Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1912 — POULTRY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POULTRY

PROPER HOUSING OF POULTRY, r Chief Requisites of Building Are Dryness, Perfect Ventilation and Plenty of Sunlight.

(By N. R. GILBERT.)

Frequently poultry keepers complain bitterly of the failure of their fowls to show profit, when jhe whole fault lies in defective housing. Poultry lead an entirely artificial life when they live penned in a run, or even" when at liberty and provided with a sleeping-house—that is to say they have their, food provided them aind do not sleep in the trees, as their natural instinct would teach them. It is simply the difference between sleeping in a house and sleeping in trees that upsets them. When they do the latter/they may not lay well but they keep their health. More than half the diseases 1 modern fowls ~suffeir are caused primarily by this defective housing. , , _■* ■ The chief requisites of a house are that it should be weather-proof, so that whatever the inclemency of the season,-the fowls keep dry. It must be provided with ample Ventilation and should have a sunny aspect. The sun is life to all animals, and the more fowls get of it, the better. Yet, sometimes, fowl - houses are placed in dark, secluded corners, and built to admit hardly any light. A

A colony-house that supplies plenty of fresh air to the chicks. Six feet long, two feet six inches wide, two feet four inches high in front, eighteen inches high in the back. poultry-housq should always, if possible, be placed on ground sloping slightly away from it, then in the wet weather the rain drains away. If the ground is quite level the rain off the roof shows a tendency to remain in the form of puddles. A trench should be dug to carry it away, or better still, there should be a spout on the roof to carry the wet away down to a down spout connected ■with a surface drain.

It is important that the ground around the house, as well as the house itself, be kept dry, as fowls never do well on wet land. Special attention should be paid to the roof. The eaves should overlap some three inches, and it is all the better if built of stouter wood than the walls. There is no necessity to cover the roof with, felt, provided it receives a good dressing of tar at first and a further coat each year. On no account make the roof of corrugated zinc. 1 Such a house will be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. If the poultry-keeper has some sheets of this very useful article —for such it certainly is—make a roof of thin boards put the zinc on top. For the floor, the earth needs to be beaten down quite hard and a dressing of some inches of sand or light dry earth put. on top. If the soil is clayey, it is bette«- to have a w r ooden floor, for it must be dry. In any case, observe scrupulous cleanliness, removing all droppings once a week and taking care there is never any smell. Ventilation is a subject better understood now than formerly. We indulge in more of it for ourselves and more for the fowls. Yet for them as for ourselves, we must not forget that the thing can be overdone and that a good deal depends upon the location, of the house and the outside temperature.