POULTRY HOUSES 11 



Floor Space for Fowls. The best results are obtained 

 in houses where there is at least 4 sq. ft. of floor space 

 for each fowl. One square foot less will answer for the 

 Mediterranean varieties, provided the house is kept per- 

 fectly clean; an extra square foot should be provided 

 for the American and English varieties, because they are 

 larger and require more space both for roosting and 

 scratching than the Mediterranean varieties, with the 

 exception of the Minorcas, which will need fully as much 

 space as any of the American varieties. 



Poultry-House Floors and Their Construction. For 

 poultry buildings an earth floor is satisfactory when it 

 can be kept dry and sanitary. For general purposes, the 

 board floor is better and is the cheapest one that can be 

 laid. About the only objections that can be lodged against 

 it are that perfect dryness is not always assured and that 

 rodents can gnaw through it. The best floor, although 

 the most expensive, is the cement floor, because it insures 

 perfect dryness, keeps rodents from digging through, and 

 can easily be kept -in a sanitary condition. A cement 

 floor may be cold and rough for the feet, but these 

 objections can be overcome, if desired, by laying a board 

 on top of the cement. 



The floors of poultry buildings should be above the 

 ground level. For the ground floor, the most satisfactory 

 way is to lay a foundation of stone, brick, or cement 

 6 in. high all around, fill it in with dry earth, and pack 

 it down solid. 



Board floors should be laid on 2"X4" joists and the 

 spaces between them should be packed with any kind of 

 filling. If the joists are set in a bed of concrete and 

 concrete is filled in between them level with the top, a 

 perfectly dry floor and the exclusion of rodents will be 

 assured. When the board floor is laid a coating of hot tar 

 should be spread on top of the concrete and covered with 

 a layer of tar paper and on top of this another layer of 

 hot tar. Such preparation makes a perfect underlay for 

 a board floor. The flooring, which should be of grooved 

 boards, should be laid on the tar while it is warm and 



