The Poultry house should be equipped with roosts, nests, feed hoppers, water containers and other items, which are essential for satisfactory production.
1) Perches or roosts:
Make perches from long wooden bars of two square inches rounded at the top and flat at the bottom. Fix these perches about 16 inches above the ground and near about the walls in such a way that they can be removed for disinfection. Give at least a 12-inch space between two perches. Each bird will need about 8 inches of the perch to roost.
Chickens start roosting when they are eight weeks old. Apart from catering to the natural instinct or desire of the chickens to get above the ground at night, perches help materially to keep the bird’s feed and plumage clean.
The rear perches should rest a little higher than those at the front, if they are arranged to be horizontal with the length of the house. This will encourage some of the birds that like to roost high to go to the back perches. Paint the perches occasionally with creosote to prevent insects.
2) Next boxes:
Each pen of laying birds should be provided with nest boxes for laying eggs. It should be roomy, movable, cool and well ventilated, dark and conveniently located. Nests are usually constructed 14 inches square, 6 inches deep and with about 15 inches head room. All metal nests are preferred to wood nests because of easy cleaning and less chance of becoming infested with mites. Empty kerosene tins make excellent boxes. One nest should be provided for every 5 or 6 hens. Dark nest are desirable because they result in less scratching in the nest, less egg breakage and less egg eating. A wooden packing case 18 inches square or a wide mouthed earthen pot can be a suitable nest. Place some sand or soft hay or straw inside.
Nests sometimes are also placed inside a run but in that case care should be taken to prevent crows, etc. by covering the top of the run with wire netting.
3) Trapnests:
Each nest is provided with a trap door so that when the poultryman releases the hen from the nest he can identify her and mark her leg-band number on the egg. There should be one nest for every 3 or 4 birds. Trapnests differ from regular nests in that they are provided with trap doors by which birds shut themselves in when they enter.
For convenience of the caretaker, the nests should be placed 18 to 20 inches above the floor.
4) Feed hoppers:
The essential features of satisfactory feed hoppers are that they
avoid wastage of feed,
prevent the birds from getting their feet into the feed and from roosting on the hopper,
are easy to clean, and
make it easy for the birds to eat from the bottom of the hopper.
Troughs, pots and pans used for feeding should be suitable size depending on the age and size of the birds.
5) Watering devices:
An ample supply of water should be made available at all times, or egg production is liable to be affected. The water container should contain clean water, kept cool in summer, and be easily cleaned because contaminated water tends to spread certain diseases from bird to bird.
6) Grit and shell container:
Ordinary hoppers made either of wood or metal can be used for oyster shells or other grit. It is advantageous to have the source of calcium for egg shell formation near the feed hopper.
7) Dust bath:
An earthen pot or a whole in the ground, 2’ in diameter, should be filled with dry, clean, shifted earth or ashes and placed in the shed on the east side. The container should be continually refilled. Flavour of sulfur should be added to the ashes, also some dry coarse tobacco leaves. Coal ashes or cowdung cake ashes may be used alternatively.
Ag.
Technologies
(Poultry
Mgmt.)
