POULTRY-HOUSE FITTINGS 



165 



a very convenient size for use in small flocks. One such trough 

 should be allowed for each eight to twelve hens or ducks. On some 

 of the duck farms, where feeding and watering is done in the yards, 

 from a track, the troughs are made 18 to 20 inches wide and 5 or 

 6 feet long, and the feed is thrown into them from the car. When 

 hopper feeding was less general, many poultrymen made troughs 

 with high ends and a board on edge between, to prevent birds 

 getting into the trough. For very small chicks some poultry 

 keepers use shallow pans of galvanized iron, about 3 inches wide 

 and 8 inches long, with sides J-inch high. 



Feed hoppers. Many styles of hoppers have been designed, to 

 hold a store of food and feed it down into an attached box as fast 

 as the birds consume it. They are made in 

 all sizes, from the small hopper, with a 

 capacity of a few quarts, to the large hopper, 

 with a capacity of one hundred pounds or 

 more. They are used for both whole and 

 cracked grains, and for dry ground feeds. 

 Small hoppers are also used for shell, char- 

 coal, etc. The movement of the grain from 

 the hopper to the feeding box beneath is 

 designed to be automatic, the weight of the 

 material in the hopper carrying it down 

 through the opening at the bottom as food 

 is removed from the box. Most hoppers 

 work well except for ground grains, which always clog more or 

 less. To overcome this a patent feeder holds all food in the 

 food box, with a coarse wire screen so suspended that it rests 

 on the ground grain, holding it piled high in the box, opening 

 a larger surface to the birds, and making the food accessible 

 as long as any remains. The other point of trouble in hopper 

 feeders is the waste, through the birds pulling stuff out of the 

 box. To overcome this an inturned edge, or lip, is put on the 

 feeding box. 



The prevention of waste from hopper feeders is not, however, 

 simply a question of preventing the birds from scattering the con- 

 tents of the box. The primary question is the quality of the food. 

 There is nothing gained by retaining in the box the stuff that the 



Fig. 260. Feed hopper in 

 colony house 



