POUI/TR Y EXPERIMENTS. 1 51 



relsome and there are bullies among' them, at every house, that 

 domineer over their mates during the day, and stand guard at 

 the doors at dark. With such fellows in the way it is difficult 

 getting the underling into the house at shutting up time at night, 

 if they have a chance to skulk under the building. 



When the houses are drawn to the fields, they each contain 

 from 50 to 75 pullets, as they are relieved of their brothers who 

 are taken out and put into the fattening pens a few days previ- 

 ously. If the houses are located near to each other the chickens 

 are liable to collect in some of them at nightfall and neglect 

 others as the season advances, but if the houses are separated 

 from each other by a distance of 100 feet, or thereabouts, the 

 birds keep, for the most part, to their own homes. 



When the houses are drawn to the fields, small yards about 

 12 feet square are made in front of them, in which the birds are 

 confined for a few days, so as to get them acquainted with the 

 new location of their homes, rather than let them go out into the 

 new neighborhood at once, with the liability of their getting 

 confused and lost. 



A wagon load of fine sand is deposited at one end of each 

 house on the ground, and 2 or 3 shovelfuls of it are spread on 

 the floor each day as soon as the houses are cleaned out. 



There is nothing in the houses on which the young things can 

 roost and they all have to sit on the floor until their breast bones 

 are hard enough so that they will not become crooked by press- 

 ing on the roosts while the birds are young and s@ft. Some- 

 times sitting on the floor will cause the breast bones of fast 

 growing, fleshy chickens to crook. This condition may be pre- 

 vented by bedding the houses with a little straw or chaff. 



The daily cleanings from the floor are put into barrels which 

 stand at the ends of the buildings, out of door, and as often as 

 necessary the barrels are drawn to the fields, emptied of their 

 contents, and returned for use again. Care is exercised that none 

 of the floor cleanings are spilled near the houses to contaminate 

 the ground and make it unsanitary. A rain storm or consider- 

 able shower will cause the partially filled barrels of manure to 

 ferment and the odor from it is very strong and disagreeable. 

 Whenever this occurs the barrels should be emptied without 

 delay. We know that mites breed and multiply in fermenting 



poultry voidings, and we have much reason for believing that 



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