[XLVI]
POULTRY HOUSES
There are a hundred ways of raising chickens, and ninety of them are wrong.
This is not a treatise on poultry raising, for there are many elements which enter into the problem—incubation, brooding, feeding, etc. But assuming that one of the main points aimed at is the production of eggs in winter, when they are scarce and expensive, the housing of chickens is admitted by poultry raisers to be one of the first considerations.
The house should be sixteen feet deep, should face south, and no glass should be used in its construction. A window nine or ten feet long by two and a half feet high placed four feet above the ground is recommended, and it should be covered with netting or chicken wire on the outside, but left open all day, even in zero weather. It is closed at night, by a screen of canvas or duck fastened to a light wooden frame. The frame is hinged at the top, and hooked up to the ceiling during the day.
The following description is taken from the experience of several poultry men who have been successful, and have made money by selling eggs.
The principle of this construction is that ventilation is a prime necessity, and that dampness is the one thing to be avoided. With these objects attained, chickens will stand almost any amount of cold, and with proper feeding and the strictest cleanliness, egg production will continue throughout the winter.
Some successful men insist on a wooden floor, others recommend one of gravel ten inches deep. The construction given here calls for the gravel floor on the ground level.
Many recommend a litter of straw ten inches or more deep on the gravel. The morning meal is thrown on this litter so that the chickens are forced to scratch for their breakfast, getting the blood in circulation by this early morning exercise.
As the method of building this house is typical of many outdoor structures, it will be taken up in detail. It would make an excellent work shop or cabin, with a few modifications, such as a floor of boards, and the addition of a few windows. Before it is finished the builders will probably regret, as our boys did, that it was to be used by their chickens instead of for themselves. (See [Fig. 222].)