Hot Weather Aids

Hot Weather Aids

Listed For Poultrymen

Paint saves poultry—on hot days.

Lee W. Herrick, associate poultry husbandman at VPI, says painting poultry house roofs will keep them cooler in the summertime. He cites the experience of a Weedonville poultryman, Charles T. Bevan, who has* painted the metal roof of his poultry house with aluminum paint, says the inside temperature lowered by 5 to 10 degrees.

Poultrymen with a tar paper roof can use a special alunimum paint with an asphalt base.

Herrick says extreme heat often means losses in the poultry flock. Birds of all ages may die from heat, and laying hens often slow-down or stop egg production. Slow growth, caused by a drop in feed consumption in hot weather, means losses for broiler and turkey growers.

There are other ways to keep poultry houses cool. Many farmers make openings in the sides of the houses, of reft on all four sides. Mrs. Kitty Weaver, Aldie, built a poultry - house with large frames, hung on door tracks which provide the side wall. These cover all the space from the ground to the fotQi, and are covered with a blass substitute. To open the house, she slides several of the frames to ope area.

Other aids in hot weather include roof ventilitors; extra waterers;, sprinkling the ceiling, wall and floor; and reducing the number of birds in the house. Fans inside the house help when there is no breeze.

Herrick says plans are available from county agents or from the Agricultural Extension Service at VPI for new, large, wide houfees with'wide doors in both ends, windows in both sides, "A” roofs and roof ventilators. The new houses are adaptable to extremes in weather. They can be dosed tight in winter, and opened wide in summer. Built with concrete or cinder blocks, tbtor wo* «uefcnao®ler than narrow houses with shed roofs.