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houses at the tilling site which contained manure in the state of dry- 

 ness mentioned above, manure remained essentially unaffected. Tilling 

 was resumed the following day if the weather cleared. 



As wet manure loses its moisture content, it breaks into particles. 

 The particle size will be quite large initially, but will continue to 

 decrease as manure dries. When manure becomes powdery dry, particles 

 essentially cease to exist and manure has a texture similar to coarse 

 sand . 



Particle formation hastens the drying process by increasing the 

 manure surface area; it also allows parasitic wasps to more thoroughly 

 search the manure for pupal hosts (Hinton, 1977). Particle formation 

 provides the poultryman with visible evidence that the manure is drying. 

 When to Till 



Tilling should be done during the heat of the day to increase the 

 water evaporation from freshly turned manure. However, if manure is 

 wet, tilling in the morning before egg collecting begins is beneficial 

 as well as tilling several times during the afternoon. All tilling at 

 the tilling site was done between 12 noon and 2 p.m. while the egg 

 gatherers were at lunch. This allowed the entire farm to be tilled 

 non-stop without interfering with the egg pickup. 

 Leave a Dry Base When Poultry Houses are Cleaned Out 



A dry base that the tiller's tines can reach must be left each time 

 manure is removed from poultry houses. Laborers cleaning out poultry 

 houses at the tilling site always removed the dry manure base and some 

 of the sand beneath it. More than one tilling experiment was halted 

 because the tiller's tines could not touch the bottoms of the manure 

 collection areas after the houses were cleaned out. 



