POULTRY-HOUSE FITTINGS 157 



Material and form. Roosts are usually made of 2 x 3 or 2 x 4 

 inch scantling placed with a wide surface up. Occasionally roosts 

 are used with the upper surface as narrow as two inches. ^ The 

 upper surface is sometimes rounded, the idea being to give it the 

 conformation of the branch of a tree. There is no discernible ad- 

 vantage to the birds in this. The chief gain in smoothing the 

 scantling used for roosts is that rough places in undressed lumber 

 afford resting places for red mites, and planing removes these. The 

 advantage of this, however, is not as great as it appears ; for if the 

 mites are present, it is much easier to destroy them on the roosts 

 than about their supports and in adjoining crevices. 



Supports. When no droppings boards are used, roosts are usually 

 cut the exact length of the space that they occupy, and supported 

 at the ends by strips screwed or nailed to the wall. Roosts without 

 droppings boards are placed from 18 inches to 3 feet from the 

 floor (usually from 2 to 2^ feet) and all on the same level. Except 

 for the very light breeds it is not advisable to place them higher, 

 even if the height of the house admits of doing so. For guineas, 

 pheasants, turkeys, and peafowl kept under cover, the roosts may 

 be placed higher. All of these birds prefer the open, but some 

 suppose that they are better satisfied indoors when roosts are 4 

 or 5 feet from the floor. In fixing the height of the roost from 

 the floor the effect on the bird oi jumping or falling from the roost 

 needs consideration rather than the ability of the bird to fly up to 

 it. Very few birds are injured by their own efforts to fly to a roost 

 too high for them. Many are injured, and all are liable to injury, 

 from jumping from roosts, or falling from them when crowded off 



1 The theory of the advocates of narrow roosts is that the narrow roost fits the 

 foot of the bird better than the wide one, and allows the claws to grasp the roost, 

 as is natural when the bird sits on a perch. This adaptation of the perch to the 

 foot is plainly more characteristic of birds of the air than of land birds. Water- 

 "fowl, with few exceptions, do not perch. It cannot be observed that domestic 

 birds which perch prefer narrow to wide, or rounded to flat, perches, or that there 

 is any disadvantage in the use of wide roosts. On the contrary, young land birds 

 usually begin to roost on perches relatively wider than the widest ever used for 

 adult fowls. If fowls are slow about beginning to roost, one of the common 

 methods of teaching them is to put a wide board (a platform for them) a few 

 inches above the floor and close to the wall, and, when they have accustomed 

 themselves to sleep on this, to substitute first a roost six or eight inches wide, 

 and then one of regulation width. 



