Page:The Golden Hamster Manual.djvu/35

 board), as desired. The author prefers hinged front doors as standard equipment. A hingeless door may be of disadvantage while moving females in or out of the breeding male's pen.

Droppings tray is 8x21, about 1$1/2$ high.

Floor has self-cleaning area and removable top. Inspection doors in rear permit easy culling of litters, etc.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Dimensions are given in inches.

Key:

Top Boards make removable top 1x23x37.

T.S. Two 1x2x18 top strips, Illus. 32.

Flr. Boards make floor 1x15$1/2$x37, Illus. 31.

E & P Five 1x10x22 board ends and partitions.

D.S. lx1 (or 1$1/2$)x37 door sill, Illus. 21.

Fr.Drs. Four front doors, wire with wood frames.

Rr.Drs. Four hingeless solid board rear doors, Illus. 27.

Hdw.cl. 10x37 No. 4 hdw. cl. (No. 3 is optional), self-cleaning floor section.

C.T. 1x2x37 cross-tie, Illus. 31, 29, 30.

B.T. 1x2x37 back-tie, Illus. 27.

M.T. lx1x37 middle-tie, Illus. 27.

T.T. 1x1x37 top-tie, Illus. 27.

Dr.Tr. 8x37 droppings tray, about 1$1/2$ inches high.

Nails, hinges, joint fasteners, mending plates (2-in.) for door buttons, No. 5 double pointed tacks, and 1x1 wood for optional miscellaneous uses.

Foregoing materials construct pen unit with front as in Illus. 26, back as in Illus. 27 and 28, top and floors as in Illus. 31. Optional plans for doorless back are given in Illus. 27a and 27b.



STEPS IN CONSTRUCTION

Set up the five 1x10x22 boards for partitions and ends. Nail two temporary strips across the front, one at top and one at bottom of front to make pen doorways of equal widths. Now, nail back-tie (B.T.) strip on back ends of the ends and partitions, as in Illus. 27. The top-tie (T.T.), hdw. cl. V. (ventilator), and middle-tie (M.T.) should be of such widths as to permit the use of a board rear door at least 5 inches high in each opening. So, one should determine the exact door height before installing the ventilation strip. Measure exact width of board you will saw up for rear doors. For instance, it may be 5$1/4$ inches. In which case, draw a line across the back exactly 5$1/2$ inches above the base-tie (B.T.). Next, cut a strip of hdw. cl. (No. 2