Home labor saving devicesScott, Rhea C. (Rhea Clarke)
General
Home labor saving devices
Scott, Rhea C. (Rhea Clarke)
Home economics; Woodwork
Roosts are placed on the same level with each other next to the
end or back walls and from 6” to 10” above the dropping boards,
which are 2½” from the floor. Roosts may be stationary as in the
cut, or they may be fastened by hinges to the walls and raised
to clean the dropping board.
Roost spacing will depend upon the size of the fowls, but a 10”
space to each fowl is usually sufficient. They must be put 15”
apart.
Nests made 14” square are built under the dropping boards around
the walls of the house as shown in cut. A 4” piece of wood is
placed on the side, which drops as a door in front of the nests.
Windows as shown in the cut are more expensive and not as good
as a front made of wood extending about 2’ from the bottom. Wire
screening, admitting better ventilation and more sunlight, is
tacked over the rest of the opening in the front. A curtain may
be made of unbleached muslin and fastened on a pole at the top
of the open front, which may be lowered as a protection in bad
weather.
Make the roof of some water tight material and cover the walls
on the inside to protect the fowls from draughts.
_Nests._--Comfortable and convenient quarters must be furnished the
sitting hen. The location of the nest must be in a quiet, dark place
to keep the hen from becoming restless. A box fifteen inches square
and twelve inches high, with a narrow strip four to five inches wide
at the bottom of the open front of the box, makes a comfortable nest.
Barrels or half-barrels or nests made of a piece of sod will also be
comfortable quarters for the sitting hen. The nests must be well lined
with hay, straw, or excelsior. Both the nests and the hen must be
thoroughly dusted with insect powder before the sitting time comes.
_Hatching and Rearing._--There are two methods used in the hatching
and rearing of chickens--the natural, when the chicks are hatched
and reared by a hen, and the artificial, when they are hatched in
incubators and brooded in houses indoors or out-of-doors. The natural
method will be found to be more satisfactory when dealing with a small
number of chickens. A small number of hens, if managed with system and
care, will produce a large number of chickens at a very small cost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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