Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — THE POULTRY-YARD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE POULTRY-YARD.

A Plan lor Winter Egg*. A secret of winter egg production is warm quarters for the fowls, writes A. R. Stuyvesant, in Farm and Home. A friend who always has quantities of eggs when they bring 35 cents to 40 cents per dozen, has a novel place for his hens’ bed roonu It is in the side of a haymow, which keeps the birds warm all winter. To take advantage of such accommoda; tions the space must be built in the side of the hay .before the hay is put in. Built the size of a cord of wood, 4x4 and 8 feet long, it will nicely quarter twenty to twenty-five hens. The room for fowls should join the mow on the south or west, and the sleeping compartments open from it under the hay as shown. This will keep off all severe winds and dangerous drafts. The cut represents the side of the room next the hay. The two doors thrown open expose the entire roosting room, which, is thus easily cleaned. Gauze covers an aperture at the top of one door for ventilation (A) warm nights and can

be closed tightly when it is cold and windy. The main ventilator extends nearly to the floor inside and above the doors without (B). If one desires to have the hens lay beneath the roosts In prepared boxes, the little slide door (C) may be left open days and the dark quarters will please the fowls for thb purpose.

Treatment for Lice. The best fumigation known to us la as follows: Take a small furnace, or stove, or iron kettle, into which place a pound or two of crude roll sulphur, broken up. Close the doors and windo ws(durl ng the absence of the fowla in the forenoon) and set the contents of the vessel on fire in the center o 1 the floor. Shut'the house up tight and leave it to smoke a couple ol hours. Then open all the window* and doors for thorough ventilation. If a poultry house is infested with red mites or red spider lice, we suggest the use of kerosene; as it is said that kills them at once. As theii haunts are the cracks and crevices of the roostlng-poles, the sides of the buildings, nest boxes, etc., they are easily destroyed. Where they are numerous, go over the whole inside of the building with hot whitewash, using it quite freely, so as to fill every crack and crevice. Clean out and whitewash the nest boxes, clean up the flooy and put in fresh sand.-. Kansas Farmer.