Where double boarding is employed for the sides, the house may be made much warmer by filling up the space with straw, or still better with marsh reeds, so durable for thatching. This plan, unfortunately, affords a shelter for rats, mice, and insects, and therefore, if adopted, it will be highly advantageous to form the inside boarding in panels, so as to be removable at pleasure for examination and cleansing.
For the roof, tiles or slates alone are not sufficient, but, if used, must have a boarding or ceiling under them; otherwise all the heat generated by the fowls will escape through the numerous interstices, and it will be next to impossible to keep the house warm in winter. A corrugated roof of galvanised iron may be used instead, but a ceiling also will be absolutely necessary for the sake of warmth. A rough ceiling of lath and plaster not only preserves the warmth generated by the fowls and keeps out the cold, but has the great advantage of being easily lime-washed, an operation that should be performed at least four or five times a year. Boards alone make a very good and cheap roof. They may be laid either horizontally, one plank overlapping the other, and the whole well tarred two or three times, and once every autumn afterwards; or they may be laid perpendicularly side by side, fitting closely, in which case they should be well tarred, then covered with old sheeting, waste calico, or thick brown paper tightly stretched over it, and afterwards brushed over with hot tar, or a mixture of tar boiled with a little lime, and applied while hot; this, soaking through the calico, cements it to the roof, and makes it waterproof. But board covered with patent felt, and tarred once a year, is the best. The roof ought to project considerably beyond the walls, in order to prevent the rain from dripping down them.
Ventilation is most important, and the house should be high, especially if there are many fowls, for by having it lofty a current of air can pass through it far above the level of the fowls, and purify the atmosphere without causing a draught near them. They very much dislike a draught, and will alter their positions to avoid it, and if unable to do so, will seek another roosting-place. Ventilation may be obtained by leaving out some bricks in the wall or making holes in the boarding; and when there is a shed at the side of the fowl-house, by boring a few holes near the top of the wall next to the shed; all ventilators should be considerably above the perches, in order to avoid a draught near to the fowls; and should be entirely closed at night in severe weather. The best method of ventilation for a fowl-house of sufficient size and height, is by means of an opening in the highest part of the roof, covered with a lantern of laths or narrow boards, placed one over the other in a slanting position, with a small space between them like Venetian blinds.
Light is essential, not only for the health of the fowls, but in order that the state of the house may be seen, and the floor and perches may be well cleansed. It may be admitted either through a common window, a pane or two of thick glass placed in the sides, or glass tiles in the roof. It also induces them to take shelter there in rough weather.
Warmth is the most important point of all. Fowls that roost in cold houses and exposed places require more food and produce fewer eggs; and pullets which are usually forward in laying will not easily be induced to do so in severe weather if their house is not kept warm. It is a great advantage when the house backs a fire-place or stable. A gentleman told Mr. Baily that he "had been very successful in raising early chickens in the north of Scotland, and he attributed much of it to the following arrangements. He had always from twenty to thirty oxen or other cattle fattening in a long building; he made his poultry-house to join this, and had ventilators and openings made in the partition, so that the heat of the cattle-shed passed into the fowl-house. Little good has resulted from the use of stoves, or hot-water pipes, for poultry; but by skilfully taking advantage of every circumstance like that above mentioned, and by consulting aspect and position, many valuable helps are obtained."
A house built of wood in the north of England and Scotland must be lined, unless artificially warmed. Felt is the best material, as its strong smell of tar will keep away most insects. Matting is frequently used, and will make the house sufficiently warm, but it harbours vermin, and therefore, if used, should be only slightly fastened to the walls, so that it can be often taken down and well beaten, and, if necessary, fumigated.
Various materials are recommended for the flooring. Boards are warm, but they soon become foul. Beaten earth, with loose dust scattered over it some inches deep, is excellent for the feet of the birds, but is a harbour for the minute vermin which are often so troublesome, and even destructive, to domestic fowls. Mowbray recommends a floor of "well-rammed chalk or earth, that its surface, being smooth, may present no impediment to being swept perfectly clean." Chalk laid on dry coal-ashes to absorb the moisture is excellent. A mixture of cow-dung and water, about the consistency of paint, put on the surface of the floor, no thicker than paint, gives it a hard surface which will bear sweeping down. It is used by the natives of India, not only for the floors, but often for the walls of their houses, and is supposed to be healthy in its application, and to keep away vermin. Miss Watts says: "Dig out the floor to about a foot deep, and fill in with burnt clay, like that used extensively on railways, the strong gravel which is called 'metal' in road-making, or any loose dry material of the kind. Let this be well rammed down, and then lay over it, with a bricklayer's trowel, a flooring of a compost of cinder-ashes, gravel, quick-lime, and water. This flooring is without the objections due to those which are cold and damp, and those which imbibe foul moisture. Stone is too cold for a flooring; beaten earth or wood becomes foul when the place is inhabited by living animals; and a flooring of bricks possesses both these bad qualities united." Bricks are the worst of all materials; they retain moisture, whether atmospheric or arising from insufficient drainage; and thus the temperature is kept low, and disease too often follows, especially rheumatic attacks of the feet and legs. However, trodden earth makes a very good flooring, and it or other materials may easily be kept clean by placing moveable boards beneath the perches to receive the fowl-droppings. The floor should slope from every direction towards the door, to facilitate its cleansing, and to keep it dry.
Perches are generally placed too high, probably because it was noticed that fowls in their natural state, or when at large, usually roost upon high branches; but it should be observed that, in descending from lofty branches, they have a considerable distance to fly, and therefore alight on the ground gently, while in a confined fowl-house the bird flutters down almost perpendicularly, coming into contact with the floor forcibly, by which the keel of the breast-bone is often broken, and bumble-foot in Dorkings and corns are caused.
Some writers do not object to lofty perches, provided the fowls have a board with cross-pieces of wood fastened on to it reaching from the ground to the perch; but this does not obviate the evil, for they will only use it for ascent, and not for descent. The air, too, at the upper part of any dwelling-room, or house for animals, is much more impure than nearer the floor, because the air that has been breathed, and vapours from the body, are lighter than pure air, and consequently ascend to the top. The perches should therefore not be more than eighteen inches from the ground, unless the breed is very small and light. Perches are also generally made too small and round. When they are too small in proportion to the size of the birds, they are apt to cause the breast-bone of heavy fowls to grow crooked, which is a great defect, and very unsightly in a table-fowl. Those for heavy fowls should not be less than three inches in diameter. Capital perches may be formed of fir or larch poles, about three inches in diameter, split into two, the round side being placed uppermost; the birds' claws cling to it easily, and the bark is not so hard as planed wood. The perches, if made of timber, should be nearly square, with only the corners rounded off, as the feet of fowls are not formed for clasping smooth round poles. Those for chickens should not be thicker than their claws can easily grasp, and neither too sharp nor too round.
When more than one row of perches is required they should be ranged obliquely—that is, one above and behind the other; by which arrangement each perch forms a step to the next higher one, and an equal convenience in descending, and the birds do not void their dung over each other. They should be placed two feet apart, and supported on bars of wood fixed to the walls at each end; and in order that they may be taken out to be cleaned, they should not be nailed to the supporter, but securely placed in niches cut in the bar, or by pieces of wood nailed to it like the rowlocks of a boat. If the wall space at the sides is required for laying-boxes, the perches must be shorter than the house, and the oblique bars which support them must be securely fastened to the back of the house, and, if necessary, have an upright placed beneath the upper end of each.