POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10215, 18 April 1911, Page 3

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

(By "Cock-o'-the-North.' )

As I am not writing for tlio benefit alone of Wairarapa, poultry farmers, I should like to give the Wairarapa farmers a little advice on matters pertaining to the housing of their birds. What I want is the farmers to keep better fowls, and more of them. If they only once keep really good fowls and care for them in any way decently, they will not need "Cock-o'-the-North" or anyone else to tell them to keep more of them, as they will only be too eager to have them. Now let any Wairarapa farmer 'build the frame of a shed 14ft deep from front to back, 12ft wide from side to side, 7ft high in the front and sft lOin high at the "back. The top and bottom plates, and corner posts may be 3m. x 2in. white pine, and the other uprights 3ft apart of 2in. x 2in. white pine also. When fitting these together, always tar the joints, and, when fitted together, tar them all over; by these means white pine will last as long as any other timber, as it keeps ; the borer at arm's length, and, what i is more important still, makes the house vermin proof for three or four years, when it can be tarred again. The rafters may be rested on the front and back top plates 3ft apart, making five rafters necessary for the house. These should be 4in. x 2in., and 14ft long; in the centre of the house (inside) nail another piece of 4in. x 2in. on its fiat to the three ' center rafters; this piece should be aibout 6ft 6in. long, and another piece long enough to stand upright on the ground, the upper end being in the centre of the piece nailed to the rafters, and the lower end resting on a, brick on its flat on the 1 ground. This will prevent the rafters sagging in the centre. At the back of the house a shelf 3f b wide, and long enough to go right from side to side of the house, and 16 inches above the ground, should, be built as a dropping board, and eight or nine inches above this two 4in. x 2in. perches on edge resting into two slots i cut in a piece of 6in. by lin. board', and nailed at each side of the house for the purpose of supporting them. The perches should extend the full width of .the house, the one nearest the .back wall being nine incfc.es from the Ibuck wall and eighteen inches between the two perches from centreto centre. The nests can be built in the front portion of the house aibout fifteen inches from the floor and seven nests built, each one measuring 15 inches from front to back and at least 13 inches wide. They should be 16 inches high at the part facing into the house, sloping to ten inches, high at the part outside. The ; top should be built sloping toward the front of the house, and covered with rain proof material. The back portion of the ne.?t, facing out of the house, should be I.iaged at the bottom and fastened at the top with button or catch, so that . the eggs may be collected from the outaide. The front of the house should faoe the warm quarter, and should he covered with small .mesh wire netting (1 inch is small enough.) The .door should also be covered with netting, being merely a frame of 3in. x lin. battens pioperly stayed, and : should Ibe 3ft wide to allow plenty of i room for taking anything in or out. I There is one point aibout such a house (in the building) that no two pieces of wood should be nailed together, or "a board or battezi nailed I to the walls without first being liber- } tally tarred on what is to be the in- I ner surface, as should also the place ' where it i£ proposed to nail it. This I may be a little more trouble at the start, and cost.a little ir?cre time in building, but it' is infinitely cheaper , in the end, as any one who has had to fight, that, dread scourge of the poultryman, Redmite, Mill tell you. When such a frame has been put together, it may be covered with, any* thing on the walls, but where money is rather scarce I would recommend new sacks split open at the seams and stretched tightly on the uprights, the edges being tacked securely to battens nailed along the wall for the purpose, and, when secured, tarred well twice. The roof should be covered with boards and then with sacks, which should be tarred and sanded twice. 'This makes an excellent roof, and a cL.ap one, and, if this house is properly built and kept reasonably clean, it should accommodate thirty birds xn c'ose confinement for the year, and be tragically vermin proof for four years. (To be continued next week).