12 . OPEN-AIR POULTRY HOUSES 



locking their poultry "in a stifling lair," away from fresh air and 

 lacking in sunlight; and then they wonder why poultry disease is 

 common and fowls waste and die. 



Nature never intended that fowls should be housed at all, but for 

 our own protection and convenience we find it necessary to house 

 them in some fashion. When fowls roosted in sheltering evergreen 

 trees entirely out of doors they rarely became diseased, but also 

 rarely laid eggs in winter, and they were easy prey for all two and 

 four-iegged thieves. Closed houses were the other extreme and the 

 winter egg yield was increased, but with close housing came neglect 

 of ventilation, or the careless introduction of cold drafts into a 

 house full of confined stale or foul air, and this brought about 

 debility, disease and death. 



Fowls wear their outdoor clothing the year 'round and change it 

 only at moulting time. Normally they moult in time to have a 

 heavy coat of warm plumage before severe cold weather sets in. 

 This coat is worn night and day; there are no outer garments to 

 be laid aside on going indoors if the house is warm and close. The 

 birds cannot open doors or windows at will and the attendant is 

 always at a loss to know how to operate windows and ventilators 

 and usuallv ends by leaving them closed. A closed house that has 

 no heat is usually too warm on a sunny day and too cold and chill 

 on cloudy days or at night. The cold is of the damp, chilling, 

 penetrating sort that cuts to the very marrow. A closed house with 

 heat is too warm and close at all times for idnlt fowls. 



We all know the difference between working in an open shed in 

 winter and working in a cold, tightly closed building. The open 

 shed is by far the most comfortable, for the cold is "drier," the air 

 is purer and more wholesome, and there is none of the depressing 

 effect of the cold and chilling, stale, damp air. Por the same rea- 

 sons the open-front house is more comfortable for poultry than a 

 closed house. 



Admitting that the open-front house is more comfortable than 

 a closed one, some poultrymen are still afraid to use it without 

 curtains for fear of frosted combs and that storms will drive snow 

 and rain into the building. These fears are not sustained by the 

 facts shown in actual experience. Where cold, driving storms pre- 

 vail, if the house is made tight as to roof, rear and side walls, if 

 the open front is covered with |-inch mesh galvanized wire net- 

 ting, and if the house is made sufficiently deep in proportion to the 

 expanse of open front, storms will not drive in to any troublesome 

 extent; there will be no danger of frosted combs under all ordinary 

 conditions, and at all times less danger than in a closed house ; and 



