POULTRY HOUSES. n 



The irregularities are of service in preventing mischief. 

 Perches should have a flat bearing cut at each end, and be 

 movable, that these places may be dressed with oil and 

 paraffin every now and then, to keep away the red mite. 



Large Asiatics often do better bedded on straw till they 

 are grown, or even after. A perfectly dry floor will do for 

 this, or such a shelf as described is an excellent plan. The 

 straw will do for several days with healthy fowls, if lifted 

 and shaken with a pointed stick every morning, and the 

 droppings underneath taken away. 



Little trouble is needed about nests. Under a shelf like 

 Fig. 3, or in any place with no perch above to pollute them, 

 a brick or two on the floor will be sufficient to confine a 

 little straw. Tiers of nests are quite abandoned. Half of a 

 cheese box does well, on the ground. Two or three par- 

 titions may be tacked together, with a front strip all along 

 three or four inches high, to retain the straw. But the less 

 woodwork the better, so far as laying nests are concerned ; 

 we may want a box by-and-by for the sitting hen. 



Somewhere in each shed, and in the dryest part of it if 

 any damp comes in anywhere, there must be a heap of fine 

 dry earth, or road-dust, or finely-sifted ashes, in which the 

 fowls may roll and cleanse themselves from insect vermin 

 their only means of doing so. To answer its purpose this 

 must be renewed every now and then, and especially never 

 allowed to remain long if it gets damp. One plan is to part 

 off a back corner of the shed about a yard square, by two 

 boards placed on edge, about six inches high, and to keep 

 this space filled to the top. The only case where special 

 provision is not necessary is where the entire shed lloor is 

 kept some inches deep in dry loose material, kept clean and 

 renewed as above described. Then the fowls can use that 

 at pleasure. 



If chickens are to be reared, more than one small run 



