POULTRY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION 
effective in excluding water and varmints—such as 
rats, weasles, etc.—and more serviceable in every 
way than a wall made of stone. A hen-house wall 
need not be more than five or six inches thick. It 
should extend at least half a foot above the ground, 
and need not extend into the ground more than a 
foot, or far enough to prevent heaving by frost. 
There are three kinds of poultry house floors 
in common use at the present time, viz., cement, 
earth, and board. The latter kind is 
scarcely ever employed in modern 
buildings now, and it is very probable that in the 
course of a few more years board floors in poultry 
houses will have become obsolete. However, wood 
is the best material for the construction of floors 
in portable houses and in houses having a space 
underneath them to be utilized as an exercising 
room for the fowls, but it is ridiculous to build the 
kind of a house last mentioned. Where earth 
floors are not desirable, cement may be used almost 
as cheaply as boards, and the floor will certainly 
be much more serviceable and satisfactory. A 
cement floor is easier to keep clean, more nearly rat- 
proof, more durable, and dryer when properly 
made than any other kind of floor. 
A good many successful poultrymen use earth 
(gravel) floors because they are the cheapest. 
Also, fowls like to get on the bare ground when- 
ever possible, and during the winter time indoors 
21 
Floors 
