THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



brick, nine inches thick, and hollow; they 

 should be at least twelve feet high, so that the 

 roof can project some four feet, forming a shed 

 for protecting the fowls from the storm. The 

 front of the shed may be formed of lath or any 

 other kind of wood, in a rustic manner, form- 

 ing a trellis on which vines might be trained, 

 which would add much to its appearance ; or it 

 may be inclosed with glass, and grapes grown 

 on the rafters ; or nests may be placed in these 

 sheds for sitting hens. 



We may observe here, that whichever plan is 

 adopted, the cheapest and warmest materials of 

 which to construct the house are a wood frame 

 and a weather-boarding, either of clap-boards 

 or ceiled up and down with narrow battens. It 

 should be ceiled within with hemlock boards, 

 tongued and grooved, and laid crosswise, and 

 filled in between the timbers with spent tan, or 

 any other dry substance, well rammed or pack- 

 ed in. Or the spaces between the posts may 

 be filled in with brick and a thin coat of plaster. 

 In either case, whether of brick or wood, it should 

 be whitewashed with lime. 



The roof should also be ceiled with boards 

 and filled in with tan, which would render it 

 cooler in summer and warmer in winter, and it 

 would have many advantages, especially as af- 

 fording easy access to the lime-brush, an opera- 

 tion that should never be neglected four or five 

 times in the year. Those who have insisted on 

 this cleansing process, know well how amply the 

 trouble is paid by the increased comfort and 

 consequent health of their stock. It is also cer- 

 tain death to vermin. 



For the floor, we regard bricks as the worst 

 of all materials ; they retain moisture, whether 

 atmospheric or arising from indifferent drain- 

 age ; and thus the temperature is kept low when 

 warmth is most essential, and disease too often 

 follows, especially cramps in the feet and legs. 

 Let the floor be of whatever materials, it should 

 be kept covered with fine sand or gravel, and 

 removed often. 



The interior may be finished to accommo- 

 date the kind of stock intended to be kept. If 

 for the large Asiatic fowls, the perches should 

 be low, or the floor of their roosting-room may 

 be covered with straw ; in which case it should 



be cleansed or the straw changed daily. In the 

 following ground plan A, A are roosting-houses, 

 laying-nests, etc. 



It is not essential to success that the nests 

 should be upon the ground, though for the Asi- 

 atic fowls we should recommend it, in con- 

 formity with the general observation, that hens 

 when left to themselves usually do so. But 

 whether on the ground or raised somewhat above 

 it, it should be clean and somewhat secluded. 



The cupola is intended for a pigeon-house. 

 The holes by which they enter should not be 

 too large or too numerous, and should have a 

 shelf at the entrance. The upper tier should 

 have a roof or weather-boarding over them to 

 keep out the wet. An objection to a wooden 

 pigeon-house is, that they are too cold in winter 

 and too hot in summer; but this may be in a 

 great measure prevented by making the wood 

 double, with a space of two or three inches be- 

 tween, which will form a non-conductor of heat. 



The interior must have cells for nests ; and 

 these may be made by putting in partitions ten 

 inches apart and one foot long. Across the 

 front of each nest there should be a board two 

 inches wide, sliding up and down in a groove 

 to prevent the young ones from falling out, as 

 they are liable to ; by having this board mov- 

 able, the nests may be cleaned out occasionally. 

 Care should be taken to guard against rats. 



