84 POULTRY FEEDIXU AND FATTENING 



Cooping and Care — In fattening put each bird in 

 a stall by itself, as shown in Figure 9. Several can 

 be put together and good results obtained, but event- 

 ually one will learn that it is much more satisfactory 

 to have each bird in a stall by itself. Do not build the 

 coops stationary, but of a size easy to handle, for when 

 stationary it requires too much time to whitewash, 

 which should be done after each lot is taken out. The 

 best and cheapest coop is made of laths nailed on to 

 a frame, being four feet long, seventeen inches high, 

 eighteen inches wide. On the bottom nail two or three 

 laths, leaving a space of one inch between laths. This 

 will leave a space both back and front of bottom for 

 droppings to go through, and so keep the coop clean. 

 This space must be left both back and front of the 

 bottom, as a bird will turn around so long as it can. 

 get its head up. These coops can be set up from the 

 floor and the droppings scraped up from the floor. But 

 if space is to be economized, pieces a little longer than 

 the hight of the coop should be nailed on to the four 

 corners to serve as legs. Then a tray can be put under 

 each coop and coops put on top of each other three or 

 four high. The coop will keep clean, and by cleaning 

 the trays out every two or three days, the air in the 

 room will keep sweet. Gypsum or land plaster is a 

 good disinfectant, and it is well to sprinkle the bottom 

 of the trays with it after they have been cleaned out. 

 To whitewash make a trough a little larger than the 

 coop, put about ten inches of whitewash in it. Put 

 in coop, turn over, and the job is done. 



How to Feed — ^Wheel the cramming machine up 

 to the coop in which are the birds to be fed. Take the 

 bird in the left hand, holding its feet and flight feathers 

 of the wings in the same hand, stretch out the neck 

 and push onto the feed tube of cramming machine, 

 being sure end of tube is in crop. Keep the fingers of 



