The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-09-28
Clean up the Hen House.

This is the time of year for the an
nual house cleaning, and word upon
the subject will be timely. The poultry
houses should have thorough cleaning
out, cleaning up and whitewashing, be-
fore the pullets are brought in from
their free range in the fields; the pens
in the houses being made as clean, sweet
and fresh as though they were new.
We sometimes hear it said that poultry
will always do we'll in a new house.
The reason for that, is, that the house
is clean from poisonous odors, and is
not repulsive to the sense OF cleanliness
of the birds. A thorough house clean
ing before bringing in the pullets practi-
cally renews the house.
Everything in the pens of poultry
houses should be movable. Move out
the roosts, roost platforms, nest boxes,
feed troughs; sweep down the dust and
cobwebs from roof and walls, then go
in with wheelbarrow and shovel out
three or four inches of the surface sand
or gravel in the pens. The floor OF
our pens is sand, and we clean out as
much of the surface as seems to be
fouled. Then go in with a bucket of
whitewash and brush, thoroughly white
washing every bit of the roof, partition
walls, roost platforms, nest boxes etc.,
and "slosh" on the whitewash freely,
30 that it shall penetrate every crack
and crevice of the house.
No matter if some of it does drop on
the floor; whitewash is clean and won't
hurt anything. The next step is to get
in about two carloads of fresh sand;
hot To-, .,,a Lax
take out, of fresh clean sand, from a
sand bank. We used to buy fine gravel
for this purpose, but have come to be-
lieve sand is better; certainly the fowls
seem to like it better, and with fine
white sand in the pens they do not
need special dust bath, as they dust
Cor wall0w) in the sand. The roost pole
is the only article in the pens you should
not whitewash. That is to be taken
out, thoroughly scalded, and after it is
dry, drench it from one end to the other,
top, bottom and all round with kerosene,
and the roost supports or slots in which
the roost pole rests, also drench with
the kerosene oil. If this is thoroughly
J done there will be no danger of red
mites, which almost always hibernate
in and about the roost supports, COM
ing fourth at night to prey upon their
innocent victims.
If this annual house cleaning is
thoroughly done, and the drOppings are
cleaned up from the roost platforms
every other day in summer, and every
day Except Sunday in winter, the roost
platforms being sprinkled with land
plaster or dry loan after each cleaning,
the poultry house will be free from the
foul oders which are go offensive to men
and fowls.
A rightly conducted poultry house
should always be free from ''smels" as
well kept kitchen. If housewife
did not wash the table and kitchen dish.
es more than once month, what an
accumulation of filth and "smells" there
would be. BY careful washing and
drying the dishes after each meal,
washing up the kitchen table everv day,
and the kitchen floor certinly once a
week, everything is kept clean and
sweet, and the task is comparatively
easy. Just SO with the poultry drop
pings and the house cleaning. The
droppings are the key to the situation.
If they are properly taken care of, (and
the problem is simple if the right APP
pliances are used and we 60 about
right,) the problem of cleanliness is
solved at once; in fact, that is the prob
lem of cleanliness.
The nest boxes on many poultry farms
are left filthy and obnoxious, which is
agreat mistake. Use simple nest boxes
made of common old fashioned soap
boxes, or some thing of that kind, which
are easily taken out, cleaned and white
washed. Sweep out and brush out all
the corners; "slosh" on the whitewash
inside and out, and set them in the sun
to dry, then refill them with fresh sweet
hay, put China nest egg in each box,
and the nest is ready for its use again.
These nest boxes should be emptied
and refilled once in two months-often-
er if the nest gets fouled and dirty; but
ordinarily once in two months will dc
very well.
The whole problem of cleanliness is
very simple if one has the will to do
| Harm, Dnultru