120 FIRSI LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



LESSON XV. 



Poultry House Fixtures. 



THE necessary fixtures of the poultry bouse are: 

 1 . Roosts with or without droppings boards. 

 2. Feed troughs, boxes or hoppers. 



3. Drinking vessels. 



4. Nests. 



5. Receptacles for grit, shell, etc. 



6. Dust boxes in houses with board floors. 



A poultry keeper may find places and use for all the articles enumerated, or he may get along 

 with only a few of them. He may have his few fixtures simple and inexpensive or may 

 make the furnishing of his houses quite an item of expense when compared with the cost of 

 the house and the value of fowls kept in it and of their product. He may make all fixtures 

 himself, may convert old articles and utensils of various sorts to uses as furnishings for his 

 poultry houses, or he may take his choice of ready made articles that run from plain to elabo- 

 rate in construction, and from moderate to high in price. On a large plant there is a decided 

 advantage as well as appropriateness in having the fixtures uniform throughout the plant. 

 The poultry keeper works faster and easier when the same operation is to be performed in the 

 same, way all through. On a small plant it does not make so much difference, yet uniformity 

 is always attractive. On the score of appearances, too, the fixtures should be in quality in 

 keeping with their surroundings. Shabby or makeshift fixtures may not look at all out of 

 place in a cheap, roughly built house, but they do look most decidedly misfits in a house with 

 some pretensions to fine finish. On the other hand, fine fixtures do not go well with very 

 plain houses. 



The fixtures for a well finished house need not be elaborate. It is possible to have them 

 simple and plain, yet well made and neatly finished, and quite as inexpensive too as rougher 

 articles of the same pattern ; and, all things considered, the poultryman is wisest who plans his 

 house and provides his furnishings with an eye to simplicity, for complicated plans and elabo- 

 rate fixings make it harder to keep a house clean, and make harboring places for the vermin 

 of various kinds which infest poultry houses. 



Droppings Boards. 



In the list of fixtures roosts are mentioned as with or without droppings boards. The need 

 of the droppings board will depend on the methods of the poultry keeper. If be keeps his 

 bouse close and finds it advisable to remove droppings daily, or every few days, he will find it 

 more satisfactory to use droppings boards. If he keeps bis bouse open, and can allow the 

 droppings to accumulate under the roosts as long as they make no odor, he should leave out 

 the droppings boards. 



