The colony houses may be moved several times each season, thereby giving the poults plenty of free range on clean soil. Since blackhead is closely associated with insanitary conditions, special effort must be made to keep the houses, runs, and yards clean. If permanent brooder houses are used, a floor of concrete from 12 to 14 feet wide or a small gravel or cinder-floored yard is often used in front of the house. A skeleton framework covered with to 1-inch-mesh wire may also be used to floor the outside run either with the permanent brooder houses or with the colony houses (fig. 11). Poults are regularly confined to this small yard for the first 8 weeks and in some cases have been successfully reared to market age in it. However, a clean yard containing growing green feed is an advantage in brooding. If it is used only for about 8 weeks each year, there seems little danger of contamination. The brooder and brooder house should be operated to keep the young turkeys comfortable. A dim light under or above the hover at night has a quieting effect on the poults. The temperature should be high enough to keep the poults comfortable but not high enough to be detrimental to their health. When the poults are first put into the colony house with the brooder stove, the temperature 3 inches above the floor under the hover should be from, 95° to 110° F. This temperature should be lowered gradually as the poults get larger until they are 6 or 8 weeks old, when they require little or no heat, especially in the daytime. It is a common practice in cold weather to keep the general room temperature at the floor rather high, about 75°, to prevent crowding. The exact temperature, however, is of minor importance provided the poults are kept comfortable and good ventilation is maintained. The poults, if comfortable, will be active and contented. This is the real test of temperature. All warm points and surfaces except those at the brooder itself should be eliminated. Free access from all parts of the brooder room to the hover must be provided. All corners in the brooding room, especially back of the hover, should be rounded, preferably by using 1/2-inch-mesh poultry wire. A fence of the same material should be set up around the hover for the first 2 or 3 days until the poults become accustomed to their surroundings and learn to return to the source of heat. Flat roosts 2 to 2-1/2 inches wide and slightly tilted up at the rear may be placed at graduated levels in the brooder house when the poults are from 2 to 3 weeks old, to encourage them to begin roosting at an early age. This provision lessens the danger of night crowding. The front roost should be 6 inches above the floor and each of the others a few inches higher than the one in front of it and about 8-1/2 inches apart, center to center. [Illustration: Figure 11.--Young turkeys in a colony house equipped with wire-floored sun porch.] SANITATION