OCR Text |
Show rO GIVE POULTRY ! PROPEyOUSIHG In Building Such as Described the Hens Will Produce Eggs in Quantity. MEANS PROFIT FOR OWNER Plan Does Away With Possible Over supply of Moisture, Which Is Detrimental Det-rimental to the Fowls Reason Rea-son for Division Into Compartments. By WILLIAM A. RADFORD. Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREK OK1 COST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building work on the farm, for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Kditor, Author and Manufacturer, he is. without doubt, the highest authority on all these subjects. Address all inquiries to William A. Radford, Rad-ford, No. IS-l Prairie avenue, Chicago, 111., and only inclose two-cent stamp for reply. Better poultry is noticeable in all lections of the country. Better breeds of poultry demand better houses because well-bred fowls ire trained to produce eggs in great quantity under comfortable surroundings, surround-ings, and it pays to build accordingly. A poultry house 12x22 feet in size is shown in the illustration. It has a good concrete foundation wall that extends up above the surface it drops down through thd roof Poultry Poul-try housed in that manner are never profitable in the winter-time. The hens reserve their egg-laying proclivities until the warm sun in the springtime dissipates the moisture. Then they get busy when eggs are cheap. The object of building a good poultry poul-try house and giving the hens care and attention is to get eggs in the winter-time, when they possess more than ordinary value in the markets. Although eggs may be kept at homo they still possess the market value, because they would cost market pri to buy them. The plan of this poultry house is on the scratching shed order that Is, all of the floor space is intended to be covered with straw eight inches or a foot in depth, so the poultry get exercise exer-cise kicking the straw about for kel nels of grain and seeds that are scat tered in the straw for this purpose. The roosts and droppings board ar suspended above the floor and are made removable, so they may be carried car-ried outdoors for cleaning when necessary. neces-sary. The nest boxes are attached to the underside of the droppings board for the same reason. The nest boxes are turned with the openings towards the back of the house, to keep them dark. Hens have their own ideas about certain things, and a dark nest seems to suit them better than one that is exposed to the full light. Hoppers for charcoal, grit and lime are hung to the sides of the building. Drinking fountains are suspended by wires hanging from the ceiling A partition divides the house into two compartments. This is done for two reasons. The breeding stock in the winter may be shut away by themselves them-selves in the smaller compartment and PfS'vl M3! Bits? ,s'yy.if trap-nested to secure eggs for hatching. hatch-ing. A trap nest in the poultry house compares with a Babcock tester in the dairy. By trap nesting, the hens that lay four or five eggs a week are separated sep-arated from the hens that lay four or five eggs a month. It is not good business busi-ness to incubate eggs laid by a lazy hen. One poultry man is particular about the eggs used for hatching, and the careless poultry man wonders why his neighbor secures plenty of eggs when his own hens refuse to respond to the most elaborate care and reeding. reed-ing. There are many angles to the poultry poul-try business, and this is one of them. Another object ot dividing the house into two compartments is that the smaller division may be used for incubating the eggs that have been so carefully bred A great many poultry poul-try keepers prefer the natural way of hatching, and they like to have a room where the hatching nests may be distributed dis-tributed around the sides and occupied by the sitting hens during the early part of the hatching season. After the chicks are hatched, it necessary they may be kept in this room until old enough to go with the mother hen into a separate coop. of the ground about eighteen inches, and there is a good concrete floor the full size of the house. Such a foundation founda-tion helps to insure against rats and mice and other vermin. Concrete also makes the poultry house dryer and warmer in winter. Above the concrete wall the house is made of studding, boarded outside and covered with building paper and clapboards. clap-boards. Inside of the house the studding stud-ding is covered with building paper and matched narrow ceiling without beading. This ceiling extends up the rafters and then across the cellar beams and down the other slope of the roof. The front of the house is fitted with two good-sized windows and three openings covered with thin muslin, one between the windows and the other two reaching to the ends of the house. The house is all closed up tight at the back and the ends, except for the entrance en-trance doors, and these are made to fit closely to prevent drafts. The two glazed windows admit plenty plen-ty of light, and the muslin openings let in plenty of air without a draft. Poultry Poul-try men worked for many years with devices to properly ventilate poultry houses, without succeeding, until someone hit upon the plan of stretching stretch-ing thin five-cent cotton across an opening in this fashion. The circulation of warm air that applies ap-plies to the ventilation of stables for larger animals does not work the same in a poultry house, for the reason that the body heat of fowls is not sufficient to cause a circulation of air to any noticeable extent. At the same time, ! RQCiOTO 1 I- o jl UHDZH DROPPllHq BOARD U 3CAtck Floor. tig aa fca T-J L L zzLo J poultry to do well require a large amount of fresh air, as much or more in proportion to their size than some other kinds of domestic live stock A muslin front to the poultry house arranged in this way dissipates dampness damp-ness and prevents disease troubles. A poultry house that is closed up tight accumulates considerable moisture. mois-ture. Moisture is a great detriment to poultry The moisture comes from the breath of the birds Sometimes, in baaly constructed houses, moisture comes up from the earth. Occasionally |