The Portland daily press., 1892-01-19
VENTILATION OF POULTRY HOUSES
Leading Authorities Express Themselves
on This Much vexed Question.

Leading Authorities Express Themselves
on This Much vexed Question.
The question of ventilation comes up
every season and ELECTS variety OF
opinions. We hear from the extremists,
who demand plenty of fresh air day and
night regardless of outdoor tempera-
ture; we hear from the extremists, who
claim that the fad for fresh air has
killed more fowls than it has saved with
drafts that are sure Accomplishments Of
ventilation. Then, too, we hear from
that small but wise class who attempt to
strike the happy medium between
drafts and foul air in their endeavors
to admit fresh air without creating dam
gerous drafts. With view to assisting
readers in deciding this question of ven
tilation we append the expressions of
several authorities on the subject. Here
is what The Fanciers' journal says:
80 much depends on the size of the
building and its construction that we
can say little regarding the best methods
of ventilation for buildings in general.
We have no ventilators in our buildings.
The latter are constructed as follows:
The roosting room is a by feet; ad-
Joining this is shed of the same size.
The shed is closed at night by muslin
screens. The only opening from the
roosting room is a small door leading to
the she'd This is always open and the
fowls are out early in the morning
scratching in the shed. The air passing
through the muslin screens is sufficient
to keep the necessary oxygen on top and
the carbolic acid in 'innocuous desue-
tude.' We keep twelve fowls in such a
building. although fifteen Leghorns
would do nicely in the same space. The
only window is about two feet square,
set in the south or southeast side. In
the daytime the shed is always open, no
matter how cold it is or how hard it
rains, unless the rain comes from the
south and beats ina rare occurrence.
A correspondent who tried the nom
ventilating plan last winter to its fullest
extent reports in The Poultry Monthly
most favorable results, viz: "Not sick
fowl during the entire winter, but all
bright, healthy and happy, with a fair
record as to eggs, to wit: Six hun
dred and forty-six eggs from eighteen
brown Leghorn pullets from Dec. to
March Is. The house in which these
pullets and one cockerel were kept is
by 16 feet, made of matched pine,
lined with tarred paper, furred out two
inches, and lathed and plastered; ceiled
overhead on the rafters with matched
,;1;,,,r. @La Ioxx,a,- h II f +La 1o,.sra co,,fl
windows closed with tight board shut
tiers, cracks about doors and slide stopped
closely; tight board floors covered with
stonemasons' sand, and the ventilators
closed during the winter, save on three
occasions in the middle of warm days.
"Fronn fall to spring the fowls were not
let out of doors more than fifteen times,
and then only on warm days when there
was no snow on the ground and only for
a little while at time, but never to get
chilled. The fowls. however, during
the day had the run of an inclosed an
mex by feet, built of boards only, well
lighted, with ground floor plentifully
Uttered with fine hay and lawn clippings,
and the slide entrance to which was
closed at night, the house proper being
SO warm that there have been but two
mornings when the droppings upon the
roost boards were frozen so as to inter-
fere in the least with the regular weekly
cleaning"
Wright urges ventilation, and suggests
for the ordinary poultry house the plan
of having an opening at the highest
point of the roof, surmounted by s.lan-
tern" of boards put together in the fash
ion of venetian blinds.
B. Benjamin, Queens county, N. Y,
writes in the New York World: Drafts
are as injurious to poultry as to humans,
and as most contrivances for ventilation
in our poultry houses create drafts, much
harm is done in the northern states
through ventilators. In my opinion a
uniform warmth with dryness of atmos-
phere is most conducive to egg laying
and other desirable results during the
winter season. My houses are made
warm with Innings of tar paper and |
have no special ventilator, but let the
fowls out in the middle of the day when
ever the sun shines, and at such times |
not only ventilate, but thoroughly clean
the houses. If the roosts and floors are
kept clean there will be no sickness. It
is the accumulation OF droppings that
produces disease. Make the poultry
houses warm with tar paper Innings and
clean them out every day, giving the
floor new layer of fresh earth or sand
and you need not worry about venti-
iators."