POULTRY EXPERIMENTS. 10/ 



increased number of birds. The wider floor of the elevated 

 closet makes the daily cleaning of the platforms, proportion- 

 ately, a little greater, but not much so, as the roosts are elevated 

 by a single rope pulley. 



Although the cubic feet of air space per bird was the same in 

 the flocks of 50, 100 and 150, the cloth covered fronts of the 

 closets where 100 or 150 roosted were of the same size and it 

 Avas very evident early in the winter that the supply of fresh air 

 to the largest flock was not sufficient. It was not practicable to 

 materially increase the cloth surface and allow more air to filter 

 in, so three openings were made in the upper part of the curtain 

 frame through which better ventilation could be secured. The 

 openings were six inches wide and 30 inches long with wooden 

 shutters provided for them. The shutters were kept entirely 

 open into the outer room, during mild nights, but when high 

 winds prevailed and the temperature fell to 10 or 30 degrees 

 below zero, the openings were partially closed, but never more 

 than half so. 



The walls of the elevated closet are packed with sawdust four 

 inches in thickness, and the curtains fit very closely, leaving very 

 small cracks. The ten ounce duck of which the curtains are 

 made is not oiled, as was the case with those in the original 

 house built by us. The supply of fresh air was mostly admitted 

 through the cloth, while the worn out air passed off through 

 the openings above. B}^ this arrangement the birds were not 

 in drafts or currents or air. Where three roosts are arranged 

 abreast, instead of two, the openings are absolutely essential 

 and for smaller flocks they are convenient during the mild nights, 

 especially towards spring. 



The health of the birds in this flock of 150 in comparison with 

 those in the flock of 100, in like sized pens, was apparently as 

 good. In the pens of 50. 100, and 150 birds, the proportional 

 losses did not materially dift'er, being very small in all pens. 



It is yet too early to draw conclusions from the results as we 

 have only the data of one year from November to June to com- 

 pare. Next year we expect to have seven pens of 50 pullets each 

 with floor space of 4.8 square feet per bird, and two pens of 100 

 birds each, with floor space of 4.8 feet per bird to comprire with 



