12 



POULTRY HOUSES AND FIXTURES 



volved in cleaning and renewing the dirt floor, and in 

 the increased cost of repairs in the building itself. 



The man who is limited in capital is far too liable 

 to make the common mistake of building "makeshift" 

 structures. There are many conditions under which low 

 cost of construction is practical and genuinely economical, 

 but let all cost reductions be carefully considered to make 

 sure that they are genuine economies and not the pound 

 foolishness of penny wisdom. 



FIG. 5 CORRECT WAY TO DRAIN HOUSE SITE ON 

 SLOPING GROUND 



What Materials to Use 



The kind of materials to be used will be decided en- 

 tirely by relative cost, in most cases. Almost any kind 

 of sound lumber can be used to good advantage in the 

 poultry house, though it is well to keep in mind that the 

 labor cost of working soft woods is much less than where 

 hard woods are employed. It does not pay to purchase 

 inferior material where inferiority affects durability, or 

 where it involves serious waste. As a rule, however, 

 cheaper grades of lumber can be used than would be 

 advisable in larger buildings, especially where a substan- 

 tial concrete foundation is provided and where the sides 

 are covered with prepared roofing. 



Second-hand material sometimes can be purchased to 

 good advantage, and many poultrymen are able to pro- 

 vide accommodations for their fowls at comparatively lit- 

 tle expense by utilizing lumber from wrecked buildings, 

 railroad cars, etc. Old railroad ties frequently can be 

 used as sills, and in many similar ways the careful buyer 

 can materially reduce his lumber bill. In making such 

 purchases, however, keep in mind the fact that it costs 

 a good deal more to build houses with second-hand lum- 

 ber than with new lumber that can be purchased to exact 

 size. The expense of getting the lumber separated and 

 sorted, removing nails, sawing to size, and the resultant 

 waste, all should carefully be estimated before buying 

 such material. 



How to Order Lumber 



In planning poultry houses, special attention should 

 be given to the dimensions of lumber as obtainable in or- 

 dinary lumber yards. It would be unwise, for example, 

 to plan a house 15x25 feet, under ordinary conditions, as 

 lumber comes in even lengths and there would be con- 

 siderable waste in cutting timbers to fit these dimensions. 

 A house 16x24 feet will accommodate the same number 

 of hens, and can be built with practically no waste in 

 cutting the framing timbers and boards. Where the 

 dimensions are in odd feet but in short lengths, it is 

 possible to avoid loss by ordering double lengths. For 

 example, in the case of a shed-roof building seven feet 

 high in the front, five feet in the rear, and ten feet wide, 

 fourteen-foot studding should be ordered for the front 

 wall, ten-foot studding for the rear wall, and fourteen- 



foot pieces for the ends, each piece making two studs. 

 The rafters will have to be twelve feet long, though 

 eleven would answer. In this case it would -not pay to 

 order double lengths of twenty-two feet, as the price of 

 timbers per foot, board measure, generally advances with 

 lengths exceeding sixteen feet, and this advance would 

 exceed the saving in waste. 



In the preparation of bills of materials for the plans 

 shown in this book, the particular grade of lumber to 

 . be used is not specified, as much will depend 

 on local markets and the preferences of the 

 builder. For permanent buildings the grade 

 known as No. 1 common will usually be speci- 

 fied for rafters, sills and joists, and No. 2 for 

 studs and plates. For trim lumber and siding 

 No. 1 common will do, unless it is to be cov- 

 ered with roofing paper or shingles, in which 

 case No. 2 common may be used. For sub- 

 floors and roof sheathing No. 2 common will 

 answer. Sheathing boards for the roof should 

 be surfaced on two sides; trim lumber should 

 be No. 1 common and surfaced on four sides. 

 Where the surfacing must be done to 

 order, and at extra cost, it may not be prac- 

 tical to insist on this in all cases, but as it 

 often is desirable to reverse boards in order to cut them 

 to good advantage and to hide minor defects, it is desir- 

 able to have exposed boards surfaced on all sides if pos- 

 sible. Inside walls can be painted or whitewashed at less 

 expense if smooth, and prepared roofing will last longer 

 when laid on a smooth surface. 



Dimensions of the Laying House 

 In planning the laying house, about four square- feet 

 of floor space is required for a hen, where flocks of one 

 hundred or thereabouts are provided for. In mild climates 

 where the hens do not have to be confined to the house 

 for long periods, an allowance of three feet per fowl will 

 prove sufficient. If the flock is quite small, five square 

 feet should be provided, and in the case of breeding stock, 

 six to eight feet per fowl is recommended. 



The height of the front must be proportioned to the 

 depth in order to get sufficient pitch to shed rain, also 

 to admit sunlight to the back part. The latter, however, 

 is not regarded 

 so essential as it 

 was a few years 

 ago, and many 

 practical poultry- 

 men now are 

 building houses 

 16 to 24 feet 

 wide with what 

 is known as a 

 combination roof 

 (see Fig. 23). 

 in which the 

 front is seldom 

 more than about FIG ' "-SQUARING A CORNER 



seven feet high. Obviously, this will not admit sunlight 

 to the back part of the house, even though the openings 

 are carried clear up to the rafters. As an offset to this 

 the practice of installing small windows in the rear wall 

 under the droppings platform is becoming popular (see 

 Fig. 37). Such windows, while they do not admit 

 direct sunlight, make the back part of the house light 

 and more attractive to the fowls. 



The extent to which the sun's rays will be admitted 

 to the poultry house in different seasons of the year, with 



