AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 



are made of materials which give off an odor 

 destructive to the vermin in the nest and on the 

 bodies of the hens which frequent the nest. 



By the term " droppings boards " is meant a 

 platform under the perches to catch the droppings 

 Droppings from the birds while on the roost at 

 Boards night. Droppings boards are a great 



convenience in a well-kept house ; a neglected house 

 is better without them. Where the droppings are 

 removed every morning or two it is much easier 

 to sweep them off the droppings boards into a 

 basket or bucket than it is to shovel them up off 

 the ground, and the house is cleaner afterward, 

 because every particle of manure may be removed 

 from the boards. But if the droppings are allowed 

 to accumulate, the boards become saturated with 

 liquid manure, and, being necessarily close to the 

 perches, they make bad conditions worse and 

 compel the fowls to breathe impure, foul-smelling 

 air. 



The best droppings boards are made of matched 

 flooring, or any other material that is smooth on 

 one side. The platform should extend beyond 

 the sides of the roost eight or ten inches, in order 

 that all the droppings may be secured from the 

 fowls on the outer, perches. For a single perch the 

 board should be about twenty inches wide ; for two 

 perches, three feet wide. A two- or three-inch strip 

 had best be placed around the edge of the platform 



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