66 METHODS OF POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 



This building was used through five winters with 50 hens in 

 it. The birds laid as well as the others in the large warmed 

 house ; their combs were red and their plumage bright, and they 

 gave every evidence of perfect health and vigor. While they 

 were on the roosts they were warm. They came down to their 

 breakfasts and spent the day in the open air. Such treatment 

 gives vigor and snap to the human being, and it seems to work 

 equally well with the hen. 



This house was given the name of the "pioneer" house. 



THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ROOSTING CLOSET. 



When the curtain-front house was first devised it was thought 

 essential to provide such a roosting closet as described above 

 to conserve the body heat of the birds during the cold nights 

 when the temperature might go well below zero. Experience 

 has shown, however, that this was a mistake. Actual test shows 

 that the roosting closet is of no advantage, even in such a severe 

 climate as that of Orono. On the contrary the birds certainly 

 thrive better without the roost curtain than with it. It has been 

 a general observation among users of the curtain front type of 

 house that when the roost curtains are used the birds are par- 

 ticularly susceptible to colds. It is not hard to understand why 

 this should be so. The air in a roosting closet when it is opened 

 in the morning is plainly bad. The fact that it is warm in no 

 way ofifsets physiologically the evils of its lack of oxygen and 

 excess of carbon dioxide, ammoniacal vapors and other exhala- 

 tions from the bodies of the birds. 



For some time past it has been felt that the roosting closet 

 was at least unnecessary, if not in fact a positive evil. Conse- 

 quently the time of beginning to close the roost curtain in the 

 fall has been each year longer delayed. Finally in the fall of 

 1910 it was decided not to use these curtains at all during the 

 winter. Consequently they were taken out of the houses, or 

 spiked to the roof as the case might be. The winter of 1910-11 

 was a severe one. On several occasions the temperature 

 dropped to 30 degrees below zero. Yet during this winter the 

 mortality was exceptionally low and the egg production excep- 

 tionally high. The roost curtain will not again be used at this 

 Station. 



