POULTRY. 211 



top if possible. Drafts of air across the hen-house should be 

 avoided, as they are injurious to the birds. 



The hen-house should be kept clean always, and, if possible, 

 sweet. All stinks are unwholesome to fowls, and it is not good 

 for them to roost over accumulations of their own excrement. 

 It is a good plan to place under their roosts, say two feet down, 

 a gutter made of two boards, each six or seven inches wide, and 

 nailed together at the edges. The excrement will lodge here, 

 and may be scraped out every day or two, dried in the sun, and 

 then put into a barrel for sale. If the dung is put in a barrel 

 fresh it becomes offensive, and in warm weather maggoty. The 

 hen-house should be frequently and thoroughly whitewashed, to 

 keep off and destroy lice. This is indispensable. 



The roosts should be made rather large, and somewhat rough 

 to help the grasp of the fowls. Poles covered with the bark are 

 good. The heavier and more clumsy birds, like the Brahma 

 Pootra variety, like to roost on a board, say four inches wide, 

 and not over eigliteen inches from the floor. The lighter and 

 more active sorts will go as high as they can get. But there 

 should be small ladders, or boards with cleats, for the fowls to 

 walk up on, as in flying high they are apt to fall and break their 

 eggs or do other injury. 



The nests should be low and approachable by similar easy 

 steps, and so constructed that the hens shall not need to fly 

 down roughly upon the eggs, with danger of breaking them, 

 but be able to step on easily. Common square boxes serve 

 very well as nests, and there should be three or four to each 

 half-dozen laying hens. The surface of the hay in the nests 

 should be as high as it can be without danger of the eggs roll- 

 ing out, and should be concealed from view as much as possible. 

 For sitting hens it is well to place dry earth in the bottom of 

 the nests, below the hay. The earth serves to keep an equable 

 temperature, and the little moisture arising from it seems to be 

 favorable to the process of hatching. 



Fowls should always have a place to scratch in ; and in ab- 

 sence of a better provision for this purpose, a box of earth, fine 

 sand or wood-ashes may be placed in the coop and frequently 

 renewed. For the convenience of access, all parts of the coop 

 should be easily approachable, so that it may not suffer from 

 the want of frequent and proper cleanings. 



