COOPS AND BUILDINGS FOR POULTRY 1 1 3 



ventilated house, which, it is now generally agreed, is, all things 

 considered, the best type of poultry house. Houses of the open- 

 front scratching-shed type have been used here and there since the 

 middle of the last century, but it was not until after 1 890, when the 

 extension of interest in poultry was increasing the number of those 

 who were having trouble in warm houses, that any general interest 

 was manifested in them. Then for a few years they were exploited 

 as a remedy for the difficulties in warm houses, and became very 

 popular. The term " open-front scratching-shed house " was 

 applied particularly to the plan used and exploited by one man, 

 but the idea was applied, in variously modified forms, to many other 

 styles of houses. As is usual, the merits were much exaggerated. 



Experience with the open-front scratching-shed house showed 

 that the fowls would remain in the open shed the greater part of 

 the daytime, and that the capacity of the two compartments thus 

 became only the capacity of the one compartment that the birds 

 frequented. The open front of the scratching shed was intended 

 to be open only during fine weather. At other times it was to be 

 closed with curtains, which were at first of oiled cotton cloth on 

 frames. This material was used and recommended as an econom- 

 ical substitute for glass sash. The difficulty, in many places, of 

 getting oiled cloth led to a very general substitution of ordinary 

 cheap cloth and burlap, both of which admitted considerable air 

 through the meshes. Improved conditions as a result of better air 

 thus supplied brought about a very general use of such materials in 

 place of glass in a part or all of the windows of closed houses. 



The idea that fowls must be kept warm was a fundamental 

 principle in the management of fowls in scratching-shed houses 

 and in the numerous adaptations of the plan made in houses of 

 other types. The birds were to be kept warm by constant exercise 

 in the litter in which their grain was fed on the floor of the scratch- 

 ing shed, or scratching room (as the case might be), while at night 

 they kept warm in the close roosting room, or the reduced form 

 of it called the roosting closet, or roost box, built with a hinged 

 front or burlap curtain to retain the heat when the fowls were on the 

 roost. It was commonly observed that fowls were likely to be more 

 thrifty and free from disease in these houses when the keeper neg- 

 lected to take precautions to keep them warm at night. Again, when 



