VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 41 



Although this house was thoroughly built. we found that the 

 windows had to be closed during rough winter weather, or water 

 would freeze quite hard inside the building. Closing the win- 

 dows caused dampness and frost on the walls, and the straw lit- 

 ter absorbed the moisture and became, while yet clean, disagree- 

 able to the hens. A hot water heater was placed in a pit at the 

 lower end of the building, and one line of two inch pipe was car- 

 ried under the roosts to the upper end of the building and re- 

 turned to the boiler. By use of this heater the building is kept 

 above the freezing point at all times, and there is not much trouble 

 from moisture except when extremely cold weather necessitates the 

 closing of the windows. 



The birds in this house have always been in excellent health, and 

 have never shrunk in their egg yields from cold weather except 

 one season, when coal was not procurable and the temperature ran 

 low. 



The ease with which the hens are cared for, the availability 

 of the entire floor space, and the welfare and productiveness of 

 the birds kept here, commends this building as one of the best. 

 It was planned and constructed so as to obtain conditions neces- 

 sary for the welfare of the birds and economize the labor involved 

 in their care at as small cost as was consistent with quality. Not 

 a single part was made for show. While a single walled build- 

 ing would have cost less, it would not have kept the hens warm 

 or given protection from dampness, that prevails in close single- 

 walled houses. 



THE PIONEER ROOSTING CLOSET HOUSE. 



A dozen years ago several little houses, each 10 feet square, 

 were built for colonies of hens. They were well built and warm. 

 but were apt to be damp and lined with white frost in very cold 

 weather, when the windows had to be kept shut to save the birds 

 from suffering at night. Another feature against them was 

 their size. A person can not care for hens in so small a pen 

 without keeping them in a condition of unrest, for they fear 

 being cornered in so small a room. Three years ago one of 

 these 10 feet square houses was taken for a nucleus and an addi- 

 tion made, so that the reconstructed house was 10 feet wide and 

 25 long. The end of the old house was taken out. so that there 

 was one room with a floor space of 250 square feet. The walls 

 were about 5 1-2 feet high in the clear, inside of the building. 

 The whole of the front wall was not filled in, but a space of three 

 feet wide and 15 feet long was left just under the plate. This space 

 had a frame, covered with white drilling, hinged at the top on 

 the inside, so it could be let down and buttoned during driving 

 storms and winter nights, but hung up out of the way at all other 

 times. The roost platform extended the whole length of the 



