Poultry architecture, a practical guide for construction of poultry houses, coops and yards

Chapter I

Foundations and walls — Ghuss in cold weather — Roosts, etc — Troughs — Fountains — Notes.

CHAPTER H

Poultry house of G. R France — Convenient house — Cheap and labor-saving — A handy hennery — A house for layers — Cheap houses and shelters.

CHAPTER HI

BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM

House for mild climates — H. H. Stoddard's poultry house — Northern colony houses — Rhode Island colony houses.

CHAPTER IV

Grundy's prize house — Farmers' poultry house — Removable houses — Wyckoff's houses — Portable coop — House for Pacific coast — House for south — House \vith cloth run — Good winter houses — Maine henhouse — Interior plans.

IV CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES

A Kansas sod house — A Nebraska plan — House in a sand bank — Windproof structures — A house of logs — Bank wall houses.

CHAPTER VI

Well-made house in detail — A business poultry plant — A model house — Practical poultry home.

CHAPTER VH

ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS

Using a second story — Adding a scratching pen — Shelter and lean-to — Protected coop — Run of sash and straw — Cheap runs.

CHAPTER VHI

FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS

A brooder plant — Improved incubator house — A .brooder and growing house — Brooder boxes — Houses for separate brooders — Brooder attachments.

CHAPTER IX

SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS

Cold Storage — Turkey houses — Improved duckhouses — Pigeon lofts — Combination house.

CHAPTER X

Glass roof coops — Hotbed coops — Rat-proof — Cool runs — Ten-cent coops — Orchard chicken coop — Fattening pens — Summer and fall shelter — Movable yards — Hen-tight fence.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG.

I — Up and Down and Crosswise Boarding

2 — Sections of Foundations and Wall

3 — Sash with Double Glass .

4 — Window for Cold Weather

5_House for Mild Climates

6 — House of Mr France

7_Convenient House. End View and Front Ele

8 — Cheap and Labor-Saving. Cross Section

Q_Cheap and Labor- Saving. Ground Floor

10 — Handy Hennery

II — House for Layers .

12— Ten-Dollar Henhouse

13 — House and Shed .

14 — Interior of House with Shed

15 — A Small House

16 — Colony House for Mild Climates

18 — Northern Colony House

19— Rhode Island Colony House .

20 — Grundy's Poultry House and Yard

21 — Farmers' Poultry House

22 — House Easily Removed .

23 — Interior and Details

24 — End View of House and Details

25 — Movable Coop

26 — An Oregon Plan

27 — House for Warm Climates

28— House for One Hundred Fowls

29 — House with Cloth Run .

30— L- Shaped House with Shed .

31 — Octagon House

32— Good Winter House ation

PAGE 3

10 12 13 14 14 16

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

;^;^ — Good House with Interior Fixtures

34 — Interior Contrivances

35 — A Maine Henhouse

36 — A Prairie Henhouse

^y — Henhouse of Kansas Farmer

38 — A Nebraska Sod House .

39 — House in a Sand Bank .

40 — Windproof Structure

41 — A Log Chicken House

42 — A Bank Wall House

43 — Interior of Bank Wall House

44 — Warm and Convenient Building

45 — Weil-Made House. Front and Rear Elevations

46 — Weil-Made House. End Elevation and Pen Run

47 — Interior of Well-Made House

48 — Section Through Pen

49 — Plan Showing Roosts

50 — Business Poultry House

51 — Front Elevation of Model Hou

52 — Ground Plan of Model House

53 — Side View and Floor System .

54 — Cross Section of Model House

55 — Practical Poultry House

56 — Runway to Second Story and Upper Roo

57 — House with Scratching Shed .

58 — Shelter and Lean-to

59 — Protected Coop ...

60 — Run of Sash and Straw .

61 — Protected Scratching Sheds .

62 — Plan of Duck or Brooder Buildings

63 — Double Roof Incubator House

64 — Banked Incubator Room

65 — Incubator House and Tank

66 — Double Brooder House .

67 — Combination Brooder Building

68 — Construction of Brooder Box .

69 — Pipe Brooder House

70 — Houses for Separate Brooder

71 — Oregon Brooder House .

72 — Houses for Winter Chicks

55 56 57 60 61 62 63 65 66

67 67 68

71 7^ 73 74

75 76

87 89 90

91 92

93 94 95 96

97 98 99

LIST Oi' H.LLSTRxVTlONS

VU

FIG.

'JZ — Plan for Cold Storage House for Poultry 74 — Buildings for Turkeys . 75 — Improved Duckhouse 76 — Duckhouse and Shed ']'j — Pigeon Loft and Interior 78 — House for Poultry and Pigeons 79 — Ground Plan for Combination House 80 — Glass-Roofed Coops 81 — Hotbed Run and Coops . 82 — Rat- Proof Coops and Run 83 — Box and Barrel Coops . 84 — Coops from Barrels and Crates 85 — A- Shaped Coops 86 — A-Shaped Coop and Frame 87 — Coop from a Shoe Box . 88 — A Packing Box Coop 89 — Brood Coop v/ith Run . 90 — Light Box Coops . 91 — Shelter and Portable Coop 92 — Colony Shelter Coop 93 — Orchard Coop 94 — Fattening Boxes 95 — Coops for Sitting Hens . 96 — Shipping and Exhibition Coops 97 — Yards for Three Flocks 98 — Yards for Two or Four Flocks 99 — ]\Iovable Poultry Yard . 100 — Making a Fence Chicken Proof

PAGE lOI

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this book is to give designs of sufficient variety to suit conditions everywhere. Few requests come more often to the office of a pouhry editor than those asking designs and directions for some part of a poultry plant. The number and variety of such requirements is surprising.

On the other hand, the very diversity of conditions which create the demand has also developed a supply. A multitude of houses and coops of differing styles have been designed by ingenious poultry keepers in accord with their experience and to meet local conditions. This little volume aims to bring together these two classes, the intending builders and those who have already built successfully. It is thought that the one hundred designs of such wide range of style, cost and adaptation will meet all requirements.

Many of the designs originally appeared in American Agriculturist weeklies in response to definite requests." The plans are carefully selected from a much larger number, and only those are given which are in successful use and wdiich are adapted to the needs of practical poultry keepers ; pretentious or overornamental and elaborate affairs having been excluded. Wherever thought necessary or desirable, complete specifications of cost and construction have been included, so that the structures may be put up by anyone wdio can handle saw and hammer.

CHAPTER I

Poultry can be made to do well almost anywhere, just as cattle are made profitable on many farms not especially adapted for dairying. Management and system of housing should be varied to suit the location.

Some good paying poultry farms are on stiff, heavy clay land, where water collects in pools after rain. Others just as profitable are on rather thin, light soil. Still, it is generally agreed that a good, free, well drained loam has certain advantages. The soil dries quickly after a rain, snow melts more quickly, it warms rapidly in the sun, every shower purifies it by carrying down a part of the impurities. On wet, heavy soil the fowls should have very wide range or the ground becomes muddy and unwholesome. Yet such land is a rich storehouse of plant food and affords the best of grass and insect diet even when drouth checks all fresh growth on other land. Heavy land is best suited to the colony or free range systems. Some of the largest and most profitable farms have been thus located and conducted, and the fowls maintained in perfect health and vigor.

On rather poor land the fowls should also have wide range in order to find enough wild food. Good pasturage should be considered as important as for cattle.

Rocky land is seldom made the location of large farms for poultry culture, since frequent cultivation and cropping is a part of most systems. Money saved in buying- rough or sandy land is soon lost many times over in decrease of net returns. If one may choose, let him buy good, clear, well drained loam, with a gradual southern slope and a fore^.t protection at the north. But, as said before, most locations can be made satisfactory by suitable buildings and system of man-

nent.

The site of permanent buildings should be well drained naturally, but in a great majority of cases the conditions wdll be improved by at least heaping up with a horse scraper a little knoll of earth about the same in area as the house. Dryness is the great preventive of disease in poultry, and is even more important than warmth. A dry hen will stand a great deal of cold weather without much injury.

Foundation and IValls — It pays to have a stone foundation reaching down to frost line, or from one to three feet below the surface and rising about one foot above the ground level. When covered with earth, a dry, dusty floor is ensured all winter, and rats are kept out even without a cement covering for the stone floor. Anything but a stone foundation is likely to take up more or less moisture, which will freeze and thaw, making the floor hard and cold, or muddy, neither state being suitable for scratching and for dust baths. Floors below ground are unsatisfactory in moist climates Dampness works in, spoils the scratching floor, stops laying and causes lameness, colds and bowel trouble. If the floor, however, has been raised by a rock filling, the outside of the building may be banked with earth to good advantage.

Tight Foundations — When small buildings are erected upon the farm, there is a temptation, in the interest of economy, to omit the tight stone foundation and put the building on posts. This leaves the buildingopen beneath and permits the cold winds to reduce the temperature. A plan is shown in the cut, Figure i, which obviates this. The wahs are boarded up and down, using- matched cedar boards, and aUowing these to extend to the ground, as shown. A httle soil is then banked up against the lower end, which is grassed over quickly, making a tight foundation that will last mamyears. If the framing is made to use crosswise boarding, put on the latter as shown at right of Figure i, using a wide cedar board to extend from the sill down to the ground, and bank with a few inches of earth as before mentioned. The building can then be shingled or clapboarded.

I

1^.

FIG

UP AND DOWN AND CROSSWISE BOARDING

In placing a house, let it face the south or as nearly so as possible. It is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than one facing either east or west. The sun in summer during the hottest part of the day is nearly directly overhead and does not shine in so strongly in a south window. In winter, when low in the heavens, the south window catches more of the sun's rays.

A Poultry House Floor of cement may well be patterned after the plan shown at left of Figure 2. The foundation is of loose stones to give drainage. The stones above are cemented. A layer of small stones beneath the cement serves as drainage. The sills of the house are bedded in cement to keep out vermin. This plan gives an exceedingly warm house, and the cement floor will keep out all rats and poultry enemies. A

4 I'OULTRY ARCIilTECTL'RE

cement floor is a cold affair in winter unless covered with plenty of dust and litter.

A Very Warm Wall designed by G. C. Watson of the Pennsylvania experiment station is double on all sides and practically air tight, with a two-inch air space between the walls. A section plan is shown at right of Figure 2. A two by three scantling set edgewise forms the plate, and to this the boards of t)ie side walls are nailed. These boards may be of rough lumber if economy in building is desired. If so, the inner boarding should be nailed on first and covered with tarred building paper on the side that will come within the

FIG 2 : SECTIONS OF FOUNDATIONS AND WALL hollow wall when the building is completed. This building paper is to be held in place with laths or strips of thin boards. If only small nails or tacks are used, the paper will tear around the nail heads when damp and will not stay in place.

The cracks between the boards of the outside boarding may be covered with inexpensive battens if they are nailed at frequent intervals with small nails. Ordinary building lath will answer this purpose admira1)ly, and will last many years, although they are not so durable as heavier and more expensive strips. The tarred paper on the inside boarding and the battens on the outside make two walls, each impervious to

LOCATION AND METliUDS 5

wind, with an air space between them. Common building paper may be used or stout paper of any kind.

It has been left for the West Virginia experiment station to determine just how much difference there would be in egg production between similar flocks kept in warm and cold houses. Two houses, built exactlyalike and situated side by side, were selected for the experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pullets. One house had previously been sheathed on the inside and covered with paper to make it perfectly tight. Both were boarded with matched siding and shingle roofs.

The fowls were fed alike in each case. The morning mash consisted of corn meal, ground middlings and ground oats, and at night whole grain was scattered in the litter. They also had fresh water, grit and bone and granulated bone. The experiment started', November 24 and continued for five months. The following table shows the number of eggs laid during each period of thirty days :

RESULTS FROM COLD AND WARM HOUSES

The experiment clearly indicates that it is important to build warm and substantial houses for winter egg production.

In very cold climates special pains should be taken to make the roosting place warm. Combs are usually frozen during the night. Double walls battened with lath outside and lined with building paper make a warm roost room. With single-wall houses, double boarding on the north side is a protection. An outside shield of corn stalks or hav and litter is also effective.

Costly material is not needed for the poultry house. Often a discarded barn or other building can be bought cheap and the sound lumber used again. Others on farms can work up home grown timber. For city poulterers, large packing boxes bought at dry goods stores are a cheap source of lumber. Sometimes old street cars have been bought for a trifle and remodeled. Serviceable houses have been made from staves of old barrels as an outside covering. Old strips of carpet, oilcloth, wall paper or building paper may be utilized to some extent as inside protection.

A coat of home-mixed paint improves the durability and appearance of a house enough to pay for ics cost. Whitewash is much better than nothing, and will add years to the life of second-hand lumber.

Shingles properly applied to a roof of fairly steep pitch are the best and warmest roofing, but a strip of building paper should be laid beneath to keep out currents of cold air which work in between the shingles. Tin or iron is sometimes cheaper than wood, and for temporary structures, felting paper with a coat of paint will last about two years. An advantage of sheet materials for roofing is that a steep pitch is not needed to carry ofif the water, but such materials are cold in winter and hard to repair when damaged.

Glass in Cold Weather — Amateur builders commonly use too much glass, which makes a house unnaturally warm on sunny days, but extremely and dangerously cold by night and on stormy days. One window not over three feet square and about eighteen inches above the floor to each ten feet of house length is enough. Warmth is much increased by a shutter or curtain for night. Windows should be arranged to slide to on^ side or be easily taken out during hot weather.

Double windows are sometimes used, but these are expensive, somewhat of a bother to put on and hard to keep clean.

The cut, Figure 3, shows a single sash, double glazed, which a poultryman has recently described. The sash is made so that the glass can be set on both sides of the wooden bars, leaving a half inch or more of space between. This gives a double window and the cost is said to be not more than twenty-five cents extra per sash for the glass and the labor of setting. Those who are providing windows for new or re-

FIG 3 : SASH WITH DOUBLE GLASS modeled poultry houses will do well to experiment with this plan. The glazing must be tight and carefully done to keep out all dirt and dust from the inner surfaces of the glass. Figure 4 shows a window partly double, making a convenient arrangement for ventilating without draft, and securing greater warmth at night and on cloudy days.

Roosts, Nests, Troughs, Fountains, etc, will not be treated at length in this volume. Roosts should be all on a level, should be about two inches thick, rounded on the upper side, not over two feet from the floor, and removable.

Troughs and Drinking Places should be protected by slats. Nests should be numerous, secluded and easily removed. Beware of too complicated inside arrangements when large numbers of fowls are kept for profit. Successful large farms are nearly always

FIG 4 : WINDOW FOR COLD WEATHER

conducted on very simple plans, but with emphasis placed on the main needs of the fowls.

Notes — Dryness and warmth are the two main essentials in most climates.

Everything inside should l^e removable, also doors and windows.

The house should be made tight enough t»o hold smoke when fumigated.

Cost ranges from twenty-five cents to five dollars per fowl. A reasonably good business house may be built at one dollar per head.

When building an all-around house, provide for summer as well as for winter.

Rather than extend beyond seventy-five feet, better start a new building.

Study actual needs of fowls rather than comfort of the attendant.

Chapter II

Buildings fairly comfortable and lasting can be erected at fifty cents to one dollar per fowl. Where old material is used, very little money need be paid out. The plans of the low-cost structures are so simple that almost anyone may do the work. Some of them can be made for about one dollar per running foot, including labor. The number of fowls accommodated by any house varies with the breed, the climate, the size of

FIG 5 : HOUSE FOR MILD CLIMATES outside run, and the care given. Expert poultrymen can obtain good results from crowded pens. For average conditions allow ten to twenty square feet of floor surface per fowl.

In regions where the snow does not cover the ground too deeply, a cheap, low structure can be built after the plan shown in Figure 5, that will answer the purpose very well. Stakes are driven into the ground

LOW-COST HOUSES II

and rough boards nailed to these to a hight of three feet in front and two feet in the rear, leaving spaces for low, wide sash in front. A long and a short roof is put on, with roof doors in the front, short roof. These are made with overlapping edges to secure tightness against the wind and rain. The attendant stands outside and through these roof doors cares for the fowls, securing the eggs from nests that are within reach, putting in water and scattering grain in the litter. The whole structure is covered with tarred or resin-sized paper, the edges being securely tacked or battened with laths. The roof is covered in the same way.

Select a dry location, and put in three inches of gravel upon the ground and keep a thick layer of chaff upon that, and the inmates will scratch away merrily for grain all winter long. Make the building any length desired and part off with boards — or with netting if only females are to be kept in the pens — before the roof is put on. Roosts can be put up just out of the fowls' way when on the floor. With care to make the roof tight, such a building, while it costs but little, will prove very satisfactory.

This Lozv Cost Building, designed by G. R. France, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, for about twenty-five hens, could also be built in duplicate with the main alley running the whole length of the connected buildings and in front of the different sections, about twenty-five hens to be kept in each. (Figure 6.)

It is intended to be built of rough hemlock, the price of which is based at ten dollars per thousand feet. It could be made of mill slabs doubled, with a space between, packed with straw and battened with slabs. The ground space is filled up with loose stone thrown in until on a level with the bottom of the sills, and then dirt is spread over the stone and tamped down hard. This filhng- is cheap and the stone allows the moisture to go through, and the dirt floor is always dry. However, if a board floor is wanted, add one hundred and sixty-eight feet of matched hemlock flooring at fifteen dollars 'per thousand feet. For a partition, in place of netting use straight poles from the forest, for cheapness. Mr France had the sash, and battened his roof with slabs, but still was very careful to make it warm, and it cost him only about four dollars for material.

Below is an itemized list of lumljer and other supplies : Two hundred and sixty feet of ten-foot inch

J'lJS^ "C^

W \

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FIG 6: HOUSE OF MR FRANCE boards for siding (must not be cut to waste) ; two hundred and thirty-one feet of fourteen-foot boards for roof and nests ; one hundred feet battens three inches by ten feet ; two pieces two by six inches by fourteen feet, and two pieces two by six inches by twelve feet for sills ; eight pieces two by four inches by fourteen feet for plates and cross-beams ; four pieces one by six inches by twelve feet for window casing; two squares of felt roofing at one dollar and fifty cents per square, including nails for same ; one roll building paper, five hundred square feet, sixty cents ; netting six by sixteen feet, seventy cents ; ten pounds nails, thirty cents ; two pairs strap hinges, thirty cents ; four half sash, two dol-

13^ lars and fifty cents. Total cost of lumber and supplies, fourteen dollars and forty-five cents. Waste material can be used where there is some on hand. The labor would occupy a carpenter with one man to help about two days.

Convenient House — Figure 7 shows the front elevation and end' view of a poultry house that has some good points. The arrangement of the roosts, / / (which are made movable to facilitate cleaning away the droppings), on a stand in the middle of the room, makes it convenient to get at them. The door in front of the nests, g, swings up so as to gather the eggs, the

FIG 7: CONVENIENT HOUSE. END VIEW AND FRONT ELEVATION hens entering at the rear; h is the ventilator, which is opened and shut by a weight and cord ; this system of ventilation is* defective. As has been frequently explained, the proper way to ventilate a poultry house is by means of a shaft running from within a few inches of the floor to several feet above the roof. Thus a draft is created that draws up the cold air and bad odors from near the ground, while the warm air at the top is thus brought down and the fowls are kept much warmer than would be the case if a hole in the roof let out all the warm air. The space underneath the nests, marked e, can be utilized for sitters or for storage.

H

Cheap and Sairs Labor — The accompanying illustrations, Figures 8 and 9, show a very handy and convenient henhouse. It is located near the kitchen and is so cleanly that the women of the house can run in and out after eggs or for feeding purposes. It is built

FIG 8: CHEAP AND LABOR-SAVING. CROSS SECTION of matched siding, running up and down, and the roof is of the same material, with tarred paper on the inside. All the inside fixtures are movable, and monthly during the warm weather everything is taken

— n

WmmJtr-

S4/tftr

FIG 9: CHEAP AND LABOR-SAVING. GROUND FLOOR out and the whole inside, including the roof, is given a shower bath of lime water and carbolic acid, applied with a spray pump. The roost poles are covered with

LOW-COST HOUSES I5

cloth, which is occasionally saturated with kerosene. Near the right, as seen in the diagram, Figure 8, is the entrance door, and a is a bin four feet high and eighteen inches wide, running the whole length of the building, with a hinged lid, for storing droppings. Above this box is a shelf, b, for holding feed, shells, gravel, etc. At the left of the door is a tight platform, c, one foot beneath the roost poles, c, for catching the droppings. At fl? is a hinged door opening on a level with the platform, through which the droppings are shoveled once a week into bin a. The nest boxes, f, are one foot square and fifteen inches high, leaving an eight-inch passage for the hens to enter the nests ; a small crack is left at the top in the back, so that the light strikes the eight-inch alley, but not the boxes. Each nest is a separate box, and when a hen becomes broody the nest box is pulled forward close to the drop door, thus shutting up the alley and locking biddy on her nest. As the nests are all alike, it makes no difference which nest she chooses to brood in — it can be moved to the end and thus does not obstruct the passage. About two inches of moist sand are put into the bottom of each nest before the hen is set ; the straw nest is built thereon and the eggs are given her. The door, o-, is then shut down. Every morning the hatching hens are let out for fifteen minutes to eat, drink, wallow, etc, after which they will usually take their own nests ; if not, thev can be easily changed. The eggs can be gathered through the door, _i[.

At /, under the nest boxes, is a long trough with partitions for soft feed, water, milk, etc, running the whole length of the building. The space between this trough and d in Figure 9 is slatted up with common lath, running from the front side of the nests to the back side of the trough, thus leaving the trough in the alley where the fowls cannot get into it— the lath being i6 far enough apart to allow the fowls easy access to the feed. The lath are nailed to narrow strips at top and bottom, to be movable. At / is a dust bath the whole length of the building in front of the windows, which face the south.

In Figure 9, at s, is an oil stove which is used when the temperature gets too low. At m m are ventilators with slides to gauge them. The doors, h h, are for access to dust baths, etc, and n n are windows. Each of the two apartments will accommodate twenty-five fowls.

FIG 10

HANDY HENNERY

A Handy Hennery — The chief objection to a twostory henhouse is the inconvenience of going upstairs, carrying up earth and cleaning out the upper story. Rut all the annoyances are obviated in the hennery shown, Figure 10, and twice the amount of space is secured which the same amount of roof usually covers. This was built at a cost of ten dollars for carpenter's work and twenty-eight dollars more for the total cost of sash, nails, lumber, etc. As the perspective shows, the bank wall and digging required some labor. The cut shows the south and w^est sides of the house. It is

LOW-COST HOUSES I7

fourteen by sixteen feet and is an unusually warm structure considering the fact that it is not lined. The estimate does not include some old lumber which made the roof boards. The roofing is not included. The south slope to the roof is shingled. This covers but one-third the area, and two bundles of shingles are sufficient. Board floors are used only in the second story. On the ground floor the earth is filled in to the top of the stone underpinning. It remains perfectly dry in the wettest weather and is much more satisfactory than board or cement could possibly be. The building has a window both above and below on the east side.