RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



inside and out. Always remember that the labor is the most 

 expensive part of the poultry business. Now is the time for 

 forethought and caution — save all the steps, all the work you 

 can. You will never suffer from want of exercise, if your 

 fowls do. I never knew a case of gout in a man in the poultry 

 business in my life. It is well, also, when arranging a poultry 

 plant, to make provision for future contingencies, so that 

 should one in the course of time and experience wish to 

 increase his plant and the size of his buildings longitudinally 

 he will have plenty of room to do it, by simply moving the 

 •end of his building out as far as he wishes and filling in 

 between. I was obliged to do this several times in the course 

 of my experience, and finally built a double brooding house 

 250 feet long by 16 feet wide. 



One important point in erecting poultry buildings is the 

 •difficulty in building them. 



Warm, Cheap, and Rat-proof 



Formerly I built stone foundations on which were placed 

 the buildings, cementing the stone work to the sill carefully 

 inside and out. This proved in the end not only an expensive 

 but a very unsatisfactory arrangement, for cement it as one 

 "would the action of the frost would always part the sill from 

 the foundation and admit the cold air from all around just 

 where it should be kept warm. I have since hit upon a plan 

 which has not only met the case but is compartively inex- 

 pensive. Place posts, with one square side to them, about 

 four feet apart, on which place the 2x4 inch sill. Set these 

 posts in the ground so that the tops rise but one inch above 

 the surface, with the flat side exactly horizontal and perpen- 

 dicular to the inside of the sill. Then sink a hemlock board 

 twelve or fourteen inches wide into the ground inside of the 

 building, and immediately in front of the two-inch sill, until 

 the upper edge is flush with the upper side of the sill, nailing 

 it firmly thereto, filling up inside nearly to a level of the 

 top of the sill. This gives a warm, cheap foundation on which 

 the frost does not act. Hemlock, too, seems to have an affinity 

 for moisture and will last in that condition from eight to ten 

 years, when it can be easily renewed. This arrangement is 

 also comparatively rat-proof, as a hemlock board is a rat's 

 aversion. It does not agree with their teeth. . They cannot 

 possibly dig under during the frozen months of the year, 

 and as it affords them no concealment they do not care to, 

 during the warm season. 



The Outside Plan of a Breeding and Brooding House 

 with the exception of a little more glass in the latter, should 



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