Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1919 — HINTS FOR POULTRY [ARTICLE]

HINTS FOR POULTRY

Tenants and other persons desiring a temporary shelter for poultry would do well to consider a straw shed house, according to T. S. Townsley of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture. Such a house is very simple to make and will serve as excellent quarters for poultry during at least one winter. If a supporting frame is built before thrashing time it is no extra trouble to blow the straw from the thrashing machine over and around this frame to form a shed completely closed in with straw on all sides excepting the south. A supporting frame can be easily made by setting a post for each corner of the proposed shed and placing across tbe top of these posts heavy poles to form the supports for the framework of rails, boards or light poles, which will hold up the straw. After the straw has been thrown over this frame a front such as is used on any modern poultry house can be built on the south side. This front should Include some open space and some windows to provide veijiilation and furnish light. The inside or the house may be equipped with dropping boards, roosts and nests, just the same as any other poultry house. A straw shed house of this type 20 feet square on a farm near St. Peters, Mo., furnished shelter for 125 hens. These birds came through without a frozen comb and laid all winter. If such a house becomes infested with mites during warm weather the birds can be allowed to roost outside during the summer months and a new house can be built each thrashing time.