174 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



a house the thing to do is to keep the temperature down 

 during the day equalize the temperature more between 

 night and day by opening the doors or windows and you 

 will add to the comfort and health of the fowls. 



A knowledge of this fact shows at once how futile it is 

 to build double walls and put in double windows with the 

 idea of making the house comfortable; it shows also how 

 we may save about half the cost of the building. It means 

 a saving in cost of building as well as in the condition of 

 the fowls and in the egg yield. 



We have not found that we can keep enough fowls in a 

 house to keep its temperature up perceptibly. Horses and 

 cattle keep a stable warm from the heat of their bodies, 

 but we cannot crowd enough chickens into a poultry house 

 to keep it at the same temperature of the horse and cattle 

 barn and expect the fowls to maintain good health. This 

 shows that the poultry house must have greater ventilation, 

 must furnish more fresh air than is required in the cow 

 barn or in the living room of human beings. There must 

 be a more rapid change of air in the poultry house than 

 in the horse stable, and if we keep exchanging the air 

 rapidly enough by means of ventilators or open windows, 

 there will, of course be little difference between the tem- 

 perature of the house and the temperature outdoors. "We 

 must have plenty of ventilation, and we cannot expect to 

 keep the house warm from the body heat of the fowls. 



The attempt, therefore, to reproduce spring in winter, 

 or to make the hen imagine in mid-winter that the natural 

 laying and breeding season is upon her, by building warm 

 houses, has not been a success. The failure is due to the 

 wide range of temperature in them. The "warm" house 

 is a hothouse during the day and a refrigerator at night, 

 unless artificial heat be used. A so-called warmly built 

 house is unreasonable without artificial heat, and artificial 



