190 



HOUSING 



Some poultry houses have small roosting pens of special 

 design with poles or perches resting across two sawhorses. 

 The droppings thus fall directly on the ground, and are 

 occasionally covered with loam to keep them dry. The 

 perches are used by the birds to roost on at night. Fowls 

 are so formed that they need a small, round or nearly round 

 stick about which to lock their feet when sleeping. Branches 

 of trees or saplings, two or three inches in diameter and 

 ten feet or more in length, make good perches. If these 

 are lacking, two by two or two by three hemlock sticks will 



f?oof^ 



Bach- 

 Wall- 



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-Perc/T support in normal 

 position Jbr roosting 



Dropping Board 



FlQ. 104.^The best form of perches. They are made in sections and hinged to the 



back wall. 



be satisfactory, set on edge, the upper edges rounded. Each 

 perch may be a unit in itself, in which case it is usually set 

 on a cleat or in a groove made especially for that purpose. 

 An ideal way is to make the perches in sections, each section 

 hinged to the back wall, and supported in front by legs eight 

 or ten inches long. This raises the perches high enough above 

 the dropping boards for easy cleaning (Fig. 104). There 

 should be plenty of perches in the house, in order to prevent 

 crowding, eight to ten inches of perch room per bird being 

 about right. The perches should be about fourteen inches 

 apart, to keep the birds from soiling each others' plumage. 



