Class ^X TMn Book. y5^2^_ GpightN" COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. POULTRY ARCHITECTURE A Practical Guide for Construction of Poultry Houses^ Coops and T'ards >, >'» ,', J » : »^ : > One Hundred Illustrations Compiled by , GEORGE B. FISKE New York ORANGE J U D D COMPANY iqo2 ^ j THTXrBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Cop«Ee Recwveo AUG. 19 1902 CoPVT^tOHT ENTRY C'.AS3«CC.XXc Mo, COPY 8. c" c ec c c Cojivriylit UJQ2 6v^u%c JucUl Company CONTENTS Introduction CHAPTER I LOCATION AND METHODS Foundations and walls — Ghuss in cold weather — Roosts, etc — Troughs — Fountains — Notes. CHAPTER H LOW-COST HOUSES 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 HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 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 HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 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 COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES Glass roof coops — Hotbed coops — Rat-proof — Cool runs — Ten- cent coops — Orchard chicken coop — Fattening pens — Sum- mer 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 17— H. H. Stoddard's Colony House 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 4 7 10 12 13 14 14 16 19 20 21 21 22 24 26 30 32 36 33 40 41 43 45 46 48 50 51 52 53 54 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 79 79 79 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 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 104 107 107 108 109 109 no III 112 115 116 117 117 118 119 120 120 121 122 123 124 124 125 125 126 127 128 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 condi- tions. 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 Ameri- can Agriculturist weeklies in response to definite re- quests." 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 overorna- mental and elaborate affairs having been excluded. Wherever thought necessary or desirable, complete specifications of cost and construction have been in- cluded, so that the structures may be put up by anyone wdio can handle saw and hammer. CHAPTER I LOCATION AND METHODS 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 2 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 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 building- open beneath and permits the cold winds to reduce the LOCATION AND METHODS 3 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 mam- years. If the framing is made to use crosswise board- ing, 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 pat- terned 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 board- ing should be nailed on first and covered with tarred building paper on the side that will come within the -m, 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 ad- mira1)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 build- ing 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 exactly- alike and situated side by side, were selected for the experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pul- lets. 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 morn- ing mash consisted of corn meal, ground middlings and ground oats, and at night whole grain was scat- tered 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 fol- lowing table shows the number of eggs laid during each period of thirty days : RESULTS FROM COLD AND WARM HOUSES 12345 Total Warm house ... .87 130 138 120 154 629 Cold house 39 106 103 124 114 486 The experiment clearly indicates that it is impor- tant 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. 6 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 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 durabil- ity 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 cur- rents 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 mate- rials 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 com- monly use too much glass, which makes a house un- naturally 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. LOCATION AND METHODS 7 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 ventilat- ing 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 8 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 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. LOCATION AND METHODS 9 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 LOW-COST HOUSES 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, includ- ing 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 aver- age 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 tight- ness 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 net- ting 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 build- ings 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 12 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 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 sup- plies : Two hundred and sixty feet of ten-foot inch e***°***^ ***°^ J'lJS^ "C^ W \ ;l= J '- « FIG 6: HOUSE OF MR FRANCE boards for siding (must not be cut to waste) ; two hun- dred 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- LOW-COST HOUSES 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 ele- vation 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 ex- plained, 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 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 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 . '•>!C.... ..«V.tfS«4M» .jsjtr!^,^^ WmmJtr- ■I l-f , /^ .. f » » ^ f 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 plat- form, 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 PO U LTR Y A RC H ITECT U RE 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 two- story 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 satis- factory than board or cement could possibly be. The building has a window both above and below on the east side. The sills are four l)y six inches, two being fourteen feet and two sixteen feet long. The corner posts are four by four inches by twelve feet long, another stick four by four inches and ten feet long, four joists three by four inches and sixteen feet long, two more of the same only fourteen feet long, nine joists for the floor two by five inches and fourteen feet long, eight rafters two by four inches and twelve feet long, eight more of the same only seven feet long. This made in round numl)ers four hundred and fifty feet, and five hundred and fifty feet more of Georgia pine planed on one side and sixteen feet long was bought at a cost of sixteen dollars per thousand. Also two bundles of shingles at one dollar per bundle and ten sashes at forty cents each, second hand. The frame timber cost eighteen dollars per thousand feet. Twenty pounds of "eight- penny nails and ten pounds of tens were bought for seventy-five cents, five pounds of spikes twenty-five cents, the same weight of six-inch spikes twenty-five cents, seven pounds of wire nails thirty-five cents, four pairs of hinges thirty-two cents and two door handles for thirty-five cents. The front of the structure is made of pine which cost seventeen dollars per thousand. l8 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE Only one nundred and seventy feet were used, costing three dollars. The pine was got at this low price, being a cheap lot, with here and there narrow seams of decayed wood. These places were soaked with hot lin- seed oil as soon as the house was completed, which will stop all further decay. A little putty will fill all the seams and paint will hide everything. No window frames were used, the sash being put just behind the siding and arranged to slide sidewise. The partitions run north and south upstairs and down. A three-foot hall extends along the north side of the exposed upper story, thus adding to its warmth. From this hall doors open into both apartments. The partitions running north and south are made of mov- able poultry hurdles that can be used out of doors in summer if desired. The hens like these deep rooms, they are so cool in summer, and afford dark retreats at the rear for skulking away to lay. Screens have been put up downstairs to increase the darkness at the back. The house is not an unsightly one, as many poultry houses are. It is to be painted light drab, with white about the doors and windows to represent frames. A quantity of pieces of boards from three to five feet long were left after cutting the sixteen-foot boards. These came in handy for flooring, screens, nest boxes, etc. A House for Layers — It is sometimes better to have a number of small houses suitable for laying rather than have roosting, feeding and laying accom- modations combined under one roof, as is so often the case. Hens soon learn where the comforts for laying are to be found and seek them, giving better attention to what duties they have to perform in this respect than they do under other surroundings. The illustra- tion, Figure ii, shows a cheaply constructed laying house, to be built any size the builder wishes to make it. It is made against the wall of another building with a LOW-COST HOUSES 19 southern aspect or shelter. This acts to advantage to the laying quarters, keeping it free from the severe cutting winds and snow of winter and damp rains of spring time. Nothing but nesting compartments are within the building and the hens know what is to be expected of them upon entering. The entrance for the hens is, as will be noticed, at the end of the building. In cold weather it shuts out the cold that leaving a larger opening would involve. At ni'^ht a board on the FIG II HOUSE FOR LAYERS inside should shut up the inclosure to keep the build- A Ten-Dollar Henhouse — This coop. Figure 12, costs ten dollars and is large enough for a dozen fowls. The coops are built seven by ten feet of boards costing six dollars per thousand. From ground to eaves the distance or the length of the l^oards is two and a half feet. The roof boards are five feet long and are covered- v/ilh tarred paper. The doorway in front on 20 I'O U LTR V A KC H ITECT L' RE the south side is twenty inches wide by five feet high. This kind of coop does first rate for summer and fairly well for winter use. The House and Shed shown in the illustration, Figure 13, can be made for sixteen to twenty dollars, and will answer for a fiock of thirty fowls of average size. If more fowls are kept, not over thirty should be housed together, but by uniting two or more of these small houses end to end, with continuous walls and roof, the accommodations can be increased to any ex- tent desired. The building is sixteen feet long and ten feet wide, and is similar to the houses used by FIG 12 TEN-DOLLAR HENHOUSE Buffinton, Hunter, Shoemaker and other practical poul- trymen. Half the space is occupied by an open scratch- ing shed, which should have a curtain of oiled cotton cloth in front for stormy weather. Figure 14 shows the interior plan, which needs little explanation. A board to catch droppings is placed under the roosts, and the nest boxes are often kept under the dropping board, for seclusion and economy of space. By making' the building higher a passageway for the attendant can be partitioned off at the rear. This arrangement is convenient where these buildings are joined in a long series. LOW-COST HOUSES 21 A small henhouse furnishes no space for exercise, and a large room is too cold during winter nights. The best combination is a small, snug, one-windowed room for laying and roosting, having attached a large, cheap, light shed, the latter, according to location, open south or entirely closed, containing several windows. FIG 13: HOUSE AND SHED <4 8^/0 AiETTV FIG .14: INTERIOR OF HOUSE WITH SHED Scratching sheds with closed front should have a large, wide door which can be thrown open in mild weather, the hens being confined by an inner door of netting. When several of these houses are joined, they should be built roosting pens joining and scratching sheds joining alternately, thus reducing cost and mak- ing roosting oens warmer. The ^^ous^ recmires about 22. POULTRY ARCHITECTURE one thousand square feet of sheathing, besides the frame lumber, roofing sheet or shingles, etc. The floor of both parts should be covered with litter. Extra pro- tection for large combed breeds is afforded by boxing in the roosts. Economical Small House — The cut, Figure 15, shows the construction and advantages of this house. The space beneath has a dirt floor, and gives the hens FIG 15: A SMALL HOUSE out-of-door air in winter and a cool scratching place in summer. It can be cleaned out with an iron rake by re- moving the wire netting. Made of matched boirdir.g with building paper beneath, such houses are very in- expensive and will serve admirably for use with the col- ony plan of keeping fowls. A number of such houses can be scattered about the pastures, allowing large flocks to be kept. This house can be built of any size LOW -COST HOUSES 2^ desired, but eight by ten to eight by twelve feet wih be found a very handy size and will accommodate from twenty to thirty fowls. A Cornstalk Shelter can be made quickly and cheaply for the hens. The hens are very fond of a low, open shed facing the south, and one can be built of stalks that will last two or three years or longer. Drive a few posts in the ground and wire some rails against and on top of them. Lean the stalks against these and lay them thickly on top for the roof, which should have a steep slant. Cover the roof with a few inches of straw and lay a few^ stalks on top to keep it in place, which will make it waterproof. In the spring the stalks may be taken down and thrown in the barn- yard if no longer needed. CHAPTER III BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM For certain sections of the country where th^re is but Httle snow in winter, the pouhry house shown in the cut, Figure i6, will be found a most practical affair. It is built something like a chicken coop, but much wider, and can be carried to any length desired, accord- ing as one, two or a dozen flocks are to be given accom- modations. FIG 16: COLONY HOUSE FOR MILU CLIMATES The interior of each pen is reached from the hinged door in the roof. From this the house can be cleaned out, new litter added, eggs collected and the fowls fed ni unpleasant weather. At all other times they are fed m the yards. The hinged doors in the roof are in perspective in the picture, and do not show their full width. Of course, they can be made as wide as one may wish. Make the whole roof of well-seasoned lum- BUILDIXl.S R)R ».ULUNV S\ STliAI 2^ ber, and paint it well. Under each Qilge of the hin^L;cd doors make a deep groove running down the roof to the eaves. This wall keep rain from beating in under the doors. Small windows open out from the side toward the yards. In some circumstances small detached houses can be made after this pattern and located far enough apart so that the hens can be divided into small flocks but given free range over a pasture or other rough land, each flock learning to know its own home, and going to it to lay, eat and roost. Even in far northern latitudes where snow lies deep in winter, such a plan could be used for the summer colonizing of fowls, the flocks being l^rought into winter quarters at the a])proach of winter. A Business Poultry House, designed and used in large numbers by H. H. Stoddard, Nebraska, is well adapted for use in the colony system, whereby the houses are placed about ten rods apart in large fields and the fowls given free range. Mr Stoddard put the cost at not above forty cents per fowl for materials. It is fifteen by eight and a half feet and four and a half feet high, with roosting accommodations for fifty fowls. The house is shown in Figure 17. The part of the roof on the south side at a a a, and nearly all on the north, consists of hinged doors opening to the right or left, and overlapping when closed, to shed rain. When it is desired to whitewash, throw open all the doors, thus turning the house inside out, take out the perches and nests, all built movable, and there will be no nook or cranny of the woodwork that the brush cannot be made to reach with ease, and no lack of elbow room. This arrangement of doors makes it convenient also to catch fowls upon the perches by night. The doors should shut as snugly as may be in coarse joiner work, and the cracks unavoid- 26 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE ably left around them will afford all the ventilation needed in winter, while in summer they may be opened more or less widely, according to the weather. When it is warm, yet wet, they may be partly opened and propped up, and a board put across their edjes to shed rain. It is very desirable, under any plan for henneries, to build so that while moderately tight in win.er, they may be thrown open on every side in hot weather ; for fowls are warmly clad, and suffer much from the heat when in buildings made, as is too frequenJy the case, only with reference to the cold. The doors which form the north roof project six inches at the ridge to keep out rain, as there is no ridge-cap. The two win- FIG 17: H. K. STODDARD S COLONY HOUSE dows in the south roof are glazed greenhouse fashion, that is, with overlapping panes, that snow may sHde from them readily as soon as loosened by the warmth inside. They are two feet high and three feet wide, and set eighteen inches from the peak of the roof. A strip of tin is fastened over the upper part of the sash, and the sides and bottom of the sash overlap the roof, to be rain-proof. The shutters, b B, used to darken the building on certain necessary occasions, elsewhere referred to, are hinged to the lower part of the sash, and when opened, as in the illustration, rest upon the roof below the windows. The side sills project at both j;lildin(;s for colony system 27 ends of the buildino-, are beveled ranner fashion, and strengthened with iron where holes are bored to attach chains; thus it may be drawn by either erid. The sills, which receive the principal strain durino- moving, should be so well braced as to keep the whole building in shape. The end sills, of two-inch plank, should be spiked upon the top of the others, flatwise, so as not to touch the ground while moving, and the side sills, four inches square, should be of cliestnut or oak, to be as durable as possible, for they rest on the ground dur- ing a good part of the year. The spruce rafters, two by three inches, which answer for studs and rafters both, should be set at such distances apart as will correspond with the width of the doors and windows which are fastened to them. A stout ridgepole, sawn of a triangular shape, runs the length of the building underneath the rafters, and two sticks are fastened to this ridgepole, one five feet from each end, and braced upon the center -of the end sills to give firmness, for the covering, consisting chiefly of doors, does not strengthen the building, as in ordinary cases, where the covering is nailed to the frame. C C are doors, each three feet by one foot, opening outward and downward, to give the keeper access to the nests, which are one foot square and the same in depth, and so contrived that the hens enter them at one end from a passage six inches wide and one foot high, boarded at side and top, running the length of the row of nests, and are thus indulged in their liking for privacy while laying. The nests are tight upon the top, the outside door should fit closely, and the opening admitting the fowls to the passage be made so small that the nests will be rather dark. It is found that when nests are open to view from the main apartment, hens will, in stormy weather, for lack of other employment, sometimes enter them to scratch for food, and thus by chance break eggs and 28 I'OILTKV AKClllTiXTl Ri: learn to eat them, and acqnire the habit of pecknig at and devouring- eggs as fast as laid. But a darkened nest will deter them from entering, except to lay, for which purpose they prefer a low, dark corner. There is a row of six nests running across the building at each end, making twelve, which will be sufficient, as it will not happen that more than that number out of a flock will need them at once. The passages are made so that they may be taken out with the nests for whitewash- ing. The end sills, of plank eighteen inches wide, serve as a tight floor for the nests and passage. The perches, two in number, are eighteen inches apart and each is eighteen inches from the roof and two feet higher than the sills. Perches should be of two and a half by three and a half inch sawed stuff, the widest part up, with the upper corners rounded off a very little. When fowls not fully grown roost upon narrow perches, their breastbones sometimes become deformed. From four to five average sized fowls will occupy two feet of perch. The perches, being each twelve feet long, will accommodate a flock of fifty, and are to be placed so as not to extend over the part occupied by the nests. The drinking vessel stands upon one of the platforms formed by the nests, and upon these platforms are also shallow boxes containing gravel, pounded charcoal, and a mixture of loam, sand and oyster-shell lime, made into an easily crumbled mortar. The boxes are ten inches wide, and, being placed next the end wall, leave a space eight inches wide upon the platform for the fowls to stand upon. The drinking pail and gravel boxes are protected by their elevation from the dirt that would otherwise be thrown into them by the fowls when scratching and dusting, and are fronted by slats with openings six by two and three-fourths inches be- tween them. An opening is made in the end wall over the pail that is just large enough to admit the spout BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 29 of a large watering pot without the sprinkler, to afford the most convenient arrangement for watering. The door, d, one foot wide, opening downward, is for re- moving the pail and gravel hoxes when desired, and when fastened ajar will be found more convenient for ventilation than the roof doors, when the weather is only moderately warm. Both ends of the building alike are furnished with doors. During the severest weather, generally about three or three and a half months of the year, this building does not stand with sills upon the ground, but for winter it rests, as in the figure, upon the edges of a box or bin of dimensions corresponding with the cen- ter of the sills of the building, made of planks nine inches wide and two thick, like a mortar bed with no bottom, filled with dry earth. This should be set upon ridges thrown up by the plow. During the winter a low structure six feet wide and twelve long, and one and a half high on one side and three and a lialf on the other, seen at the left in the illustration, serves the purpose of a feeding room, and the rest of the year is used as a shelter for chickens. Its winter location is about four feet from the larger building, e e e e represent doors which overlap each other to shed rain, and when closed rest upon the highest or north wall, and open upward and to the south, resting upon a rail attached to posts set in the ground. In each door is a window three feet square, glazed, as are all the windows in the various fowd houses, greenhouse style. This feed house is movable, being furnished with planks set edgewise, with runner-shaped ends for side sills. Inside a feed box, slatted on both sides, rests on cleats attached to the end walls, twenty inches from the north wall, and near the top of the room, so that dirt cannot be scratched into it. It has a shelf seven inches 3^ ro U LTR Y ARC H ITECT U RE wide on both sides in front of the slats, on which the birds stand wdiile feeding, and contains a trough made by naihng boards three inches wide to each edge of a board five inches wdde. A door, f, in one end of the feed room, large enough to admit a fowl, communicates with a similar door, G, in the south side of the main building by a movable covered passage five and a half feet long, one and one-fourth high and one wide, it being like a box with a lid and but one end, and with an opening on one side. This passage is not shown in the illustration. FIG l8: NORTHERN COLONY HOUSE Northern Colony Houses — Farmers in the north wdio raise poultry extensively usually have started with but little capital, and have tried to build the cheapest possible house that would afford enough shelter to secure winter eggs in a severe climate. A typical house of this kind is shown herewith, Figure i8, depicting the style in use on a colony poultry farm in New Hamp- shire. Other farms in the state use a house of same style but shorter and therefore cheaper. A number of these houses are arranged in two rows at opposite sides of a ten-acre lot. Fach house in the row is several rods from its nearest neighbor. All of the houses are accessible bv BUILDINGS FOR COLONY Si'STLM 3I means of a team, which is employed to transport sup- phes. No fencing is used except for a few flocks, (hiring the breeding season. The houses, which, by the way, have been hberally copied by the whole neighbor- hood, are A-shaped, fifteen by sixteen feet, the narrow side to the front. The seven two by four rafters are eleven feet long, and are nailed at the bottom directly onto the sills, which are four by four and raised a foot or so above the ground on stones. The roof is doi.ble, sloping east and west, and is covered first with rough hemlock boards, over which are laid two thicknesses of tarred paper, well battened down, and finally a liberal coat of coal tar over all. The ends of the houses are made in dift'erent ways, and some are boarded and shingled, others battened only. Still others are treated like the roof. In the south end on the right side is a door swinging outward, which is left open every day unless the weather is very stormy. A slat door inside is found . useful to keep the hens from going out in inclement weather. At the left of the door is the only window in the house. It consists of two sashes of ordi- nary size, which are screwed fast in their places and never opened. For ventilation a hole six to eight inches square is cut high up in each gable. During summer both of these are left open, while in winter the back one only is closed. The soil being naturally rather light, no special preparation for floors is re- quired, further than to fill up each house with sand to about the top of the sills. The roost platforms are in the back side about four feet from the ground, and are four feet wide. The roosts, three or four in num- ber, are al)Out one foot above the platforms, which latter are cleaned weekly, and the roosts as often smeared with kerosene. Cheese boxes for nests are placed on a platform at the left as one enters. 32 roiLlRV ARClllTECTURi': All the chicks are hen hatched in nests at the right of the door, each of which is shut off by itself by means of slat divisions and a door which is sus- pended from the roof. Whenever a hen wants to sit, she is moved, nest, box and all, into one of these divi- sions and given her eggs if she means business. The chicks are all raised in . brooders. From thirty to forty fowls occupy one of these houses. FIG 19 7« nil!in!"""f'/^^.'{^'^ "f ' ''m''>^^uumi//ff'fy^m \...,^^^^''/I V>,v.>vW'/''- RHODE ISLAND COLONY HOUSE Rhode Island Colony Houses — In some towns of southern Rhode Island poultry farming is the main industry. The farmers keep from two hundred to five thousand chickens, with smaller numbers of ducks and geese, and depend on them for a living. With care and industry a profit of one to two dollars per fowl is counted on each year. The soil is heavy clay and very wet after rain, but the fowls, having free range, keep BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SVSTLM 33 in good health. In fact the heavy, rich soil is often mentioned by the owners as a main factor of success, because of the good hen pasturage it supplies. About two hundred and fifty fowls are assigned to the acre. The houses. Figure 19, are of the simplest plan possible, built of rough hemlock boards and hav- ing a small window in front, and very simple arrange ment inside. The cost cannot be over twenty dollars per house and may be made considerably less. Some of the houses have a double roof, others are single and made of rough, unmatched hemlock lumber. The roof is of plain boards not shingled, and no roofing or batting ])aper is used unless as an experiment. Mr Wilbour, however, one of the most extensive growers, writes : "We have found it more economical to shingle the roofs. We are also careful to batten the cracks, so that no direct draft can come upon the fowls. The average cost is sixteen to tw^enty dollars per house complete. We have demonstrated that an inexpensive attachment, to serve as a scratching shed, is a good investment. As to warmth, direct drafts are always to be avoided, but we have never suffered from low temperatures. We use tarred paper sometimes inside, which is clean and healthy, but we never have been able to discover specially favorable or improved results." The cheapest style is considered the most profita- ble. Built in this style there is no need of providing for ventilation, as the air is admitted through numerous cracks between the boards. The fowls are outside almost every day in the year, as there is very little snow. In summer, fresh salt breezes keep the air cool and the fowls are vigorous and active the year around. Kept in such large numbers, the laying poultry docs not reach the high average production found in some small flocks. Probably one hundred to one hundred and twenty per hen would cover the average annual 34 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE production of the southern Rhode Island hen. But this rate of product is found quite profitable because of the small expense for buildings, labor and feed. On account of the lack of railroad transportation, grain costs more than elsewhere, but the addition of this is not serious. It might be supposed that the various flocks, hav- ing no fences between, would become hopelessly mixed at feeding time. But such is not the case, after the birds have learned their home by being shut into it for a few days. Mr Wilbour says : "We have no trouble in feeding, with a horse and man driving from one poultry house to another. If the hens do mix up a little they separate at once and return to their respec- tive houses. Except our breeding flocks we keep no males with our hens upon the theory that infertile eggs keep best.'' CHAPTER IV HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY When properly managed, poultry is one of the most profitable products of the farm. With a few in- expensive, conveniently arranged buildings and yards one person can annually raise five hundred to eight hundred chicks without much difficulty, and the loss need not exceed two per cent. Here is a sketch and description of such an outfit. The plan and description is by Fred Grundy, Christian county, Illinois, and was awarded first prize in a poultry descriptive contest by publishers of American Agriculturist in 1900. The two yards, Figure 20, are one hundred and fifty feet long. Number i is for the hens and is thirty-two feet wide. Fence is four-foot netting, two- inch mesh, with six-inch board at bottom. Number 2 is for chicks and is sixteen feet wide. Fence same as Number i, except that there is twelve-inch board at bottom to keep chicks in. Some prefer twelve-inch netting, one-inch mesh, at bottom. Either will do. Each yard has a five-foot gate next to the house to admit horse and plow. Cherry or other fruit trees are set near together at lower end of yards and partly along sides, outside the fence, and one apple tree at front corners of house. Both yards are plowed early in spring. Number i heavily seeded with millet. Num- ber 2 with rape. Plow Number i again in October and sow rye. At north or west end of yards is house, eight feet high in front, six and a half at back, ten and a half feet '■i»0^^' /vo/ I 'il- I t I 4 ' " 'M'" 32 Ji/SCr iimiiiiri 1 FfOV FIG 20: GRUNDY S POULTRY HOUSE AND YARD HOMES FOR FARM roiL'IRY 37 wide. Plain barn siding battened, interior lined with two-ply tarred sheathing and roof covered with three- ply tarred roofing felt. This makes it wind and rain proof. Floors are earth raised a few inches. House is painted and looks neat. The building is divided as follows : a is an open scratching shed sixteen feet long ; front is boarded down three feet from top. b is hen- house with door at each end. Perches are eighteen inches high, hinged to back wall, and supported in front and center by legs which stand on the floor. They can be raised out of the way and hung to the ceiling when the floor is swept. There is a double row of nests, twelve by twelve inches, one above the other, separate from the house and can be moved about or taken out for cleaning, c is chick house, sixteen feet long, door at each end. There is a row of coops, fourteen by twenty-four, at back for hens with chicks. The partitions between the coops are loose and can be drawn out so the hen can be passed along when a coop needs cleaning. The floor of the coop is a single inch-thick piece and lies loose on three inches of gravel or coal ashes. Front is fitted with a sliding door made of inch-mesh netting attached to a wood frame. Fanners' Poultry House — A Massachusetts poul- tryman, W. H. Wells, has built a house. Figure 21, v/hich he finds successful and which he made at low cost by using odds and ends of lumber about the farm. It is located on a natural ridge where drainage is good in all directions. To quote from ]\Ir Wells's directions : "The illustration shows a farmers' poultry house outside, with plan of roosts shown in lower corner and dimensions in feet and inches. Also frame of house, a, foundation stone ; b, frame and rafters ; c, boarding paper under shingles ; d, window partly open for ventilation. 38 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE "Dig two parallel ditches fourteen and a half feet apart, measuring from outsides, and each eighteen feet by twelve inches. Fill them with cobblestones. Place flat stones on a bed of cobbles every six feet, with their faces inclined toward each other. These are within the ditch. For rafters I prefer eight-inch round timber split through the center. Don't let the stone that the rafter sits on project above the support or it will conduct the water against the end of the support and rot it. Let the first course of shingles lap over the foundation stones. "The scratching shed is the last or end section in a house of three sections, but would be in the middle FIG 21 FARMERS POULTRY HOUSE section in a house of five sections, or the two center sections in a house of six sections. Each section repre- sents six feet of the length of the house. The sections used for scratching sheds are partitioned from the main house. When we have a scratching shed we place the door in the partition between the shed and the house as near the front side as possible. "In forming the projections for the window, don't use any timber larger than two by four inches, and those only for the short rafter and the upright. If two by six inches is used for the main timbers, use one by four for the uprights or the division between the win- dows. The ends of this house are finished the same as the roof, exceut that the shed is not papered, but the HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 39 partition between the shed and house proper is papered. The roosts are shown in the plan, but are not taken into account in the cost, as nearly everyone has his own ideas in regard to what is required for roosts and nests. Standards for the roosts are three feet high, notched at the top to hold the roosting poles. The box underneath for the droppings should be sunk into the ground within two inches of the top, or hens will roost on the sides. The roost is movable and must not be fastened to the top of standards, as it will interfere with cleaning the trough. ''The twenty-five-hen size requires lumber as fol- lows, cheap grades being used and odds and ends util- ized where possible. Four pieces each of the following : Fourteen feet by two by six inches, twelve feet by two by six inches, six feet by two by six inches, six feet by tw^o by four inches, three pieces eight feet by two by four inches and two pieces twelve feet by two by four inches ; one door two and one-half by six and one- third feet b}' one and one-fourth inches ; eight hundred feet Number 2 boards, six dollars per thousand feet ; five thousand Number 2 shingles, one dollar and a quarter per thousand ; two sashes to fill space four and one-third by five feet ten inches, glass nine bv twelve inches ; ninety square yards building paper ; twenty- five pounds tenpenny nails and three sets hinges with screws. Total cost of material, twenty-one dollars and forty-eight cents ; labor one man four days, six dollars. "By using cheap material, such as paper mill waste for sheathing paper, shingles sawed from lumber of the farm, old windows, etc, I managed to reduce actual cost of labor and all to twenty dollars and three cents. In longer houses of the same style the cost can be brought down to one dollar per running foot, in- cluding labor. A small house requires as many gables 40 POULTRY A RC H I T ECT U RE and ends to be finished as it it were tliree times as loni^, and hence is more costly in proportion. Don't think it necessary to follow exactly the measures here given. If you have old windows, build your section to fit them. If there are old boards that will do to cover the roof, use them and put in more of the mam rafters to nail to. One can use simply round poles for main rafters and still the building will be a success. Simply do the best you can with what you have to do with in time, money and material, but don't forget to paper underneath the shinijles." FIG 22 : HOUSE EASILY REMOVED Can Be Easily Taken Apart — Herewith is pre- sented a plan, elevation (Figures 22, 27,), details and bill of materials for a movable chicken house which almost anyone can construct. The cost is not great, depending on the kind and quality of lumber used. The elevation shows a shed roof, which is the cheaper, though not so fine in appearance. A double-pitched roof allows more available head room, thus making it iiUAlES FUR FARM POULTRY 41 more convenient to work inside. A movable house having the floor raised some distance above the ground, thus affording underneath a resting place and shelter from sun, wind and rain, is for many reasons a de- cided improvement over stationary houses. FIG 22f : INTERIOR AND DETAILS A house like this has been in use over a year and a half and seems to meet all requirements for fifteen to twenty fowls. It has a run thirty by forty feet. The house is moved to a new site, spring and fall, and is 42 POULTRY architecturh: easily moved on rollers and some pieces of two by fours by a man and boy. A ground floor sbould be pre- viously prepared by spading around a center line and throwing the earth up until a space eighteen inches larger each way than the house has been raised six inches above the surrounding surface. This should be raked level, and well rammed, so as to pitch slightly toward the front. The margins should be particularly well rammed to discourage scratching and prevent washing. Upon this floor lay the two pieces of two by fours for the house to rest on. The gable is shown not inclosed. The triangular piece which closes this may be hinged to the roof so as to swing outward, wdiich will afford ventilation in summer. The roosts should be all the same hight from the floor, and if each is divided by a couple of pickets projecting one foot above it there will be less crowd- ing. Loose nest boxes are set on the floor. The win- dow shown is amply large. It is covered outside with small-mesh wire netting, and in summer the sash is removed. A very useful addition for winter would be a sort of closed 'iean-to," which could be set against the open side to provide extended shelter and a pro- tected feeding place in stormy weather. This could be used as a coop during the breeding season. The following bill of materials is required : Four two by four sixteen feet for plates, sills and posts, two two by four twelve feet for plates, sills and foundation, twenty-four one by eight twelve feet, or one hundred and seventy square feet for sides, seven one by eight fourteen feet, or sixty-five feet, for roof, six one by eight sixteen feet, or fifty feet, for floor, two pounds tenpenny, four pounds eightpenny and one pound sixpenny cut nails, one piece small-mesh wire netting three by three, with staples, one six-light eight by ten glass sash, one roll two or three-ply roofing paper, one HUMES FUR FARM PULLTRY 43 and one-half pounds inch wire nails and tins, one pair three-inch strap hinges. The buildings on the C. H. Wyckoff farm, Tomp- kins county, New York, the well-known Leghorn specialist, are twelve feet wide by forty feet long and P PEl?CH£S T TROUGHS FOR DRGPPIN65 A AtLEY H N£ST6 FIG 24: END VIEW OF HOUSE AND DETAILS six feet high (see Figure 24), having a shingled roof with a one foot in three feet pitch. The sides and ends are double boarded, so as to break joints, with tarred paper between. The plates, sleepers, etc, are of two by four-inch scantlings. Each house is divided the long way by a partition into two equal compartments and each has a yard adjoining which accommodates sixty fowls. The two perches, which are along the 44 POULTRY ARCHITKCTLRE north side of the house, are placed thirteen inches apart and eighteen inches above the platform which catches the droppings and also serves as a cover to the nest boxes. Everything in the building is easily removable. The floor is cleaned once a week and the partition under the perches is cleaned twice a w^eek and plastered daily. Cleaning under the nests is accomplished by lifting the perches and scraping the trough. The eggs are gathered by lifting the hanging board floor which forms the sides and roof platform. A dark passageway leads along the back of the nest boxes and affords a secrecy and exclusiveness to the laying hen which is highly desirable. The feed trough is made by nailing together two- inch boards sixteen feet long by six inches wide in the form of a V trough. Water is kept in a pan, over which is placed a round flat box (see Figure 2 in Figure 24), through the sides of which the fowls can reach for the water and still cannot soil the water nor overturn the pan. The dust box is made by nailing a board across one corner of the room. Two windows, each containing six ten by twelve-inch lights, are placed in the south side of each apartment. More glass would ' make the house colder at night and warmer during the day owing to the rapidity with which glass radiates heat. No other ventilation is provided, except as the windows are opened by sliding. The floor is laid with- out an air space over a bottom of fine stone and gravel and is made practically air-tight by the dirt which fills the cracks. Well drained earth floors were first tried, but proved unsatisfactory because of the moist con- dition of the soil, which kept the floor cold and damp and made it necessary to remove the soil frequently, replacing it with new earth. The yards are two rods wide by eight long and contain twelve thrifty plum trees set in a row through HUMES FUR FARM i'OLLTRY 45 the middle. Every twu weeks during the summer the halves of the yards are alternately plowed. The fence is six feet high and is made hy wiring to chestnut poles panels made by nailing pickets two and one-half inches wide the same distance apart. The entire cost of each building, including the fence, did not exceed one hundred dollars. The fence alone cost for material seventy cents per rod. Movable Chicken Coop — During winter poultry- men should find time to repair old chicken coops and make new ones. With ordinary care more vigorous FIG 25 : MOVABLE COOP pullets can be raised by scattering them about the fields in small colonies after haying, as insects then form a very cheap and important portion of their diet. When biddy brings forth her brood, place in one of the coops with the movable run in position. This allows her to get to the ground. After she leaves her chicks the run is removed, the roosts placed in position and the family moved to any convenient spot. Pullets may be sheltered in such a house until cold weather or until they begin to lay. The coops will accommodate twenty-five chicks or ten well-grown pullets. It is four by three feet, and two and one-half feet high at 40 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE the eaves. The run is four by three feet. The run and roof are built with a pitch of ninety degrees. The sills are of two by four material and extended as shown in Figure 25, to facilitate moving. The plates are of two by two-inch material, and extended each way one foot beyond the eaves for handles. The sides, roof and floor are of jointed pine boards. The roof is covered with one thickness of sheathing paper, held in place by cleats. If this is jointed it will make a waterproof »KnaaBaanaB3aBeaaN FLOOR PLAN ' U I l| m ' ' ' I t m m Ff.QHT ELLVATION FIG 26: AN OREGON PLAN roof that will last a number of seasons. The first fifteen inches below each gable should be of half-inch wire netting for ventilation. Each end is provided with a door one foot wide, one hinged, the other arranged to slide. The roof should have a two-inch projection all around to throw rain. The run is made by nailing laths two and one-half inches apart upon a frame made of two by two-inch scantling. Two men can easily HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 47 move this coop from one part of a field to another, giving the chicks new feeding room. An Oregon Plan — The plan of Figure 26 was used for the construction of a house for one hundred fowls and has been found convenient and satisfactory. It is built box style with the joists placed on top of the sills. The roof has a one-third pitch, or four feet rise in twelve, with eight-inch eaves. Place the building upon posts two feet from the ground, so the fowls can get under it, as it makes a fine dusting place in winter or summer. Entrance for the fowls is made under each window, which should face the south or east. A board may be placed from the entrance to the ground and cleats nailed on as steps. In the construction was used ten or twelve-inch ship lap for floor and sides, lined with tar paper both sides and roof. For the house, as illustrated, there will be needed one thousand one hundred and seventy-five feet ship lap, two sills four by six by thirty-two feet, seventeen joists two by six by twelve feet, seventeen rafters two by four by fifteen feet, six plates two by four by sixteen feet, for posts one piece six by six by sixteen feet, old boards for roof boards or new lumber laid close together. Lay the shingles four inches to the weather, of which four thousand five hundred will be required. Parti- tions may be of one by two-inch strips placed two inches apart or they may be of boards. In the floor plan are shown the four windows by heavy lines, doors inside opening from partition to wall from coop to coop. The nests are conveniently arranged on each side of each pen. Coop for the South — D. D. Doane, a successful Florida poultry keeper, describes a house of slats. Figure 2"/, warm enough for the climate and cool in summer : HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 49 "My hens run at larg^e around the house and barn, which stand inclosed in a two-acre field seeded to Ber- muda grass. The flock consists of sixty-three hens and one male, all White Leghorns, nearly pure. The hen- house is twelve feet long, six feet wide and six feet from floor to peak. It has a cement floor, is swept ever}' Saturday and dusted with sand. The house is made of pine shakes and roofed with hand-made pine shingles. Laying boxes, running the whole length of house, are placed outside on each side, so that -I do not have to go inside the house except to sweep it. The morning feeding place is on a board floor resting on sawhorses three feet from the ground, so that pigs cannot get the feed nor disturb the fowls. "The henhouse costs about two days' labor in cut- ting down pine trees and splitting up into shakes and shingles. The chickens are hatched under hens and raised in a homemade brooder so the hens can go back to laying as soon as possible. In front of brooder I have a yard about six by eight feet made of wire netting." House for One Hundred Fowls — The building is made of two by four-inch joists, sheeted, papered and sided. The inside is sheeted, papered and ceiled. The dead air space is not filled as it is much drier. In Fig- ure 28, at a are four perches ; b is an incline hung on hinges with the lower edge over the box e to receive droppings. The end of the box c not under the roosts is used as a dust box. The feed trough is at d. A par- tition is made of two by four studding which is ceiled up with wire netting to allow light from windows across the passage. Nest boxes are at r, one-half of each extending through the wire partition, with a hinged cover. Large windows are placed in the upright eight-foot front. Figure 28 shows the end 50 ^OTLTRV ARCHITFXTURE view. This coop has had several years' trial and has proven convenient. House zcith Cloth Run — The distinctive feature of this henhouse (Figure 29) is the portion huilt entirely of oilcloth. The frames are made so that thev can be FIG 28: HOUSE FOR ONE HUNDRED FOWLS easily taken apart. They are m.erely tied together and lightly nailed to strong corner posts. This cloth run is excellent for chicks in early spring. When they are a few weeks old, a hole is made under the frame to let them out. Don't make the hole large enough for the HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 51 older fowls or for cats. The main henhouse is twelve by six by eight feet high, with slightly sloping roof. The cloth run is twelve by six by six feet high. The floor of the main house is raised two feet, allowing an extra run beneath for the chicks. This oiled cloth was used also for doors and for coverings for hotbeds, and it has lasted several years. L-Shapcd House — A poultryman submits this in- terior plan of a poultry house (Figure 30 j which has given him satisfaction. The shed faces toward the south, which is the left-hand side of the drawing. The FIG 29 : HOUSE WITH CLOTH RUN windows face the east, thus the birds get the morning and midday sun, either in the house or in the shed. The construction makes it convenient to reach all parts of the house and the cost is claimed to be no greater than by the ordinary method by which shed and main house are under a continuous roof. Octagon House — The octagon form has advan- tages. It is strong, compact and affords a larger area in proportion to the amount of outside wall than a rec- tangle. The timbers, being short, may be light. More- over, it can catch more winter sunshine. 52 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE The area of tlie poultry house represented by the accompanying ground plan, Figure 31, is three hun- dred and three square feet. This is a little more than that of a rectangular house ten by thirty feet. The sides being eight feet each, the total outside lineal measure- ment is sixty-four feet, whereas that of the rectangular house is eighty feet. With three windows, as shown in [ /? s r s A/esTJ 1 1 fV///oo»>/ op^r/f//f/) FIG 30: L-SIIAPED HOUSE WITH SHED the illustration, direct sunshine is admitted from dawn until sunset. The transverse partition is mainly of wire netting and the door may be wholly removed at the end of the brooding season. The dusting box is placed directly beneath the south window. The perches fit into slots at the ends, so as to be movable. It is needless to partition off the HUMES FOR FARM POULTRY 56 roosting place, but a curtain of old burlap hung in front of it in winter will add greatly to the comfort of the fowls and consequently to the contents of the egg basket. Good Winter House — The building (Figure 32) is thirty by ten feet, frame construction, and is elevated one and one-third feet from the ground. The building /^'E/PCAfEJ /^LA rroj?/^ Jc/PATC/i/m AA//> ffeo /Poorf FIG 31 : OCTAGON HOUSE is divided into three rooms ten by ten feet respectively. To the left is the brooder room, where the hens are set and where the chickens are reared. Along the side of this room are rows of nests which are separated from each other by partitions, and have each a door in front. Everything is portable and can easily be taken 54 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE out, cleaned and disinfected. To the right is the roost room. All droppings fall into a trough and the room can easily be kept clean. The roost is also portable. In the middle is the feed and scratch room, and above the same is a pigeon house the width of the building. In the feed and scratch room are also portable nests. The door in the middle room is on rollers and opens the whole length of the room. On the inside, wire netting is placed across windows. The windows can slide and are open for summer use. Construction is as follows : Double floors and between each section a thick layer of paper. Sides are built of boxing, then papered and weather-boarded. The roof is boarded, FIG 32: GOOD WINTER HOUSE papered and shingled, thus insuring a warm house for winter layers. The cost of the poultry house is thirty dollars, and is a good investment. A Good Poultry House — The henhouse here shown (Figure 33) has proved very satisfactory. It is twenty feet long, ten feet wide, seven feet high in front and four feet in rear. The scratching shed is eight feet long and should be on the east side. The window is tv/o by five feet eight inches, using glass twelve by sixteen inches. It is one foot from the floor, which admits sunshine over most of the floor surface and does not give too much light on roosts, which is undesirable. A small door with slide arrangement is cut beneath window for fowls to go in and out. The HOMES t'OR FARM I'OULTRY 55 large door is two by six feet ; another door of like dimensions should be cut in east side of house proper to allow entrance to scratching shed. In severe weather a canvas can be hung inside over the wire front. Nests are arranged in the intervening spaces, eighteen inches above floor, around the front and two ends. The roosts are the full length of the rear and extend six feet from back wall toward the front. These should be three feet high and built as in the FIG 33 : GOOD HOUSE WITH INTERIOR FIXTURES figure. This allows ample room to clean underneath and to lift out the troughs. The roosting poles are on a level and at each end fitted snugly into sawed notches. All can be easily removed for cleaning, as may the bottoms of the nests, which have short movable boards for the floor of the nests. Drinking cans or troughs are arranged just under the window; dust and grit boxes likewise. A house similarly constructed with all needful inside arrangements can be built for twenty- 5^ POULTRY ARCHITECTURE five dollars. If lined with light Ijuilding paper it will be nearly frost proof and easily kept free of vermin. Any kind of a floor can be made, but the builder pre- fers a raised earthen floor. Muck or clay well packed, then wet thoroughly, will after dr}'ing make a floor that can be swept. Sand should be thrown over it after cleaning and before litter is put in the house. Light Henhouse — The building is ten by thirty feet, with cement floor, covered with matched lumber, and the inside is lathed and plastered overhead and on the sides. Beneath the lath is tarred paper. On the south side are plenty of windows, and when the sun is FIG 34: INTERIOR COXTRIVANCES shining, as the building is practically air-tight the bid- dies think that the coldest day is a summer one. The roosts are of uniform hight and are movable. The out- side of the building is painted and has a ventilator on the roof, which makes it an ornament to the farm. Being somewhat of a carpenter, I did the work myself, which reduced the" expense. — fF. A. Smart, Oswego County, New York. Interior Contrivauees — This poultry house is a balloon frame of tw^o by four joist. It is eighteen feet wide and sheathed with inch boards tightly fitted to- HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 57 gether, then papered and sided tightly. The inside is iilled to top of sills with fine stone, covered with dirt. The house is divided into twelve-foot pens the length of the building, with wire partitions between. There is one large window, a (Figure 34), each side of every twelve-foot pen, two feet from the sills. The pens are ten feet high. There is a tight floor overhead, thickly covered with cawdust. Through the floor is a ventila- ting trap door, b, one by twelve feet, in each pen, with a rope and pulley attachment permitting the ventilating trap door to be operated from the hallway on one side of the building. The inside building is of sheathing, stuffed solid with sawdust and chaff. There is a self- L S w|w U— Uoors T^oosTS fC) W i-. W u w, ft— Water. •S— SliuttcM-s. VV'-Winduw: FIG 35 : A MAINE HENHOUSE shutting screen door, c, in each pen. The roosts, d, are two by four, set in notches and hung by four half- inch round irons. The roosts are all painted with coal tar and are removable. Under the roosts is a large shelf, e, hinged so as to let down to a long, narrow^ box, f, for holding the droppings. Another well-arranged interior is shown at the right of Figure 34. The owner, I. B. Koons, Penn- sylvania, writes : "The upper part, in which the fowls roost, is made as air-tight as possible, the walls being 58 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE covered with tarred paper, so that no air can come in from below or at the sides. "The ventilator draws out air from below the hens, while at the top or peak of the room 1 have made an opening to draw out all the foul air from the compart- ment in which the hens roost. There is no draft around hens and in the morning their roosting place smells as clean as at night. They are very healthy, lay well and have had no sick fowls in the flock since I used this system. The house is ten by twelve feet, with a dust pen two by seven feet, covered with glass. I keep forty hens in this house, and they have a run of about one-quarter acre." A Maine Henhouse — It is thirty-six feet long and fourteen feet wide (Figure 35), and will accommodate fifty to sixty hens. The apartments at the ends are called scratching rooms, and have no floor. The shut- ters are four by four feet, hinged at the top, and opened in the daytime to admit sun, light and air ; they are also opened on cloudy days, if it is not too cold. CHAPTER V BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES Every western farmer may have one of these com- fortable houses (Figure 36) with httle cost and a comparative!}^ small amount of labor. The sod may be turned at any time in the year when the ground is not frozen. A firm, well-grassed sod is best, but other will do, the only difference being in the length of time the building will last. The walls are laid up with bricks of sod about twelve by twelve inches and laid like bricks with the exception of the cement, nothing of that kind being used. The sod is turned down and the walls are made twenty-four inches thick, two lavers of sod being used. Timbers are used above openings for doors and windows ; and casings are used as a frame. The roof should slope about two feet and should project on all sides at least two feet to protect walls from moisture. Rafters and three-fourths-inch lumber, covered with dirt or sod, make the roof. Poles and brush may be used instead of lumber, but are not so good. It is fourteen by thirty-eight feet, outside dimen- sions, and contains two rooms. The roosting room is ten by eighteen feet, inside measure, and contains two sections of swinging roosts, each six by eight feet, leaving a passage at each end and a three-foot passage the whole length on the south, where the three windows are located. There is a stovepipe ventilator in each room, which can be partially closed in winter. The roosts are about two and one-half feet from the floor 6o POULTRY ARCHITECTURE and swung on fence wire from the cross sections at the roof. Opening from the roosting room is the scratch- ing and nest room, which is ten by fourteen feet, inside measure. In slimmer it is used only for nests. These nests run the entire length of the room on the north and across the ends, except where the doors interfere. They are two feet deep — if fowls are large they could be lower — and filled up about one foot with cut straw. FIG 36: A PRAIRIE HENHOUSE On the south are two full-sized windows, giving plenty of light and sunshine for winter, and easily blinded in summer, when so much light is not desirable. Floors are of dirt, covered with straw for scratching or swept clean when summer comes. Fowls will lay the whole season. They are warm in winter and cool in summer, and they seem to like the dirt walls. Henhouse of a Kansas Fanner — The sod house shown in the illustration (Figure 37) I have found BANK AND SOI) STRUCT IRKS 6i healthful, convenient, and large enough to accom no- date seventy-five to one hundred hens. In a bank sloping southwest I made an excavation twelve feet east and west by twenty-two feet north and south. At the southwest corner the excavation was on a level with the surface of the ground; at the north side it was two and one-half feet deep. Around the edges I built a sod wall, making its upper edge five feet above the floor. I roofed the north half with boards and covered with tar paper. A border of sod was placed all around the edge, then the whole overlaid with six inches of gypsum taken from a pit near by. In the south half of the roof I put two hotbed sashes three FIG 37 : HENHOUSE OF KANSAS FARMER by nine feet and covered the remainder of the space the same as the north side. In the walls were placed two glass windows and a door with glass in the upper part. In the north wall there is a window level with the roosts eighteen inches high and five feet long. It is used for ventilation in the summer. In winter it is covered with boards and banked with earth. The win- dows are hinged and covered with heavy wire netting. I have an extra lattice door for summer. The walls were given two coats of gypsum or poor man's plaster (very abundant in the southwest), and when dry a heavy whitewash was applied to fill all cracks. Roosts occupy the north half. The south 62 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE half under glass is reserved for nests and a feeding ground during stormy weather. The floor under the roosts is made of gypsum, cement and sand. — [E. H. H., Kansas. Making a AU^braska Sod House — Plow the sod one foot wide and four inches deep, and for a three- foot wall cut with spade into two-foot lengths. Build around the four sides (Figure 38), keeping the walls **"•■■/,,//. FIG 38 : A NEBRASKA SOD HOUSE as near the same hight as possihle, so they will settle alike. Always lay the grassy side of the sod down. Smooth of? with spade, filling cracks with the dirt, making a solid, compact wall. Lay the sod as you would brick, so there will be no running cracks. Leave places for door and windows slightly narrower than the frames, sod up till almost to the top, then fit in the frames tight, and over each put a board, one two by twelve by six inches will do, to support the weight of the sod above. BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES ^3 Have the roof project a foot over the walls, so as to drain the water well off the top of the walls. Grooved boards, battened, make a good roof, although many prefer to cover the boards with tar felt and then a layer of sod. The only objection to this is that after two or three years the tar felt has to be renewed and new sod added. But it makes the warmest roof, and if carefully put on sheds water as well as a shingled roof. The small drawing shows window as it appears within, and indicates supports for roosts. FIG 39 : HOUSE IN A SAND BANK House in a Sand Bank — A henhouse which com- bines warmth and cheapness can be made as follows, and as shown in the accompanying engraving, Figure 39 : Select a well-drained sand bank sloping to the south or southeast. Perhaps such a place is handy, from which quantities of sand or gravel have been taken until there is already dug a place large enough to put up just what is wanted — a henhouse entirely in the sand, except the front. The only objectionable feature in a building of this kind is dampness, and from the start this must be provided against carefully by a thorough system of drainage, both above and below. 64 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE For this purpose tiles are almost indispensable. If the water can be kept away, the fowls will find the sand agreeable and the situation warm and healthful, while its exposure to the southern sun will give the layers a chance to bask and exercise all day and they will lay as well as during summer, provided their food be of the right kind and varied. On starting, draw from the woods enough seven-foot posts to set one every five feet across the space to be occupied by the front of the building. Or these may be placed in position standing squarely with sawed ends on flat stones im- bedded in the sand. On top of them spike a six-inch pole the length of the front of the building. Another row of posts of the Scme length or per- haps one foot shorter should be placed further into the sand bank where the back of the building is to come, with a rider on top as mentioned for the plate on the first posts, or if an abundance of stone be handy, this row of posts can be replaced I3}' a wall. Wood, how- ever, is preferable, because it doesn't gather and hold moisture so much, but is more expensive because less durable. Across these horizontal top poles run heavy, rough timbers six to ten inches in diameter. These will not need sawing, and can be rudely spiked or pinned to the poles. The entire structure must be heavily built, because it is to be roofed with sand and sod. Above the rafters, which are as well flat as any other way, should be laid a quantity of slabs or straight poles close together. On these may be thrown a layer of sweet fern or hardback brush, or even a mat of dried leaves, to be followed by two feet or more of sand. Over the sand spread at least six inches of good loam, and sod over this. It should be mounded enough to shed rain toler- ably well and will look on top like old-fashioned out- door cellars so common in the Hudson river valley. HANK AXU SOD STRUCTl RES ^5 The sides may be treated in tlie same manner with slabs and leaves and heavily banked with sand. The entire job can be sodded so that it will be far from ugly in appearance. The front should slope gently from the top of the posts to the ground, the bottom being about two feet from the posts. From this point the earth should rapidly descend so that all water may be car- ried away from the building. Two windows of good FIG 40: WINDPROOF STRUCTURE size, but not too large, and a door may be placed in front of this building, and roosts and nests within. A JVindproof Poultry House — It is built of five pairs of two by four-inch scantling set two and one- half feet apart on either side of the ridgepole of the same stuff (Figure 40). These are covered with boards and the ends beveled. The structure is built over a pit two and one-half feet deep and banked over with the earth from the pit to the depth of two feet, 66 POULTRY ARCHITECl UKE excepting the south end, which is furnished with a door made of two sashes of glass. The doorway is recessed and fitted with a sohd door (outside of the glass door) to be closed in very cold weather at night. Ventilation is provided by a piece of two-inch tin leader passing through the roof and the earth banking. It should be kept clear of snow. FIG 41 : A LOG CHICKEN HOUSE ,a«»^''>-'-* A roost runs the length of the building, eighteen inches above the floor, and the nest boxes are placed just above it. The house is nine feet wide, eight feet high and thirteen feet long, and holds twenty fowls. A Log Chicken House — I cut all logs exactly the required length. The average size was about seven inches in diameter. I did all the work alone. First lay the sill logs and toenail on the corners, making the logs two by four by eight feet and two by six by BANK AND SOU STRUCTURES 67 eight feet (Figure 41 j. Spike these two together and brace from the inside so they will be perfectly plumb. Now start putting up the logs one side at a time, or build all the sides evenly as you go. Drive a spike into FIG 42 : A BANK WALL HOUSE «x/0 mtn^ ' 3 71 T^' S / /o rrm i. FIG 43 : INTERIOR OF BANK WALL HOUSE your two by four and two by six-inch sills and into your logs as fast as you go, so as to hold them in place. You can put a round log in the corner six inches in diameter and eight feet long. After the house has been l)uilt, spike the two by four on this and also the plate logs. Peel the logs. — f A. L. Lord, Wisconsin. 68 rULLTKY ARCHITECT LRE A Bank Wall House — This building (Figure 42) is ten by twenty feet with seven-foot posts in front, a three-foot wall and four-foot posts in the rear. The doors at the ends should be boarded up and entrance made to the two rooms from the hallway, which ma\- be used as a hatching room. Still better, abolish all doors in front and enter through an end door. Figure 43 shows the interior arrangement. The hatching room may be used to store feed when not used for hatching. The hatching nests will be used for laying my^^^^y^y^jr^ y^ FIG 44: WARM AND COXVENIENT BUILDING until a hen wishes to sit, when they may be closed to the roosting room and opened at the other end. These nests may be raised three inches from the ground. The extra nests are raised fifteen inches. Coops may be built under them to shut up sitters. Warm and Convenient — The poultry house shown herewith (Figure 44) is built into a bank and faces south. The wall up to the surface is of rough stone. There is no door at the east end to let in the cold, the door being on the south, where the roof is cut as for a dormer window. One enters and passes through to UANK AND SUD STRUCTURES 69 the back side of the house, where there is a walk behind the pens. Such a house can be made any length, keep- ing the pens equal in number on each side of the door- way. This arrangement probably gives the warmest poultry house that can be built. CHAPTER VI HIGII-GRAUE PLANTS Detailed specifications for a building carefully made according to architect's plans are frequently wanted. The houses of which descriptions are given are in actual use, and are both practical and orna- mental. The plans, in the hands of an intelligent work- man, will give highly satisfactory results. They are all business structures, including none of those miser- aljle affairs in which show takes the place of utility. A IV ell-Made House — -The house is made in sec- tions of sixteen-foot length, and in duplication could be extended or shortened, as desired, each section being suitable for fiocks of ten to twenty-five fowls. The house comprises seven of these sixteen-foot sections, and by its construction can easily be enlarged or made smaller. Each section being precisely alike, the draw- ings are made on thfe basis of one section. (See Fig- ures 45 to 49 inclusive.) The foundation is of cedar posts planted as indi- cated by the plans, tops of posts being leveled off to receive the frame. The outside lumber is second qual- ity white pine ; the inside lumber and framework are hemlock. The girder under center of building and the sills are four by six inches. Floor joists and roof rafters are two by six inches, plates are three by four inches, wall studs two by four inches, and partition studs two by three inches, all the above of hemlock. The house being made in sections of sixteen feet, it will be necessary to cut the sills, plates and girders HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 71 to the length required, and half them together at joints, so that a saw could be worked between the floor joists, studding and rafters, between each section, and the building literally sawed apart at the end of any sec- tion, and removed if desired. Where the sixteen-foot sections join, the floor joists, wall studs and roof rafters are doubled, as indicated on the plans, and in case of the removal of any section, all that will be necessary to do is to stud up the end left open and enclose it. Sills are laid on edge and a one by two-inch furring strip nailed to the lower edge of same, on which the floor joists are notched and also well spiked to the FIG 45 : WELL-MADE HOUSE. FRONT AND REAR ELEVATIONS sills. Floor joists, wall studs and roof rafters are placed on centers as figured on the plans, and all to be placed opposite each other. The front of the building is sheathed with one by nine and one-half-inch matched hemlock sheathing boards, laid diagonally with the smooth side in, nailed to each bearing. A one by two-inch strip is nailed on the lower edge of sill on which to fit the sheathing down closely to prevent cold air from running up between the cracks. The roof is sheathed with the same kind of boards, laid the smooth side down, with the joints properly broken on the rafters. The' front of the huilding is covered with heavy resin-sized 72 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE sheathing paper, weU lapped and carefuUy tacked on. The roof is covered with gravel roofing, the roofing material being confined with an edging strip of one by two-inch pine laid fiat on the outer edge of the roof. All the outside walls of the building are cov- ered with one by six-inch "novelty siding" nailed to each bearing, with joints properly broken on bearings. The water table is a one by six-inch board with a beveled drip on top, having a lip worked on same to make the building water-tight. The corner boards and the board under the cor- nice molding were planted on, after the building was FIG 46: WELL-MADE HOUSE. EXD ELEVATION AND PEN RUN enclosed. The cornice molding is a four-inch crown molding worked to a stock pattern and put up as indicated on the drawings. The window and door openings have no trim, except at each end of the build- ing, where the trim was planted on afterward, same as the corner boards, etc. At the window and door openings, the "novelty siding" is cut on the studs three-fourths of an inch, and a half -inch flat bead is broken around the openings to cover up the end wood, leaving a rebate of three-fourths inch for the doors and sash. Doors are hung with iron T hinges. The floor is of one by six-inch matched hemlock. Windows and doors have beveled sills to match the HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 7Z drip on the water-table outside, and extending back to the hne of the inside of the frame where they join the floor flush. The rear windows are of hotbed sash, glazed as shown in the drawings, and attached with screw fastenings to permit being removed in summer and replaced by wire netting. <»> bO)uj^ \ %ooy. $' Ju. V^rK r I n»o'x. j I \' . g'zO' FIG 52: GROUND PLAN OF MODEf. HOUSE 1 1 1 1 1 1 FIG 53 : SIDE VIEW AND FLOOR SYSTEM y Ij Li stL"^>>o-*;'d Li U FIG 54: CROSS SECTION OF MODEL HOUSE 8o rULLTRV AKCliiTJXTLKE from the hallwa}% and the droppin^e^s from the perches are easily removed at the rear of the huildin^. The cost of this .building, finished in a workmanlike man- ner, is less than fifty dollars, including- the purchase of the materials required. The bill of materials for a poultry house twelve by sixteen feet is as follows : Inches Feet Feet Hemlock, 30 pieces 3-^4 16 480 8 pieces 3x 4 12 96 3 pieces 3x 8 12 75 8 pieces 2x 4 12 64 4 pieces 2x 4 16 44 boards 1x12 16 800 stripping 1x3 16 80 stripping 1x2 16 160 Total 1796 Siding, flooring and dressed boards 210 Roofing, three-ply felt (square feet) 275 Wire netting 350 Netting, staples, hinges, etc 20 lbs Nails, assorted sizes 25 " 10 locust posts, 6x6 feet 6 inches long The house built had partly second-hand material and so cost not more than twenty-five dollars. The front elevation (Figure 51) shows the house with the yard on each side, while the ground plan (Figure 52) shows the general interior arrangement. A Practical Poultry Home — The building shown in the illustration (Figure 55) is on one of the farms owned by Mr T. S. Long of Lebanon county, Pennsyl- vania. The first two houses are twelve by fourteen feet, one of which is used for laying hens. In the middle is a feed box where the hens are fed. The other house is a roosting place and is cleaned every three or four days. After cleaning, the roosts are sprinkled witii lime or coal ashes. The long, low shed is sixty- six feet long by twelve feet wide. During winter, the floor is covered deep with straw^ and chafif. Grain is thrown on this, and the hens are compelled to work to get out their feed. CHAPTER Vn ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS Poultry could often be kept in the second story of a building if access to the ground could be secured. The cut (Figure 56) shows an easy grade up to an elevated door. The top and bottom boards are shown in place, but the entire front should be covered with slats. These can extend from the top board down to FIG 56: RUNWAY TO SECOND STORY AND UPPER ROOM the bottom board. The grade is so easy that fowls will readify pass up or down. By this plan a building can often be made to hold two flocks instead of one. In a barn or stable loft one can fit up a warm and sunny room for early chicks, as shown at right of Fig- ure 56. Low windows are put in under the eaves, and light studding is set up as suggested, being nailed to the rafters for the roof of the chicken room. Simply lay boards in place for the top, and fill in the space above wnth hay. Board up in front, leaving openings for doors. Cover the floor with chafif, and put the hens ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 83 and their chicks in here during February and March, and April, too, in the case of some states. The broods will do much better here than on the cold, wet ground. Adding a Scratching Pen — The cut (Figure 57) shows the ordinary farm poultry house, to which an addition has been made in the form of a scratching shed, for use not only in the winter season, but also during rain storms at other times of year. Such an open shed is also most convenient as a roosting place for growing chickens during the sum- FIG 57: HOUSE WITH SCRATCHING SHED mer. The front can have a frame, covered with cotton cloth, fitted to the opening and hinged at the top, to be let down at night in summer if desired, and on stormy days in winter, when snow would be likely to blow in if the front of the shed were left open. The cost of a shed built in this way is very small, as no floor is laid. Poultry House Additions — The cut at the right of Figure 58 shows a way to utilize buildings already existing when constructing a poultry house. A hay barn or other structure having a long side toward the 84 PO U LTR V ARC II ITECT URE south can be used as in the case shown here^ where the high side of the pouUry house has its boarding and framing ah-eady furnished free of cost. There is another great advantage in building poultry houses in this way ; the added warmth that is thus secured. In cold regions this is a matter of great importance, mak- ing this plan exceedingly useful. The open summer shed shown in Figure 58 at the left was recently seen in operation, and answering its purpose admirably. A "shed roof" was placed upon a corner of a board fence, the open side being toward the south. Here was protection for the fowls and cool quarters for the summer. A wire fence met the two FIG 58: SHELTER AND LEAN-TO sides of the board fence, making house and yard all in one inclosure. Extra summer colonies can thus easily and cheaply be kept. It is quite common to appropriate the sunn\' side of the barn, building out toward the south and eastward, for an aspect, which requires only a pitched roof and low front, with the ends well boarded and seam- battened, to render the inclosure quite comfortable, stormproof, and sufficiently spacious for winter uses. In summer this can be used for laying and roosting pur- l)oses. If kept clean and free from vermin, it answers very well, costs but a trifle, and may be of any size that the barn side will afford for the back of it. Ilierc should be a few sashes inserted in front or at the ends, ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 85 where the sun can shine in, and this wiU make an eco- nomical house, as weh as a useful one, in many cases. Preparing House for Winter — Many farmers can- not afford to build a suitable house. There is the mate- rial about almost any farm for making the most open house one of the warmest. There is no expense attached to it except the labor. At each corner of the house (Figure 59) and about two feet out, set a post that will extend well above the eaves. If the coop is large enough to make it necessary, FIG 59: PROTECTED COOP Other posts of a uniform hight and at the same distance from the walls of the coop can be set in the ground. The posts should not be more than from six to eight feet apart. Then about six inches from the ground staple a smooth wire to the posts, and another about two feet above, and so on to the top of the posts, requir- ing five or six wires. Then fill in between the posts and wires and the coop with hay or straw. Small poles or pieces of waste boards can be woven in the wires to keep the hay in place. When the eaves are reached, some material that will lead off the water should be put 86 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE on top. Long slough grass has been found good for this. By setting a post each side of the door frame, and one to correspond with each in a Hne with the outside posts, and boarding up each side and fixing the top to be covered with hay, the door of the coop will be guarded from the cold. Of course an outside door of some sort will be necessary. The windows can be pro- vided for in the same way or a box of some rough '1 FIG 60: RUN OF SASH AND STRAW lumber be made and set in as the banking up is being done. Aside from a place reasonably warm to roost in, chickens, to do well, should have a warm, sunny place in which to exercise on warm days. Such a place can be made each side the coop in the shape of a lean-to facing the south. Set a line of posts the length desired to make the lean-to, and spike two by fours across the top, from one post to another, six to eight feet from the ADDITIUXS AXD EXTRAS 87 ground. Then cut the poles of a length to make the desired pitch to the roof and lay one end over the two by fours (it is well to notch the under sides so there will be no danger of slipping), letting the other end rest on the ground. Lay fine-limbed brush across these, and upon this put the hay or straw covering. In. this place can be put up nests and a dust box fixed and filled for them to w^allow in. The chickens, too, can be fed here. Cheap Winter Run — Figure 60 shows an easy way to make a sunny winter run for poultry at little expense, either of money, time or labor. Some old window sash is set up for the front, and the top is covered with straw FIG 61 : PROTECTED SCRATCHING SHEDS or corn stalks. Make the top strong enough to hold the weight of the snow that may fall upon it. If there is no tight board fence at hand, the back can be boarded roughly and then banked right up to and over the top with straw or other material. Protected Scratching Sheds — The idea of an open scratching shed for poultry has come to stay. Con- tinuous poultry houses, with shed roofs, are now built with two open scratching sheds side by side, then two pens, then two open sheds, and so on. A section show- ing tw^o sheds, one each for the ptrns on either side, is SS rOLLTKY ARCHITECTURE given in Figure 6i. The special point brought out here is the cotton cloth screen, or door, that closes the front of each shed in stormy, very cold or blustering weather. They are hinged at the top and are turned up to the ceiling when the weather is suitable. Drifting snows are kept out by putting down the screens, while the outside air can come in and the light also. An open shed in a snowy latitude without such a protection is almost useless during the greater part of the winter, unless one keeps shoveling snow. CHAPTER VIII FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS The buildings of a large establishment for artificial hatching and rearing should be arranged with especial reference to convenience. A few steps saved by a care- BREEDtNG HOUSE KILLING HOUSE. \ RESIDENCE, G/fOmHS HOUSE, fltD HOUSE. BROODER HOUSE. INCUBATOR CELLAR. FIG 62: PLAN OF DUCK OR BROODER BUILDINGS ful plan of building with due reference to location, be- comes an important factor of success when applied to the numberless daily errands to and fro. Buildings to 90 rO U LTR V ARC II ITECT L' Rli be often visited, the incubator room, for instance, should be near the dweUing. All the buildings should be so arranged that the attendant can do the routine work by a systematic plan, wiih no waste of time or effort. The illustration ( Figure 62 ) shows the actual arrangement of a large plant to which allusion is made in Bulletin 64 of the United States Department of Agri- culture. Its convenience and compactness are seen at a glance. Iiupvoi'cd Incubator House — Figure 63 shows a plan for obviating the inconvenience of rising tem- perature in the incubator house when the sun is shin- FIG 63 DOUBLE ROOF INCUBATOR HOUSE ing, especially late in the spring or in the summer. Then it is difficult to keep a uniform heat in the ma- chines, as the house becomes overheated from the effect of the sun upon the roof. A simple way out of the difficulty is to put on an additional roof, leaving an air space between the two. The inner roof can be covered with cheap boar.ds and roofing paper, with lath battens. The outer may have shingles over a layer of building paper. Banked Incubator Room — In Figure 64 is shown an incubator room that is built on the surface of the FOR IXCir.AroRS AND I'-ROODHRS 9- ground, and yet is surrounded 1)y earlh, banked up against its stone walls. It is banked on three sides, leaving one side unl^anked for entrance door and a window. The incubator room need not be large, so the labor of banking it in this way will not be great. Many are not able to secure a suitable place underground for a cellar, and for such the above plan will prove advan- tageous. A Successful Incubator House, illustrated in Fig- ure 65, is in use by an extensive woman poultry farmer, Mrs J. Fairbank, Oregon. It is a combination incu- bator cellar, water tank and windmill tower. The two- liAXKED INCUBATOR ROOM storv building is fourteen by sixteen feet, with a one thousand-chick capacity hatching cellar, a tank in the second story which holds the water supply for the whole farm, and a windmill on the roof to perform all the pumping. A double brooder house is shown in Figure 66, with walk in the center and pens on either side, and with heater at the end. j\Iany prefer this plan to the single brooder house, as the care and attention required for the youngsters is much less and the cost of heating is reduced, one heater being sufficient for both lines of pipes. Then, again, this latter plan shortens the length 92 rO U LTR Y ARC li ITFXT U RE of the building 1)y one-half and makes the work more concentrated. Combined Brooder and Groiving House — FiT^ure 67 shows a successful plan for a combination building. The rows of brooder pens are at the right, while the large pens and yards are at the left. In a duck plant the right half of the buildings is used for the ducklings FIG 65 : IxXCUBATOR HGUSE AND TANK as soon as they are old enough to endure a lower tem- perature than that of the brooders. In a broiler plant, the use of the buildings may be similar, or the large pens may be used for laying stock. The heater and feed room are between the two parts of the building, the heater being in a pit beneath the feed room. Pipes run into both parts of the build- FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 93 ing, as shown by the dotted Hues. The pipes in the right half of the building are raised two or three feet from the floor, and a lower temperature is maintained as compared with the brooders. The brooder box (Figr.re 68) is next to the pas- sageway, or walk, on each side, and runs the entire length of the building. This box is thirty inches wide and eight inches high ; the sides are seven inches high and nailed securely ; the top of the cover is nailed across with cleats to make it substantial, awd the cover has an ''III □ □ ^hLLe 2 3 I s UJ uLL D A m ISE ^ nr c T fT TT Tl Tm L>r-=. ' ""^ — „f VZ7 Plan FIG 66 : DOUBLE BROODER HOUSE inch strip nailed underneath in front and back to keep it in position. These strips rest against the seven-inch sides and make the brooder snug and tight when closed. The heating pipes are directly beneath the cover and are two-inch pipes, flow and return. Some prefer one-inch pipes, using two flows and two returns. When three pipes are used they should be about eight inches apart from center to center. These pip.es rest on the partition boards of the pens. The front of the brooder, leading into the pens, is cut out in the center about four inches 94 i'C) U LTR Y ARC 11 ITECT L' RE deep and four feet long, while the ends and the other side are solid, heing seven inches high. The construc- tion of the brooder is clearl\ shown in b with cover removed, while c shows cover. The heater is located at the end of building. A pipe brooder house, well liked at one of the eastern experiment stations, is shown in the combina- tion drawing (Figure 69), in which dimensions and interior construction are indicated. The hot water sys- tem is used, but the small lamp brooders may be used ' /? u N s p £ N 5 ;§i: B 1 ' £ N 5 i ►V ALI^ 'r-- — 1 'HLATEIt. 7 ' y p £ N S ~^ P _.J-J- -J s \/i u N s FIG 67; COMBINATION BROODER Bl'lLDING if preferred. The heating pipes extend the length of the building under the covers, b b b. Through exit, c, the chicks reach a twenty-foot run inclosed with two- foot board and netting above. One of these houses will accommodate about five hundred chicks while small. Houses for Single Brooders — These little build- ings, described by C. E. Matteson of Wisconsin, are scattered over his place one hundred and fifty feet apart, so that one colony will not interfere with the other at feeding time, and each flock will go to its ow^n house at night. (See building at left of Figure 70.) Fit;. 68 : construction of broodfr box 96 I'U U LTR Y ARC H ITECT U RE The dimensions are six by six feet, with shed roof five feet high at front or south side and three feet high on north. Sills are two by six, and the house is studded with two by four, two feet on center, and sided with six-inch drop siding. The front has a window nine by twelve feet, set eight inches above the sill, so as to leave place for the chicks to get to the yard, and the window should be arranged to slide wide open, making a kind of shed of it when weather is warm. The door is two and one- half by four feet, placed on east side so you can enter FIG 69: PIPE BROODER HOUSE the building without first climbing into the yard. The roof is of dressed and matched fencing, then shingled, making it almost windproof. The interior shows a brooder, a, set therein. These brooders are hot air, thirty-six inches square, sunk in the ground floor of these houses about four inches. The dirt that is taken for the excavation is filled in around the brooder, which gives the chicks a nice earth floor to scratch and ruftle in when the weather will not let them go out. As they grow older, say when four weeks old, they are given full liberty in pleasant weather. R)R INCUBATORS AND BROUOKKS 97 Figure 70, at the right hand, shows a house buih against a bank, that can be twelve feet or more in length. The cross section below shows how^ the home- made brooder is located with respect to the run for the chicks. Set on legs as it is, the attendant does not have to stoop over his work, and with the raised run for the chicks they are brought on a level with the brooder, so they can easily run in and out. This run is coated with gravel and cemented. The brooder is three feet square. Allow six feet for each FIG 70: HOUSES FOR SEPARATE BROODERS brooder and pen and you have three feet at the end of each brooder — sufficient space to give access to each pen, which can be cleaned from the walk with a short- handled hoe or rake. The house is twelve feet wide, the walk or alley six and the .run six. The top of the brooder is hinged, to give easy access, and the partition in front of the runs is tight, to keep in the warmth that is produced by the sunshine coming in at the window. If a bank of earth is not at hand, earth can be heaped up to form a bench on which to locate the runs. Such 98 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE a bank of earth makes the interior of the building much warmer. Both these houses are adapted for the lamp and drum style brooder shown in the diagram at the left. Later in the season may be substituted the cold brooder shown at the upper left hand corner of Figure 70. Woolen cloth, an old blanket or some sort of heavy material, is tacked loosely at the sides and in a few URECOX r.ROOUlLR HOUSE places through the center, in such a way that tlie loose folds will hang down nearly to the bottom of the brooder. This cloth should be of several thicknesses, or padded if need be. It should hang lower near the sides than at the center. It should also be constructed in such a way that it can be raised as the chicks grow in size. This can be done easily. The cloth can be fastened to a frame made of inch boards and of a size FUR IXCLliATURS AND BROODERS 99 that will just lit snugly inside the brooder. At each corner of the box put in pieces of two by four studding, a, eight inches high, in which holes have been bored an inch apart from the top to within four inches of the bottom. Saw out the corners of the frame to fit around these and insert a pin, c, in the hole that will hold it at the desired bight. A strip, b, nailed to the end pieces of the frame and reaching through the mid- dle, will serve as a fastening to tack the cloth to in the center. Brooder House — A building as shown in Figure 71 has been found satisfactory by an Oregon grower. The floors of the warm hovers are covered two inches deep w^ith sand. They are warmed with two one and FIG 72: HOUSES FOR WINTER CHICKS one-half-inch pipes, a a, overhead. The hovers are thirty inches wide, four feet long, one foot deep, ar- ranged in tw^o rows running lengthwise with a walk, b, between. Through a small opening chicks enter a four by four-foot runw^ay, e e, and may thence pass outdoors to runways four feet wide and thirty feet long. A Brooder Attachment — In early spring the brooder chicks can be let out upon the ground and yet be protected from the cold winds by the attachment shown at the left of Figure y2. A box without top or bottom is hooked to the side of the brooder, an opening being cut in the side wdiere the door of the brooder comes. The top of the attachment is covered w^ith coarse cotton cloth, or a sash mav be used. The cloth l.nfC 100 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE lets in fresh air and the sun's rays, but protects the chicks from the cold winds. Poultry House for Early Chicks — This house, as in Figure ^2, at the right of the illustration, is used by Mrs J. Wilson of Iowa for raising winter chicks. In it she can put three hens with about forty chicks. Take a box about six feet long, two and one-half feet wide, two and one-half feet high in front, with sloping roof, cover with tarred paper and have a sliding window in front near the top, as shown. Dig a hole in the ground just the size of the box, as for a hotbed. Fill it with horse manure, cover w^ith dry earth and over this put soft straw, chaff and hayseed from the barn floor. Place the box over this and put the hens and chicks in. Throw an old carpet over all and they are easily cared for. In a home like this it is surprising how fast they will grow. A small door near the bottom may be opened on warm days to let them have a little sun, but they will soon scamper back. CHAPTER IX SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS Cold Storage of Poultry Products — The only really satisfactory means for keeping eggs and poultry meat is cold storage. The system is working a revolu- tion in the trade ; tending to equalize prices and increase demand. In course of time the difference between spring and winter prices will no doubt be far less than at present. Meanwhile there is a good profit in holding 1 II II II II II 11- -I - a ICE ROOM = II II II 1 i \}m^\ mm,\ mm mm im^i mm ^^an \^^M MM fe^MS^ FIG y^ : PLAN OF COLD STORAGE HOUSE FOR POULTRY Stored eggs. A commission man and buyer lately re- marked that farmers could secure this profit themselves by putting up little storage plants on the plan of co- operative creameries, and selling the product at the right season to retail customers. He expressed the opinion that a town of one thousand or more people would furnish ample scope for such an enterprise and I02 I'OLLTRV ARCHITECTURE the plant could be used a part of the time for stora^c^e of fruit. The design given herewith (Figure 73 j is for storage with ice, is not expensive, and has been success- fully used by a Michigan poultry farmer. The ice room is eight by twelve feet in the clear, being started with a six 1)y six-inch sill laid in a trench three inches deep. After the sills are laid in the ground dirt is pressed in solidly, so as to leave no opportunity for air to enter in at the bottom — a very important point. The studding of the inner room is tw^o by eight- inch lumber, twelve feet long, set twenty-four inches from center to center, and having a plate of the same size firmly spiked to the top, the inside of the studs being sheathed with rough boards clear to the top of the plate and around the bottom except at a, where one stud has been left out, leaving an opening through, which the ice is passed in filling the house. This open- ing is stopped with boards and simply laid in as the house is filled. The top of the ice should be no higher than the plate, and be covered twelve or eighteen inches deep with hay or straw, well trodden down. The outer wall is of two bv four-inch studdin }-.> twelve feet long, the sill set in the ground the same as for the inner room, but carefully sheathed on both sides with good, tight boards, and the space between filled w^ith sawdust clear to the plate. The outside is finished with drop siding, having a thickness of paper between that and the boards. At B the inner and outer sheathing boards project one and one-half inches beyond the studs, and other loose boards are cut one and one-half inches shorter than the space between the studs. Then, as the ice is fitted in, these shorter boards are laid up and the space between filled with sawdust, this opening being only to fill the ice room. About thirty-five tons of ice can be put in this house, which SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS IO3 will be sufficient to last until cutting time another year. The entrance door is made double ; that is, a sort of vestibule is built out so that the door can be closed behind when going in or coming out, thus avoiding warm currents of air in the cooling room. The four- foot space around the house is floored over six inches above the ground sill, and provides ample room for butter, meat, poultry or eggs, though eggs must not be kept at a lower temperature than forty degrees above zero. If desired, another story may be added by placing joists across the space eight feet from the lower floor. This gives a larger amount of room for storing onions, etc. The roof is hipped and provided with a ventilator having lower slats arranged to open or close at will. They should never be tightly closed, as fresh air should always have more or less access to the top of the ice. A six by six-inch timber is fastened at one end under the hip rafter, projecting over the outer wall line and provided with a stout eye-bolt to which the pulley is caught in filling the ice room. This timber is braced down to the plate with sticks of the same size. The roof is shingled, and the cornice is made with eight eight by eight-inch holes in the soffit, each being provided with a board to close and open, thus perfect- ing the ventilating arrangement. Windows are in both sides, tightly fitted with two double sash for each eight, and are set in the sides, so as to throw light in the end passages. A box drain should be laid in the ground, made of two by eight-inch stuff, and should project three or four feet beyond the outside wall, and at each end a small pit should be dug, filled nearly to the top with small stone, with an armful of straw next, and dirt filled in, well rammed down. No flooring will be re- quired in the inner room, as the ice can be laid on the ground. 104 PO U LT R Y A RCll 1 T EC T U RE An Ontario Turkey House — My turkeys have a large range, and as foxes are numerous in this vicinity a great many of the finest birds were killed last year. Injune I had a house built like the accompanying illus- tration (Figure 74, at the upper half of the illustration) J» e*r*4^ ^^ FIG 74: BUILDINGS FOR Tl'RKEVS to secure the flock at night, to provide a feeding place for the young birds during the day and to prevent the old birds from eating with them. The building is twelve feet square, ten feet high in front and eight feet at the back. The foundation con- SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS I05 sists of tamarack planks spiked solidly together and four posts are set in at the corners. The sides are of fine slats, four inches wide, nailed an inch apart so as to provide light and air within. The roof is made of boards put on to exclude the rain. On one side is a door, a, six by three feet, fastened by hooks on the outside and inside. On the front there is an opening, b, and a door, c. On the ground the opening, h, is four inches high and five feet long and permits the ingress and egress of the young birds only. This is closed by means of a drop board. The hanging door, c, is twelve feet long, two feet wide and two feet from the ground, is formed of boards like the sides, is fastened by hooks and is attached to the front by strong hinges. Inside the house are drinking and feeding troughs for the young birds, clean straw at one side and three tiers of roosts, the first very low, the second midway and the third of strong poles as near the top as possible. In the morning I dropped the hanging door to let out the old birds, fed them outside, and closed the door. Went in at the side door, fastened it, fed and watered the young birds and left them until the dew was off the grass. By raising the board the young ones could come out to the old ones. Three times a day they came to be fed, the board being utilized to shut them in until all were fed. At night the young ones remained in and by dropping the hanging door the old hens fiew in. When the turkeys grew too large for the opening, h, I fed them just outside the house and they entered by means of both doors, which were fastened before dark. — [Mrs Edwin • Colquhoun. Ontario. Another Turkey House — Most people who have had experience with turkeys know that these birds prefer to roost on the ridgepole of a building rather than under it, and that, too, in exceptionally cold I06 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE weather. The turkey does not hke close quarters, and thrives best where it is given plenty of air. In many sections of the country where the winters are not too severe, the house shown in Figure 74, at the lower part of the illustration, will be found an excel- lent one for turkeys in winter, while in the northern regions, even, such a building will be found most useful as a roosting place for both chickens and poults during the late summer and fall, since they need pro- tection from rain and prowling animals, but plenty of pure air to secure the finest growth. This need of pure air at night is not properly appreciated by most persons who attempt to raise chickens. Improved Duck Houses — Ducks are easily the most profitable of all poultry, if the flesh product simply is considered, while as a layer of eggs the Pekin duck is exceedingly profitable. There can be no doubt that it would be wise for more farmers to keep a flock of breeding and laying ducks, and for this purpose there is no better breed than the large, white Pekin. As ducks roost on the floor, only low quarters are needed. A low, shed-roofed affair can be put onto the side of the barn or other farm building, in the manner shown in Figure 75, three feet of hight being sufficient. Let the pen open into the large building, the partition between being hinged at the top, so that by raising it one can clean out the pen and put in dry bedding. One can thus build duck quarters very inexpensively. Figure 76 shows a duckhouse with shed and an inclosed roost room. It is single walled and built in the cheapest manner. lu Building a Dove Cote in a barn for six pairs, they should have at least twelve feet square of floor and eight feet high. The more space the better, unless the pigeons are to have the freedom of the yard. The boxes should be at least eight in number, each box to bi'EClAL rURPOSE BUILDINGS 107 be double, completely divided so a young pigeon cannot go from one to the other without flying. This allows the mother to lay and hatch a second set of eggs before the first are able to look after themselves. These boxes must be set on the top of tinned posts or fixed in some wav so that the rats cannot reach the nests, FIG 75: l.MPROVEn DlCKIIOUSl-: FIG 76: DUCK HOUSE AND SHED for rats are sure to destroy the eggs or young birds in the nest. — [A. H. Streeter, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Making a Pigeon Loft — Every boy on the farm should have a flock of pigeons, be the variety Fan- tails, Homers, Turbits or Jacobins. They are among the most satisfactory pets that one can have, their pretty io8 IHJLLTRV AKCIUTKCTLRE ways and beautiful forms and plumage making them most desirable companions. A loft for the accom- modation of pigeons can be made very easily in the roof chamber of a shed or stable. The illustrations (Figure yy) show inside and outside arrangement for such a loft. With most pigeons there must be a wire inclosure outside the window, else cats will make havoc with the birds, many varieties not being very quick upon the wing. A part of the inside partition is cut away in the illustration to show the interior arrange- '//n\T FIG yy : PIGEON LOFT AND INTERIOR ment. Such a loft utilizes waste space and requires no great expense for lumber. A boy should be able to fit it up himself. Combined Poultry and Pigeon House — A poultry house with a loft especially fitted up for the accommo- dation of pigeons is shown in the accompanying illus- trations (Figures 78, 79), from sketches by Webb Donnell. The poultry quarters have an addition fitted with wire netting in front in summer, as seen in Figure 78, and windows in winter, which serves as a scratch- ing and dusting room, communication being had with it from the main poultry room. The diagram, Figure 79, shows the inside arrangement when the building is used for two breeds. Such an arrangement secures exceedingly warm roosting places for both flocks, as si'i-xiAL I'l'Ki'osi': r.ni.Dixc.s 109 the recesses occupied ])\ the rousts can be shut olf from the main room to some extent by placing- partitions in front of the roosts, extending- from the ceihrig, but not FIG 78 : HOUSE FOR POULTRY AND PIGEONS FIG 79 : GROUND PLAN FOR COMBINATION HOUSE reaching to the floor. The warm air from the bodies of the fowls is thus kept around and above the birds while on their roosts. CHAPTER X COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES Compared with the houses, the coops are small and temporary affairs, bein^ used often only a few months of the year. Present use rather than appear- ance or durability is usually considered. In some cases the coop item is so far overlooked that it becomes the weak feature of the plant, and serious losses occur from overcrowding- the young stock or failing to pro- FIG 80 : GLASS-ROOFED COOPS tect them against pests ; neglecting- to separate fowls ill ■ with contagious diseases ; lack of accommodations for sitters, fattening fowls, extra males or show birds. There is little excuse for such conditions ; materials good for coops being plenty and cheap, while on account of the limited size of such structures they may be nailed together any time in the workshop or shed. COUPS, YARDS AND FENCES III A Coop for Early Chicks— The two upper draw- ings of Figure 80 show a desirable coop for very early chickens. The coop is long and sloping and has a hot- bed sash hinged to the top. The higher half of the coop has a tight bottom with slats at its outer edge. There is no bottom to the rest of the coop, and the lower end has a hinged door, and is also covered with one-inch mesh of wire netting. When very cold the door can be shut up tight and FIG 81 : HOTBED RUN AND COOPS the chicks will have a warm run on the ground outside the slats. When it is warmer, the end door can be dropped, giving a protected run, but plenty q£^ fresh air. The hen can be let out into this run when desired. A cloth can be thrown over the glass at night when the weather is cold. The drawing in the lower right-hand corner of Fis-ure 80 shows a house with glass run for winter chicks. .112 rOLLTRV ARCHITECTLRE The lower left-hand drawing" in Figure 80 shows a hotbed that is built against the south side of the poultry house, serving all through the winter as a sunny scratching place for the fowds. These are shut out at the approach of spring and the hotbed started. About the time the plants are started the fowls will be getting out upon the ground, wdiile all through the deep snows of wdnter they will have an exceedingly sunny space to run in. Make the hotbed large enough to give sufficient scratching space. The room can well be utilized wdth early plants in the spring. FIG 82: RAT-PROOF COOPS AND RUN Figure 81 shows another coop on the hotbed plan. Several brood hens are kept in boxes or A coops con- necting with the sashed runs, and the chickens may run together if desired, although it is better to have them divided at first till they become used to brooding in flocks of even number. Rat-Proof Coops and Run — The first has a pro- jecting top, as shown in the upper left of Figure 82, to keep out the heat of the sun and the rain. It has a netting front to give good ventilation, wdiile keeping COOPS, VARUS AND Fl'.xXCKS II3 out enemies at night. It has a small b(jard below that can be removed durmg the day so the chicks can run out and in, while the hen wdl be confined. The coop can be cleaned in an instant. All these advantages will commend this coop to those who have had experience with the coops ordinarily seen. Cool Run for Chicks — They appreciate a bit of shade during midday and should not be forced to find it in the coop, which too often is almost air-tight. Cut a hoop in two equal lengths and to a, ^ and c, as at the right of the drawing previously described in Figure 82, each tack either end of three pieces of lath or other light wood. Over this framework stretch cotton cloth, d, or bagging, and tack firmly in pace. The open ends admit a free current of air, while the cover keeps off direct sun rays. The illustration at the lower left of Figure 82 gives an idea for the construction of a neat, handy and healthy coop. It can be made of any size. For one or two broods of chickens, about four feet square and two feet high in front and eighteen inches high in the rear is a convenient size. It should be made with a tight floor to prevent the entrance of rats, skunks, etc, and also to aid in keeping clean. The entrance should have two doors, one of them merely a frame over which is stretched wire netting with meshes fine enough to exclude all prowlers of the night. This is to be used in the summer time when it is too hot to shut the coops with the tight doors. The other door can be made to shut over the wire door by hinging at the top. The wire door is made to slide in from the top or end. With the coop tightly closed there will not be sufficient ventilation. A ventilator made of three or four-inch boards nailed into a box about two and one-half feet long, set in the middle of the coop roof and extending down inside to within a couple of 114 rOULTRY ARCHITECTURE inches of the bottom, will suffice. At the rear, to aid in cleaning, should be a door about eight inches wide extending the whole length of the coop at the bottom. By lifting this and using a small hoe-like tool, (/, made by taking a block four by eight inches and boring a hole in the center and putting in a handle about two feet long, the job of cleaning is a short and easy one. All coops should be painted and the roof made tight enough to prevent leaking. These coops are not too heavy to be carried to any place where -it is desirable. The illustration shows the coop with one door raised, showing the wire netting. Rat-Proof Coops — The plan. Figure 82, at the lower right-hand corner, shows how one is built. The lower space in front is protected with a sliding frame, covered with eighteen-inch galvanized heavy wire net- ting. The dot is a small hole with a large wire nail through the frame. The two dots above are holes for fastening the screen frame so the chicks can run, and confine the hen, or the hen can run, as one wishes. The legs are about three inches high, so there is no chance for rats to work underneath, and the plan also prevents loss by possible drowning in a heavy shower. With the frame down at night, cats, rats or others pests are kept out. Hay Shed Coop — My chicken coops are made be- neath a western hay shed, which is built by setting posts about ten feet apart, placing stringers on top and laying poles across, upon which the hay is stacked. The entire shed or corral is inclosed by boarding up and down with slabs, and is divided into five sections, occupying the space of twenty feet square for each coop or pen. All the roosts are in the center coop and are made of small green oak poles reaching up to within two feet of the roof, which is eight feet from the ground. Instead of having a single slant with COOPS^ YARDS AND FENCES II poles nailed on every two feet, I have the roosts in the shape of a wide hay rack or double feed stall, slanting both ways, with poles every two feet, and some between the top perches. In this way I get all the young chicks to their perches long before the mothers leave them, and give plenty of room for all to roost on the top poles. — [J. L. Shoemaker, Utah. Ten-Cent Coops — A chicken coop that will last for ten years at a cost of ten cents ! The cut ( Figure 83) explains itself better than w^ords can do. A soap, starch or canned fruit box of the right size can usually be procured for from five to ten cents (fre- quently at the former price if a quantity are engaged). FiG 83 : BOX AND BARREL COOl'S and this, with a few bits of lath for the door, which is hung on leather hinges, and a board for an awning completes the requisites. Triangular pieces of board must be nailed to the awning, which is also attached by leather hinges. When more light or sun is needed by the brood, simply turn the shed roof over onto the top of the coop. By a little extra work the board can be made to serve the purpose of shutting in the chickens at night by dispensing wdth wooden supports and using iron hooks to keep the shed in place. In this case ventilation must be provided. This coop can be made in a few minutes and is better than many more costly ones. It will be improved by covering the top with'building paper, which must be painted each year. ii6 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE Another coop just as cheap may be made from a barrel sawed in two lengthwise (Figure 83). Before sawing nail staves to hoops. A coop from a whole barrel slatted in front is shown in Figure 84. Also a peach crate used as a coop. A cheap coop can be made from an apple barrel with the one end covered with lath and a door to admit of cleaning and placing feed for the brood and the old hen. At night and on wet days a piece of oil- cloth can be arrano-ed to shelter the front and be ';^.^ FIG 84 : COOPS FROM BARRELS AND CRATES thrown back when not in use. It can be easily re- moved from one place to another, admitting of fresh surroundings as often as deemed necessary. It is raised slightly from the ground by means of blocks on either side to avoid the least dampness. The inside of the barrel should be covered with fresh straw in a moderate quantity. Wire netting in place of lath can also be used and is just as good for the front, possibly better. The entrance board can be made by cutting the COOPS^ YARDS AND FENCES 117 front block under the barrel, slanting and placing cleats on it, to allow the chicks to get in and out easily. A-Shapcd Coops — Several forms of these very simple and cheap coops for young chicks are shown in FIG 85 : A-SHAPED COOPS Figure 85, Beginning at the upper left corner, the first coop is made by dividing a good-sized box by cutting through two corners, making two coops of one box. The roof should be closely battened or covered with painted sheathing paper. The coop adjoining to FIG 86 : A-SHAPED COOP AND FRAME the right has its roof lapped clapboard fashion, and a convenient drop door of slats. At the lower left corner is a style common in its main features on many large establishments. It is cheap, warm, dry, and can ii8 POULTRY ARCHITPXTURE easily be made rat-proof. The fourth is good where hen and chickens run together. The house part is quickly made from an old box, and may be fastened to the yard or simply moved close against it. The yard is of inch mesh a foot high, but the top may be of two- inch mesh. Another simple A coop appears in Figure 86. At the right of this illustration is shown a frame which may be covered with boards or paper and slatted in front or protected with netting. FIG 87 : COOP FROM A SHOE BOX Box Coops — One style is made out of a wide shoe box, or case, l)y nailing a board (as shown in Figure 87) on each end, which shall extend beyond the sides and above the top of the box ; and across these is nailed another board, forming the roof. The ventilation is perfect, when the roof is constructed in this manner, while at the same time it proves a complete protection against storms. A coop of this sort can be readily made with but little trouble and at slight expense. In the side not shown in the cut is a door through which the hen is admitted or let out, and on the front side (see cut) a pane of glass can be inserted, if de- sired, to give ample light. COUPS, YARDS AND FENCES 119 Another plan is shown in Figure 88. Tip a large packing box on one side, making the open space or original top the front. Nail boards, a, across this space half way down, letting the top one, h, extend nearly its wudth above the top edge of the box, and several inches beyond the ends. Nail a similar one, c, on the back, leaving this a couple of inches above the top. Two side boards, (/, are now added, sawed slant- ing to make a smooth slope between the front and back for the roof. As they are six inches beyond the ends of the box, it makes a protection from the FIG 88 : A PACKING BOX COOP weather, besides leaving space for circulation, wdiile to make this of value to the interior a square must be sawed from the top of the box before the roof is put on, as this top floor has been left whole. This makes the ventilation good without danger of leaks, and tlie roof is now added. Returning to the unboarded space in front, we nail a strip four inches w^ide down the center and tack fine wire netting, f, over one side. A second strip is put over the first to cover the edge of the netting, antl to leave room for a groove for the sliding door, g, on I20 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE the other side. Tliis may be either of wood or a skeleton frame made and covered with netting-. A g-roove must be made in the box for the other side of the shde. Nearly all the boxes come with well-stayed corners, so this 'is not difficult. FIG 89 BROOD coop WrriT RUN Paint the outside, roof and all, to prevent tlie cracks from spreading. Or the roof may l)e covered with roofing paper or cheaper still with tarred paper, which will last a season or two. These Iroxes vary somewhat in size, but they will hold from fifteen to twenty-five chickens till the>- are pretty well grown. FIG 90 : LIGHT BOX COOPS and as they are strong and well built they will last many years. Brood Coop i^'ilJi Run — ddie coop shown lierewitli (Figure 89) is one that is used extensively on the Kentucky Stock and Poultry Farm of Brandenburg,, COOPS. YARDS AND FENCES 121 Kentucky. In it a hen can l)rood twenty to forty chicks. It is made of one and one-half-inch mesh wire with a board top, and the dimensions are as follows : a to b, four feet ; c to a, two feet ; d to e, two feet ; k k are doors. A Light Coop — The materials (Figure 90) are twenty-one spruce laths, two boards, (/, six by twenty- five inches, two two by two posts, b, four inches high, and a shoe box, c, twenty-five by eighteen by fourteen inches. Nail the four' boards to the posts, leaving a space at the bottom ; nail nine laths to the front end of box and the other end to the end made by nailing the boards and posts together. Now nail six laths to each FIG 91 : SHELTER AND PORTABLE COOP side of the box and to the end. The second half of the illustration shows another coop built on a like plan with slide between box and yard. Suniiiicr and Fall Shelter— Growing chicks can be kept in a most vigorous condition by having pure air at night. Shut up in close coops they cannot have this. Get them to roosting out of doors as early as possible, but provide a shelter for the roosts. This can be made very cheaply by putting up a rough board and stake frame, as shown in Figure 91, and covering it with tarred paper, tacking a lath on the outside, over each rafter. This will protect the chicks from showers in the night, but will not shut out any pure air. 122 rO U LTRY ARC li ITFXT U RE Fowls do well colonized out in small flocks in summer. They need little more shelter than a roosting- place that is protected from storms and showers. Fig-- ure 92 shows an A shelter boarded with matched lumber to the ground on one side and end, with nests and roosts inside. Put the tight side and end toward the direction of storms. Fowls can thus be colonized in many flocks on pasture and other rough land, obviat- ing the necessity of building many yards, and of FIG 92: COLONY SHELTER COO furnishing all the feed Fowls on free range will get half their living themselves. A well-ventilated coop is needed for chickens in the fall. They should also have a chance to roost, as crowding together in their own droppings is not healthful. The coop shown in Figure 91, at the right, fulfills both requirements, and is very convenient and easily made. The wire netting at the bottom on each side is six inches wide, this being the narrowest width of the netting that is sold. COOPS, VARUS AND FENCES 123 An Orchard Chicken Coop — A coop is shown herewith (Figure 93) that is made specially for use under trees. Its pie-shaped form fits it to be revolved about a tree trunk, giving a succession of new strips of ground for the chickens to scratch in, and an equal fertilizing of the soil all about the tree. To Fatten Quickly — For a few fowls a simple portable coop may be used. The pen is kept dark except when the fowls are eating. A fattening coop used for single birds is shown in Figure 94. ']»^ FIG 93 ORCHARD coop When Sitters Are to Be Broken up the coops should be cool and airy and supplied with food and water. A coop of the kind shown in Figure 95 is all that is needed. The slats are of old fence pickets, and the structure is stout and durable. At the right of Figure 95 is shown a plan for a special coop for sitters with eggs. The house has A- shaped roof with coating of tar. There are tw^o rows of nests inside, wntli a walk between. Feed, water and 124 PO U LTRY ARC H ITECT L' RE grit should be kept inside. After the first few days the hens will find their own nests after coming ofif, but the safer plan is to remove them all at a regular time FIG 94 : FATTENING BOXES daily, and visit the coop awhile later to see that all is v\-ell. Shipping Gild Shozu Coops — Expressmen have found much fault in the wav fowls were occasionallv //(J/// /^es^j- FIG g VD COOPS FOR SITTING HENS prepared for shipment and the result was double first- class charges used to be made on poultry. As this seemed an injustice poultrymen and expressmen came together and decided on what should constitute a COOPS. YARDS AND FExXCES 12^ proper coop in consideration of sin^-le nrsc-class mer- chandise rates instead of doul^le. This conference resulted in the adoption of a "one rate" price instead of a "double rate." Also that coops must be strong and slatted and not injured by other packages being FIG 96: SHIPPING AND EXHIBITION COOPS piled on them. . If the coop is sufficiently strong, ex- pressmen have no objection to coops being lined inside with cloth to protect birds from a draft. The coop illustrated in Figure 96 is four feet long, two feet wide and twenty inches high, made entirely of laths, except- Y^.vd / i Yard Yi.vd ITT ■—^i v.. A \ .^-...•.v.J FIG 97 : YARDS FOR THREE FLOCKS ing the bottom and the boards around the base, which are four inches wide, of bottom box stuff. The laths on the sides are securely nailed to posts which are of inch-square spruce. Such a coop will carry any amount of merchandise piled on top of it, as much so as though it was a box. 126 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE Before fowls are sent to the show room they should receive a course of training-, to accustom them to confinement, handling and a crowd of visitors. Unless this is done they will not show at their best and fail to make the impression on the judge and visitors of more upstanding, bolder birds. Confine them in coops, similar to the one shown in Figure 92, for two weeks prior to the exhibition and handle each one daily. Yard for Three or Four Flocks — Two good plans are shown in Figure 97. The first calls for a house rA/^D YARD YARD \ HOUSE I I //oas£ I YARO FIG 98 YARDS FOR TWO OR FOUR FLOCKS twenty by thirty feet for one hundred fowls or less. The hallway takes but little room out of the interior, and yet it communicates with all three pens. The inside divisions are of wire netting, allowing the sun- shine that enters at one side of the house to fall into all the pens ; but the house should be so located that three sides may receive morning, noon and afternoon sun. The same plan is followed for dividing the yard outside as for dividing the space inside the house. This gives a large amount of y?rd space, with the yards conveniently located. This building is shing)'"^ COOrS, YARDS AND FENCES I27 all over the outside, with the heaviest hnildino: paper under the shingles, and may either he sheathed or lathed and plastered inside. The second plan comprises a three-pen, shed- roofed house with three yards of the usual size and a large yard that can he used for one pen of fowls on one day and for another the next day. This "common" yard may be an old pasture or field that need not be fenced except near the poultry house. With such a run into which to turn the fowls on alternate days, almost the same results may be obtained as when free range can be liad and at much less expense for fencing than when very large yards are provided for each pen. FIG 99 : MOVABLE POULTRY YARD Figure 98 shows a plan for four flocks with house in center, or for two flocks with alternate yards, allow- ing one yard to be plowed and sowed to green crops. The latter is a good plan for breeding flocks kept on limited range. Movable Yards — The section abed (Figure 99). is of light boards, covered with poultrv netting. To bottom board, e d, are fastened three heavy planks or supports, e f g, meeting the board at right angles. These hold the structure upright, and four similar pieces hooked together make a convenient poultry yard w^hich may be moved without trouble. A handv movable panel, shown in second half of Figure 99, is of two boards below and netting above= 128 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE It is neat and will hold fowls of any size. The hooks shown at the corners fit into rings in tlie posts. Making a Picket Fence Hen-Tight — On many farms the hens could be given free range if the garden fence were a sufficient barrier to the fowls. The cut shows a picket fence with a picket extending upward for fifteen inches every twelve feet. To these exlended ends of the pickets is stretched a twelve-inch strip of wire netting, as shown in the sketch (Figure loo). In the prominence of the pickets the fowls do not clearly notice the netting until they fiy against it. After a few trials they will give up the attempt to fly FIG lOO: MAKING A FENCE CHICKEN PROOF over. Poultry yard fences can be constructed in this way, using ordinary pickets, and above them any needed width of netting, according as the fowls are Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks or Leghorns. The ordinary poultry fencing is all right for fowls, but will not turn chickens until they reach the age of ten or more weeks. A simple device for making poultry netting chicken-tight is shown in Figure lOO. Two or three laths are woven into the lower meshes, in the manner shown, making a barrier that small chickens will not pass. This is both easy of construc- tion and effective. INDEX Additions Barrel coops Boarding, crosswise Box coo))s Brooder attachment box cold PAGE . 83 .116 • 3 house bank 97 combined 9~ double 91 Oregon 99 pipe 94 single 94 Matteson's 9" Building, low cost 1 1 Business poultry plant 7° Colony house 24 shelter coop i -^5 system in Rhode Island 33 Convenient house 13 Coop, a light 121 A-shaped 117 brood 120 Coops, box 118 for fattening 1-23 for orchard 1-23 hay sheds 114 rat proof 112, 114 ten-cent . . 115 with glass roof no Cornstalk shelter 23 Drainage 3 Duckhouses 106 Early chicks, coop for 1 1 1 house for 100 Exhibition coops 124 Experiments, West Virginia .... 5 Farmers' poultry house 37 Feed house 29 Fence, hen tight 127 Fattening coops 123 Floor, a cement 3 of clay 56 Foundation, a post 2 stone 2 France, G. R., house of n Glass in houses 6 Heating pipes 93 Hennery, handy 16 Home, a practical poultry 80 PAGE House, a business 25 a Kansas 60 a Maine 58 a Nebraska 62 a ten-dollar 19 cheap and labor-saving 14 convenient 13 cost of per fowl 8 economical, small :i2 tor cold storage .. .loi for ducks 7o6 for mild climate 10 for one hundred fowls 49 for thirty fowls 20 for turkeys 104 farmers' poultry 3/ good winter 53 in bank wall 68 in sand bank 63 light 56 L-shaped 5' model 78 movable 45 octagon 51 of sods 59 poultry and pigeon to8 prize, Grundy's 35 [ protected for winter 95 j removable 40 Rhode Island colony 32 I satisfactory 54 situation of 3 warm 68 well made 70 windproof 65 j with cloth run 5" ' with scratching shed 21 Houses, effect of heating 5 ! northern colony 30 Tee room 102 Incubator house 90 I Mrs Fairbanks's 9i room banked 9° Layers, house for 18 Lean-to for poultry 84 Location of poultry i)lant 2 Log house 66 Material, preserving 6 I second hand 6 Xest boxes 75 Notes for Iniilders ^ i;;o ixdp:x PAGE Octagon house 51 Pigeon lofts 107 Pollard's poultry house 76 Poultry plant, i)lan of 89 Rhode Island colony house 2>^ Roof, l-.ning for 6 Roosts 7, 75 movable 55 warm 5 Run, cool for chicks 113 for winter 86 Runway to second story 82 Sand house 67 Sash with double glass 7 Second story room 82 Scratching pen 83 shed 2\ sheds protected 87 Shelter, cornstalk 22, summer and fall 121 sunnv 84 PAGE Shipping coojjs . 124 Site for poultry buildings 2 Slope for poultry plant 2 Sod houses 59 to lay 62 Soil for i>oultry jilant i Stoddard's poultry house 25 Tank and incubator house 92 Troughs and fountains 8 Turkey houses 104 Ventilator 56 Wall, a warm 4 Water supply 92 \Mndows, double removable 6 Winter protection 85 Yard for three flocks 125 Yards, movable 127 for two or four flocks 126 SENT FREE ON APPLICATION Descriptive Catalog^ qf Rural Books CONTAINING 100 8vo PAGES, PROFUSELY IL LUSTRATED, AND GIVING FULL DE- SCRIPTIONS OF THE BEST WORKS ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS : : : : • Farm and Garden Fruits, Flowers, etc. Cattle, Sheep and Swine Dogs, Horses, Riding, etc. Poultry, Pigeons and Bees Angling and Fishing Boating, Canoeing and Sailing Field Sports and Natural History Hunting, Shooting, etc. Architecture and Building Landscape Gardening Household and Miscellaneous ...PUBLISHERS AND IMPORTERS... 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This superb volume is the most elaborate and complete treatise of the entire poultry nidustry at the beginning of the 20th century. In successive chapters, it describes and illustrates very fully, Poultry Houses and Runs, The Science of Feeding Poultry, Practical Management and Feeding of Fowls, The Egg and Sitting Hen, Artificial Incubation, Rearing and Care of Chickens, Poultry for the Table, Poultry Farming, National and Commercial, Exhibi- tion Poultry and Utility, Pedigree or Line Breeding, Practical Breeding and Rearing of Prize Poultry, Exhibiting, and Shows, Judging, Trimming, Technical Terms. To each of the principal breeds an entire chapter is devoted, including the beautiful and life-like colored pictures. Vermin, poultry diseases and vices receive due attention. The volume is artistically gotten up, gorgeously bound, and in every respect a triumph of the bookmaker's art. Illustrated. 600 pages. 8x11 inches Cloth and gold $8.00 Poultry Appliances and Handicraft. This neat booklet is intended to facilitate and ease the managing of poultry on a large or small scale, and this in the most economical manner. By concise descriptions and clear illustrations it presents many styles and kinds of the best contrivances in the line of nests, roosts, windows, doors, ven- tilators, homemade incubators and brooders, traps for ver- min, feeding appliances, fountains and water systems, food machines, heating apparatus, besides scores of miscellaneous labor-saving devices. Over 100 illustrations. Over 125 pages. 5x7 inches Cloth 50 cents STANDARD BOOKS. Forest Planting. By H. Nicholas Jarchow, LL. D. A treatise on the care of woodlands and the restoration of the denuded timberlands on plains and mountains. The author has fully described those European methods which have proved to be most useful in maintaining the superb forests of the old world. This expe- rience has been adapted to the different climates and trees of America, full instructions being given for forest planting of our various kinds of soil and subsoil, whether on mountain or valley. Illustrated. 250 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. $1.50 Soils and Crops of the Farm. By George E. Morrow, M. A., and Thomas F. Hunt. The methods of making available the plant food in the soil are described in popular language. A short history of each of the farm crops is accompanied by a discussion of its culture. The useful discoveries of science are explained as applied in the most approved methods of culture. Illustrated. 310 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . . . • $1.00 Land Draining. A handbook for farmers on tlie principles and practice of draining, by Manly Miles, giving the results of his extended experience in laying tile drains. The directions for the laying out and the construction of tile drains will enable the farmer to avoid the errors of imperfect construction, and the disap- pointment that must necessarily follow. This manual for practical farmers will also be found convenient for reference in regard to many questions that may arise in crop growing, aside from the special subjects of drainage of which it treats. Illustrated. 200 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . $1.00 Barn PlaJis and Ontbuildings. Two hundred and fifty-seven illustrations. A most valu- able work, full of ideas, hints, suggestions, plans, etc., for the construction of barns and outbuildings, by practical writers. Chapters are devoted to the economic erection and use of barns, grain barns, horse barns, cattle barns, sheep barns, corn- houses, smokehouses, icehouses, pig pens, granaries, etc. There are likewise chapters on birdhouses, doghouses, tool sheds, ventilators, roofs and roofing, doors and fastenings, workshops, poultry houses, manure sheds, barnyards, root pits, etc. 235 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . • $1.00 STANDARD BOOKS. Herbert's Hints to Horse Keepers. By the late Henry William Herbert (Frank Forester). This is one of the best and most popular works on the horse prepared in this country. A complete manual for horsemen, embracing: How to breed a horse; how to buy a horse; hov to break a horse ; how to use a horse ; how to feed a horse ; how to physic a horse (allopathy or homeopathy) ; how to groom a horse ; how to drive a horse ; how to ride a horse, etc. Beautifully illustrated. 425 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.50 Diseases of Horses and Cattle. By Dr. D. AIcIntosh, V. S.. professor of veterinary science in the university of Illinois. Written expressly for the farmer, stockman and veterinary student. A new work on the treatment of animal diseases, according to the modern status of veterinary science, has become a necessity. Such an one is this volume of over 400 pages, written by one of the most eminent veterinarians of our country. Illustrated. 426 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . . . . $1-75 TJie lee Crop. By Theron L. Hiles. How to harvest, ship and use ice. A complete, practical treatise for farmers, dairymen, ice dealers, produce shippers, meat packers, cold storers, and all interested in icehouses, cold storage, and the handling or use of ice in any way. Including many recipes for iced dishes and beverages. The book is illustrated by cuts of the tools and machinery used in cutting and storing ice, and the different forms of icehouses and cold storage buildings. Illustrated. 122 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . . . $1.00 TJie Secrets of Health, or How Not to Be Sick, and Hozu to Get Well from Sickness. By S. H. Platt, A. M., M. D., late member of the Connect- icut Eclectic Medical Society, the National Eclectic Medical Association, and honorary member of the National Bacterio- logical Society of America ; our medical editor and author of "Talks With Our Doctor' and "Our Health Adviser." Nearly 600 pages. An index of 20 pages, so that any topic may be instantly consulted. A new departure in medical knowledge for the people — the latest progress, secrets and practices of all schools of healing made available for the common people — health without medicine, nature without humbug, common sense without folly, science without fraud. 81 illustrations. 576 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. .... $1.50 AUG 1 9 1902 ^ 1902 t COPY n AUG. lO J 902