Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-07-23

Two by tours set euEeWlSe WIFI TIC
sharp corners rounded off. make good
roosts. They should be set in notches,
so that they can be easily removed to
be cleaned and disinfected. The drop
pings should be removed every week
or two and not left for a year, as is so
often done. If plenty of straw is used
on the cement under the roosts it Is
but a short job to throw the excrement
out of hole back of the roosts and put
in fresh bedding. 1t is labor that will
be we'll repaid, for clean, sweet
smelling house Is essential to egg pro-
duction.
A little slaled lime thrown around
under the roosts helps to keep down
bad odors. Sprinkling the house with
coal tar dip and embarrassing the
roosts and walls once in awhile are
also good practices.
The nest boxes should be provided
with cover and so arranged as to be
dark and secluded inside, as the hens
prefer to lay in this kind Of place.
Where speciality is made Of poultry
1t pays to use trap nests. These are
so arranged that the hen is caught
when she goes in to lay and cannot
get out until the attendant comes
along and releases her. BY having
the hens numbered with leg bands a
record can be kept of the eggs laid by
each one. Thus those that never lay
can be culled out and sent to the
butcher and the eggs Of the highest
producing ones kept for raising pull
lets to increase the flock. In this way
the average egg yield can be increased
considerably 1t is important in this
connection to make especial note Of
those hens which do most Of their
laying in the winter months. as they
are of considerably more value than
the ones that lay in the summer, when
eggs are cheap.
Yards and Fences.
On the farm there is little need for
many yards about the poultry house.
The chief need for fences is to keep
the poultry away from the garden and
house. For this purpose woven wire
fence with hexagonal meshes is best.
The meshes should be small enough at
the bottom to keep out the small chick
ems. The wire should not be smaller
than eighteen or nineteen gauge. An
important point to look to is the gal
vanizing. This galvanizing 10 a layer
of zinc that is coated over the wire to
keep it from rusting There are two
methods of galvanizing. known as aft
err and before" The former Is APP
piled to fencing galvanized after 1t is
woven and the latter to that galvanized
before. The latter" galvanized fe1c-
Ing can be told from the fact that the
joints where the cross wires are twist
ed together are filed with zinc. When
the zinc is cracked more or less in the
weaving process and rust readily gets
foothold. The after" galvanized
wire sometimes costs little more, but
it lasts about five times as long.
coops.
The chief equipment, aside from
houses and fences, is coops. 1t is more
economical to make these fairly large
so as to hold hundred chickens or SO
A coop sixteen feet long. two fee
wide and about two feet high In front
, with the roof slopAg toward the back
} is convenient and cheap. 1t can be di
! vided into eight or ten compartment
: and will do for US many hens and thei
e broods. The partitions should be abou
e six feet long and a foot high. This wi
|. allow them to project in front abou
> four feet Laths are nailed along til
front and over the tops of these part
: ton boards, making little runway II
front of each coop. One Of the lath
o should be removable to let the hen Il
r and out rs soon as the chicks are BIZ
L enough to follow her about.
b While such coops are cheap, the
f have one serious fault, and that
d that they are not big enough for tn
h chickens after they get to be two Q