POULTRY HOUSES. 61 



square, an open shed ten by fifteen, posts seven feet high, all 

 under one roof, which can be half-pitch, with a cupola-ventila- 

 tor twenty inches square. The exhalations from fowls are very 

 poisonous, and it is very essential that they have thorough 

 ventilation. At the same, time we must not expose the flock 

 to a direct draught of air. Fowls, left to themselves, will not 

 stand in a draught, and, when compelled to, they take cold as 

 easily as does the human family. 



A window on the south side of the laying-room, six feet long 

 and four feet wide, the sill of which comes down to within 

 one foot of the floor, will warm and light the room, and keep 

 the gravel dry, which will help in the work of deodorizing the 

 droppings. Construct a platform twenty inches from the 

 floor, twenty-two inches wide, around the walls of the room. 

 One foot above the same, place the roost, which should be two 

 and a half, and, for Asiatics, three inches wide, — the corners 

 rounded of. Under the platform construct the nests by means 

 of a portable frame that will be fourteen inches deep, the front 

 made of two strips five inches wide, and a door nine inches 

 wide, which is to be let down to gather the eggs. This will 

 give a passage-way of eight inches in the rear, thus making 

 smooth work in front and giving seclusion to the nests, — the 

 same being easily removed to cleanse them. Avoid all per- 

 manent or box-made nests, which become harbors for lice. 

 Avoid, also, the old plan of an inclined plane for roosts, for all 

 the fowls will strive to occupy the highest perch, and many a 

 fight and fall will be the result, which will vastly increase the 

 list of casualties, while the low and level plan saves many from 

 lameness and internal injury ; for while a hen will walk up to 

 her perch, if she has the chance she will iuvariably fly down. 

 Roosting low makes them less breachy ; even the smaller breeds, 

 if reared on low perches, will not require a fence more than 

 four and a half to five feet hteh to fence them in. The floor of 

 the house should be kept covered three to four inches deep 

 with a coarse-fine gravel, not so fine as to be called sand, 

 yet having a loam mixture in it. This will deodorize all the 

 filth and stench — the bane of the poultry-house. 



The floor should be raked over at least three times each week 

 (if it cannot be done daily), and all surface filth, with the 

 droppings from the platforms, removed, and the whole replaced 



