2J2 Poultry- YARD Fittings. [aug., 



POULTRY-YARD FITTINGS. 



The necessary fittings of the poultry house and yard are 

 briefly : — Roosts or perches, nest boxes, feeding troughs, 

 watering vessels, boxes to contain grit, shells, &c., and dust 

 boxes. The roosts must be moveable ; this is essential, for 

 if the roost is a fixture the difficulty of cleaning the house is 

 increased, and is liable to be neglected in the busy seasons, 

 when cleanliness is most necessary. The old ladder-shaped 

 roost is now but little used, although it has some good 

 and some bad points. Its principal fault is that the fowls 

 crowd too much on the top perch, and in trying to find a place 

 there the stronger birds hustle the weaker ones off the perch, 

 and the latter may be hurt by falling to the ground. More- 

 over, the fowls may injure themselves by flying off the high 

 perches when leaving the roost, and this is a fruitful cause of 

 bumble-foot and similar affections. The style of roost which 

 has superseded the ladder-shaped one consists of a series of 

 perches laid level at a height of about two feet from the ground, 

 so that they will not interfere with the ground room of the 

 house. For the ordinary flock of thirty or forty hens, two or 

 three perches extending from one wall of the house to the other, 

 at the side farthest from the door, are sufficient to accommodate 

 that number of birds, as it is not necessary to give more than 

 ten or twelve inches of perch to each fowl. But plenty of air 

 space must be allowed, and for fowls of average size the regu- 

 lation space recommended is ten cubic feet to each bird. Con- 

 sequently the perches should not occupy the whole of the house, 

 and the portion which is nearest the door may be utilized for 

 some other purpose. One way of keeping a tidy house and 

 preventing the hens from scratching the litter and manure all 

 over the floor is to keep the roosts at the back of the house, and 

 to divide that part of the floor which is under them from the 

 front portion by placing a board on its edge across the floor. 

 The front part of the floor can then be covered to a depth of 

 four or five inches with light short litter, and can be used as a 

 scratching shed, and the nest boxes, grit boxes, &c., can be 

 placed here. Some farmers who divide the house in this way 

 put a load or two of sand in the front portion, and then throw 



