Housing 121 



from draught and where they have plenty of fresh air and 

 sunshine. 



Draughts are the great trouble. They are the greatest 

 breeders of roup that exist. They are the cause of 99 out 

 of every 100 cases of roup. 



The reason that draughts are not suspected as being the 

 cause of roup more than they are is because poultry papers 

 are continually telling the public that a house with three 

 air-tight sides and roof is draught-proof. When you have 

 such a house you think it is draught-proof, and that the roup 

 when it appears is caused from something else. Here you 

 are again in danger of failure from not being on the right 

 track, just as you are when you do not understand the varia- 

 tions in grain. Your whole trouble is that you do not suspect 

 the cause. It is such a small thing that you cannot see it. 

 Here, again, is the importance of little things shown. If it 

 were a big thing, we all could see it, but it often requires a 

 great deal of time and patience to find the draught. 



One reason a draught is so hard to find is that it may 

 exist only on windy days or when the wind is coming from 

 a certain direction and strikes the building at a certain angle. 

 Even though there be no opening in the building except the 

 one a few inches in size through which the hens pass in and 

 out, and an opening on the other side for ventilation, or 

 if the house is made of boards and battens, the wind, striking 

 the front opening at a particular angle, will cause a suction 

 which will bring the air down through the ventilator between 

 the cracks of the boards and battens and out of the opening 

 used by the chicks, thus causing a draught. 



This experience happened to me not long ago and is 

 described on another page. This is one of the worst kind 

 of draughts, as it is the least suspected, and in that fact lies 

 its danger. 



