Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1911 — PROPER HOUSE FOR POULTRY [ARTICLE]

PROPER HOUSE FOR POULTRY

Mistaken Idea to Think That Hens Do Not Lay in Winter Because Their Coop Is Not Warm. Very often I. hear persons say. “Our hens don’t lay In the winter because our hen house is not warm enough.” I have kept hens, lots of them, for 25 years, and kept them for eggs and I got the eggs, too, and I never kept them in a warm house either. I will tell you what I depend upon to keep the hens warm in winter and that is good heavy feathering (I have the Rhode Island Reds and there is no breed that has a better coat of Teath’ers for winter than this one), says i writer in the Successful Farmer. Rich blood and active exercise keen it In circulation. Yes, I used to try to make my hen houses warm, but only succeeded in introducing a condition which, if followed up, looked to me as though they would be worse than the cold.

I don’t wish to have it understood that my houses are open with cracks and-knot holes, for they are not; every 'part is made tight except at the windows where tHe muslin curtain is in. The question is not how warm you can make your poultry bouse, but how dry you can make it. There is no danger in having it too dry. When yon have built a ben house with two thicknesses of boards and paper between, tight doors and windows and a good roof and lots of glass on the south side, you have what some call a warm house, but you have what I call a damp one. that is if you have very many hens in it, and it be damp lust as long as you keep it tight and close and allow no ventilation. A hen will stand a lot of cold and long, too. If she is in a dry house.