must be practiced assiduously in order to maintain 

 normal health among the fowls. 



Every condition that promotes the possibility of disease 

 may be classed as unsanitary and the elimination of such con- 

 ditions must be accomplished as quickly after discovery as 

 possible, in order that the flock may be kept in perfect health, 

 without which the best results in any of the different branches 

 of poultry culture, as the production and hatchability of eggs, 

 and the livability and growth of young stock, cannot be ob- 

 tained. 



Cleanliness. This is the most potent agency in promoting 

 sanitation. The vital importance of cleanliness must be ac- 

 cepted as a first principle in the successful management of a 

 poultry establishment, large or small. Manifestly, it is more 

 difficult and laborious to maintain cleanliness when large num- 

 bers of fowls or chicks are kept in small houses and runs, than 

 when the reverse is the practice. But, in that case, the neces- 

 sity is in a proportionate measure more urgent, and in all cases 

 cleanliness, not as a theory but as a condition, must be estab- 

 lished and maintained in all parts of the house, including 

 floors, walls, roosts, roost platforms and nests and, particu- 

 larly, in all watering and feeding devices. Cleanliness pre- 

 vents disease by removing the germs of disease and the accum- 

 ulation of filth which is conducive to their increase and de- 

 velopment. 



