The high price of all foods has made poultry raising profitable. But to
have laying hens they must be carefully tended. Their houses must be
clean, and free from draughts. Young chickens must be protected from
rats, skunks and foxes.
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Concrete houses fill every requirement of an ideal poultry house. To
clean a house of concrete, spray it with oil and burn it out. Concrete
is fireproof. Rats cannot gnaw through a concrete floor or sidewalk. In
a concrete house there are no cracks through which the snow can sift,
or in which lice and bedbugs can hide.
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Locate the poultry house where there is plenty of sunlight and where
the concrete poultry yard (see FEEDING FLOORS, page 43) may be wind
protected. Build the house as directed under SMALL BUILDINGS, page
82. As the walls are being placed, insert short pieces of gas pipe at
convenient heights to support the shelves for the nests (one style of
nest shown on page 94) and the rails for the roosts. If desired, a
one-way-slope concrete roof may be made.
Make the floor on an 8-inch fill of gravel, or of slabs built on a
smooth floor and later set in place. Lay heavy wire fencing in the
concrete slab 1 inch from the under side.