Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1875 — The Better Way to Make Chicken Boosts. [ARTICLE]

The Better Way to Make Chicken Boosts.

The way many roosts are made is exceedingly objectionable, as the fowls have difficulty in getting on the rear poles when all the positions 'near the front part are occupied. Roosts for heavy fowls should be so arranged and constructed that they can step on and ofl without danger of falling and injuring themselves. Besides this many roosts are arranged in such a manner that one cannot move around in the hennery unless he drops on his knees beneath the fowls. The past season I have been constructing a lien-roost on a new plan, which pleases me better than any other style of roosts I have ever met with. On one side of the hennery, which is about twelve feet in length, there are three shelves, twenty inches wide, one above the other, and about twenty inches apart; The back edges of the shelves touch the wall, so that nothing can fall down behind them. About three inches above the middle of each shelf a roosting pole extends their entire length. The ends of the poles are so supported that they can be removed without difficulty 1 . The fowls ascend to their roosts by walking up an inclined road, with numerous cleats nailed on the surface to prevent their feet from slipping. This inclined board is placed parallel with the shelves, close to the front edges, so that as a hen ascends she can step on the first shelf or ascend to the next or to the top roost. The shelves prevent any droppings from falling on the fowls below them. More than this, the roosts occupy but little room, which is so admirably appropriated that one can 6nter the hennery at night and get a desirable view of every 1 fowl as they 1 are arranged in regular rows- within convenient reach. Another excellent advantage is, all the droppings are received by the shelves, so that the accumulations may be collected with a shovel. Twice every week the poles are removed and the shelves are scraped clean. During the past two months the accumulations collected from •the shelves filled a barrel. Such fertilizing material is worth more per hundred pounds than the best Peruvian guano that farmers can obtain after it has been adulterated for market. By June next there will be a sufficient quantity of choice manure to apply to one acre of growing corn. The roosting poles are about four inches in diameter. Fov/ls prefer a large to a small pole for a roost. In lieu of round poles scantlings, three or four inches square, would make excellent roosts. Fowls are not half as liable to fall ofl' the roost at night if the poles are broad or flat as when the roosts are no larger than a broom-handle. When fowls are allowed to roost here and there they will smear everything with offensive droppings, and one cannot collect a barrel of the valuable accumulations during the entire year.— N. Y. Herald.