The brooder house should be thoroughly cleaned and the litter changed
once every 7 days, or oftener if disease occurs, regardless of the type
of litter used. This cleaning schedule must be adhered to rigidly if
blackhead, coccidiosis, and other diseases are to be prevented.
Thoroughly clean and disinfect brooder houses and equipment used for
turkeys at the end of each brooding season or oftener if disease occurs.
First clean the house thoroughly and burn all litter and droppings or
haul them to land that is not to be used for poultry and from which
there will be no drainage into the turkey range. Then scrub the floor
and sides of the house, if it is of board construction, with boiling hot
lye solution (one-third of a can to a pail of water) and allow them to
dry out. Next, thoroughly spray the entire inside of the building with
a 3- or 4-percent solution of cresol compound or any other approved
disinfectant. Give the same treatment once a year to the quarters
occupied by the breeding stock. The "fire gun", a large kerosene torch
which involves the blow-torch principle, has proved to be valuable in
disinfecting, if it is properly used and the house has been thoroughly
cleaned.