SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



the most exercise for the gi'ain fed. As the hen cannot range 

 wide, she must dig deep and the scratching material upon the 

 floors therefore should be deep and frequently renewed to keep 

 it light and clean. 



Fresh air is easy to obtain and costs nothing; yet it is rigidly 

 excluded from some poultry houses where the moisture from 

 the bird's breath, condensing upon the cold walls of the build- 

 ing, keeps the interior damp and the fowls unhealthy and the 

 caretaker condemns the house as unfit, and the birds as deU- 

 cate. But let the windows on the south side be opened wide 

 whenever the temperature outside is not below twenty-five 

 degrees above zero, Fahr., or open less in proportion as the 

 cold increases and the moisture will disappear as fast as it 

 collected, leaving the house dry and comfortable. 



In severely cold weather or when winds drive snow or rain 

 into the house, hght frames filled with cotton cloth may be 

 fitted into the space made by dropping or raising a window a 

 few inches, admitting plenty of air, but preventing a draft. 

 The use of these frames will make it unnecessary to entirely 

 close the house even in the coldest weather. There is but Uttle 

 danger from the cold so long as the birds are at work and ex- 

 ercise not obtained in fresh air loses half its value. 



These are important factors. Feed as carefully and as 

 scientifically as you may, you cannot achieve success without 

 them. 



We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro- 

 duce good results in one yard will not always in another, be- 

 cause of varying conditions. Sufficient information upon the 

 feeding values of all comimercial fbods and their effects upon the 

 birds under various conditions has been published that a little 

 experience and intelligent observation will enable one to com- 

 poimd the ration best adapted for his use. 



The problem of supplying green food in cold weather has 

 been practically eliminated; clover and alfalfa cured green, 

 and mangel wurzels and cabbage may be had throughout the 

 winter and furnish the required elements in an acceptable form. 

 Birds constitutionally strong, provided with the foods and 

 surrounded by the conditions intended for them by nature will 

 produce offspring that will live and thrive. 



FALL AND WINTER WORK 



DISINFECTION AND RENOVATION OF POULTRY 

 BUILDINGS AND RUNS— WHITEWASH, HOW TO 

 MAKE AND APPLY IT— SOWING GRAINS IN 

 RUNS— RAT-PROOF , FLOORS— FALL AND WINTER 

 CARE OF BREEDING AND LAYING STOCK— HOUSE 

 VENTILATION IN COLD WEATHER — IMPORT-^ 

 ANCE OF FRESH AIR— PREVENTION OF DISEASE 



PRINCE T. WOODS, M. D. 



September is a good month in which to iindertake the 

 fall poultry-house cleaning and general disinfection of the en- 

 tire poultry plant. The chickens are or should be well grown, 

 and the buildings and runs are in need of renovating after 

 the hot, hiimid, dogday weather. So far as possible the 

 buildings should all be put in order to make ready for housing 

 the stock in winter quarters during the month of October or 

 early in November. 



A great many of the correspondents who write to the R. 

 P. J. seem very much in doubt as to the simplest and best 

 means of disinfecting or renovating their poultry plants, and the 

 majority of them are inclined to make very difficult work of 



what is a comparatively simple matter. The work must be 

 done thoroughly to be effective but there is nothing mysterious 

 or complex about it. 



FUMIGATING WITH BURNING SULPHUR 



On some plants where there has been contagious disease 

 or where hce and mites have been allowed to multiply in great 

 numbers, it is advisable to thoroughly fumigate the poultry 

 buildings. One of the cheapest and most generally practiced 

 plans is to fumigate with burning sulphur, using either the com- 

 mercial sulphur candles or the common flowers of sulphur, 

 buniing the same in shallow pans. As a rule one sulphur candle 

 or a quarter of a pound will serve to fumigate a room 10 feet 

 square and not over 7 feet high. Fumigation with burning 

 sulphur is one of the most economical and effective proceedings 

 in the work of disinfecting and sweetening poultry houses. 



When fimiigating every living thing must be excluded 

 from the building and all doors and windows tightly closed, 

 and cracks and crevices plugged up. The sulphm- or sulphur 

 candles should be placed in small metal pans which should 

 rest in quantity of moist ashes or earth, and should be so placed 

 that they cannot possibly set fire to the btiilding. A httle 

 blotting paper soaked in a saturate solution of saltpetre, and 

 then thoroughly dried, when used as a wick placed in the center 

 of a Uttle heap of flowers of sulphur will prove an effective mealns 

 of quickly setting fire to the sulphiu-. Simply light the end 

 of the blotting paper and it will soon fire the sulphur. 



After the sulphur is lighted and burning well leave the 

 building and close it up tightly, first making sure that all live 

 animals are out of the building. Leave the house closed for 

 from 12 to 24 hours, then open all doors and windows wide and 

 let the whole building air thoroughly. It should' air out for 

 two or three days before stock is allowed to use it. At this 

 season of the year it wiU, do the birds no harm to roost out 

 of doors in roosting coops, boxes, or in an open shed or even 

 in the trees, though if it is absolutely necessary they could be 

 removed to another building while their quarters are being over- 

 hauled. 



After fumigating remove six to eight inches of the top 

 earth of the floors of the poultry buildings where earth floors are 

 used, and carry this to some portion of the farm remote from 

 the poultry buildings. If wood or cement floors are used re- 

 move all earth, dirt and litter and scrub up with hot water and 

 plenty of yellow soap. Good results will be fond to follow the 

 use of one fluid oimce of oreolin in each three-gallon bucket 

 of wash water. 



WHITEWASH-HOW TO MAKE AND USE IT 



After fumigating and carting out the polluted top earth, 

 dirt and old litter material from the floors, give the interior of 

 the house a thorough whitewashing with good, freshly made 

 whitewash applied if possible while still warm from slaking. 

 A good whitewash for this purpose can be made by slaking 

 quick lime with just a sufficient amount of water to make a 

 thick paste, adding a pint of melted lard or other grease and a 

 cupful of common table salt to each halt bushel of Ume while 

 slaking. This lime paste should be further reduced with water 

 to a consistency of thick cream. One fluid ounce of oreolin may 

 be added to each three-gallon bucketful of whitewash when it 

 is ready to use. Apply with an old broom or coarse brush, 

 slapping it on freely so that it will work well into the cracks. 

 Many poultrymen object to whitewash in the poultry-house 

 because it rubs off. A receipt for a wash that will not "rub" 

 is as follows: One peck of Mme slaked in boiling water and kept 

 just covered by the water while slaking. Strain through coarse 

 cloth. Add two quarts of fine salt dissolved in warm water 



96 



