212 POULTRY CULTURE 



The roosts should either be removable or hinged so they can 

 be raised and hooked up to the ceiling to facilitate cleaning the 

 dropping laoards. The roosts should not be too sharp. 

 A 2 by 4 laid flatwise makes a good roost. 



Do not allow rotten eggs and filth in the nests. Keep them 

 clean and provide with good nesting material, as excelsior or 

 soft straw properly arranged. 



The floor, of the house should be of concrete construction, 

 and should be about 12 inches above the surrounding ground 

 and 10 or 12 inches of cinders or crushed rock used as a base. 

 This gives good drainage, and the floor will always remain 

 practically dry. On the top of these cinders or crushed rock a 

 rough and then a finish coat of cement is made. This entire 

 cement structure should be about 3 or 4 inches thick, so that 

 it will not break down and leave an objectionable crevice in 

 which filth and vermin may collect. If it is not desired to go 

 to the expense of the concrete construction, place on top of the 

 cinders or crushed rock about 1 inch of sand and tamp down 

 thoroughly. 



Water Containers. — ^There are many kinds of water con- 

 tainers; Fig. 90 gives some good illustrations. They are 

 sanitary in their construction. 



A good practical container consists of a metal trough with 

 cross-bars arranged on the top so the birds cannot get their 

 feet in the water. Milk is an excellent food for young and 

 old birds alike. Besides being a stimulant to egg production 

 the sour milk contains lactic acid, which when taken into the 

 digestive tract of the bird forms an unfavorable field for many 

 of the harmful bacteria, like the Bacillus pullorum, causing 

 white diarrhea in chicks, and wards off other forms of diarrhea 

 in young and old alike. The troughs should be washed once 

 a day with a 5 per cexit. carbolic acid solution or some other 

 equally good disinfectant. 



The fronts of the houses should be made open and guarded 

 by chicken netting and provided with muslin curtain on the 

 inside to pull down in zero weather. This makes it necessary 

 to have a window in each end of the house to admit light in 

 these times when the curtain is down. The curtain being 

 porous admits of ventilation. 



