Part 21

It is advisable to provide one or more glass windows in addition to the openings referred to above in order to admit light when the cloth-covered frames are closed. The windows may be placed in either the front wall or the side walls. In the latter case the sun is admitted to the building more hours each day, which is a big advantage during the fall and winter months.

Poultry house floors may be of cement, boards or earth. Cement is best for large, permanent structures. Board floors are excellent in houses of any size and are almost a necessity in small ones which may be moved frequently. Earth floors seem to be favored by the fowls, but if used the earth should be filled in to bring the floor level several inches above the surrounding ground. This to insure dryness.

The accompanying cuts show typical designs of satisfactory poultry houses. When building, just bear the above principles in mind and the results will be satisfactory.

The Tolman type is a strictly "fresh air" or "open front" house. For a flock of thirty to forty birds this house should be ten feet wide, sixteen feet front to back, seven feet to peak of roof, front wall four feet and rear wall five feet high. The highest point of roof is five feet from the rear wall.

The entire south side is a wire-covered opening, save for boards placed as shown in the cut. A full-sized door is located in the east wall opposite the window in the west side. Roosts are placed near the north wall, level with or slightly above the front opening.

----------------------------------------------------------------- _Port Dover, Canada.

After a long experience I find Pratts Poultry Regulator to be absolutely the best tonic to keep a flock of poultry in condition. Just as soon as I find a pen is not doing well, I use the Regulator in their mash. Almost immediately I notice their appetites improve, their combs redden and they lay better. I have also made trial of your other remedies and I find them all absolutely reliable.

JOHN S. MARTIN_ -----------------------------------------------------------------

For a flock of one hundred or more birds the New Jersey Multiple Unit Laying House is to be recommended. Each unit is twenty feet square, accommodating a hundred fowls. Similar units may be added for each hundred additional birds. The drawing on page 48 shows two units.

In this house the front studs are nine feet high, rear studs are four and a half feet high.

Simple, inexpensive furnishings are best. The cuts show home-made equipment which will meet all practical requirements.

~Getting the Eggs~

Early-hatched, well-matured pullets are the most dependable layers during the fall and early winter months. Some few yearling hens may continue to lay fairly well during their molting period, but, as a rule, egg production drops with the feathers and does not begin until the new coat of plumage is completed and the system readjusted. So yearlings, taken as a whole, do little toward filling the egg-basket until January or later.

Get the early-hatched pullets into winter quarters by late September or early October before they begin to lay. But be sure the house is fully prepared in advance. Clean house! Disinfect thoroughly with a strong solution of Pratts Poultry Disinfectant. Kill every germ. Avoid possible loss.

----------------------------------------------------------------- _Cherokee, Iowa.

I have used Pratts Poultry Regulator for the last twenty years and always had the best of results. It is a great egg producer and the best feed to keep little chicks strong and guard off that terrible disease, bowel complaint. In fact, I cannot do without it.

GEO. WM. LYON._ -----------------------------------------------------------------

~Get Fall and Winter Eggs~

It is most desirable that the flock begin egg production before the weather becomes severe. Get the laying habit established while the season is favorable, and it is comparatively easy to maintain it. And, as production will not commence until the layers are fully matured, the pullets must be hatched early to give ample time for them to make the needed growth.

As a rule, it takes about seven months to mature pullets of the general purpose breeds and six months for the egg breeds. Therefore, March and April chicks of the former, and April and May chicks of the latter, are most valuable. This is a general rule. Some poultrymen are experts in this matter of growing chicks and can bring them to laying maturity in less time.

If disease appears take instant action to check it. Delay of a day or two may permit an epidemic to get well started. In order to enable you to give proper treatment without delay you may well keep a stock of Pratts Poultry Remedies on hand.

Give every bird a thorough treatment for lice. Work Pratts Powdered Lice Killer all through the plumage. This will fix the lice, but will not kill the eggs. In anticipation of the latter hatching, rub Pratts Lice Salve in the small feathers about the vent and beneath the wings. That means death to the young lice as they appear, but to make sure, apply the salve at intervals of a few weeks.

Don't overcrowd the house. Better have a hundred hens comfortable and laying than double the number crowded and loafing.

Leave all ventilating openings wide open. Keep them open until winter storms make more protection necessary. During the summer months the pullets have had plenty of fresh air. To bring them into a warm, tightly closed house is to invite general debility and an epidemic of colds, catarrh, roup and other allied diseases. (Pratts Roup Remedy dissolved in the drinking water every few days, especially during changes of weather, will help to prevent such troubles.)

Keep the house clean. Remove the litter from the floor as soon as it becomes damp or soiled and replace with new, fresh material. Clean the droppings boards at frequent intervals. Wash with Pratts Poultry Disinfectant or scald the food and water dishes. Disinfect the whole house every few weeks, taking advantage of sunny weather so quick drying will follow. Disease causes loss--disinfection prevents disease. Therefore, DISINFECT whether you see need of it or not.

~Poultry Feeding~

The more food the birds eat beyond bodily requirements the greater the amount of the salable products they create. Any hen that is a natural layer will turn the surplus food into eggs. If she is naturally a meat producer she will build flesh or take on fat. And the sooner the fat producers are identified and removed from the laying flock, the better for all concerned. Your birds will not "get too fat to lay"--they will get fat if they don't lay. And the big problem is to induce the layers to eat as much food as they can digest in order that they may lay heavily and steadily.

To overcome all possible danger of overfeeding, Pratts Poultry Regulator should be regularly added to the mash. This natural tonic and conditioner contains appetizers, to stimulate the desire for food--digestives, to insure complete digestion and assimilation of the food consumed--laxatives, to regulate the bowels--internal antiseptics, to keep the entire digestive tract in a condition of perfect health--worm destroyers, to expel irritating and dangerous intestinal parasites.