42 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



back of the room. It was 3 feet 4 inches wide and 3 feet above 

 the floor. The back wall and up to the roof for 4 feet was lined 

 and packed hard with fine hay. The packing also extended part 

 way across the ends of the room. 



Two roosts were used, but they did not take the whole length 

 of the platform, a space of 4 feet at one end being reserved for a 

 crate where broody hens could be confined, until the desire for 

 sitting should be overcome. The space, from the front edge of 

 the platform up to the roof, was covered by frame curtains of 

 drilling, similiar to the one on the front wall. The cloth curtains 

 were oiled with hot linseed oil. They were hinged at the top 

 edge and kept turned up out of the way during day time, but 

 from the commencement of cold weather until spring they were 

 closed down every night after the hens went to roost. The hens 

 were shut in to this close roosting closet and kept there nights, 

 and released as early in the morning as they could see to scratch 

 for the grain which was sprinkled in the 8 inch deep straw on the 

 floor. 



The roosting closet was closely observed and has never been 

 damp, or its odors offensive when opened in the mornings. 

 There was very little freezing in the closets in the coldest 

 weather. The birds seemed to en oy the coming out of the warm 

 sleeping closets down into the cold straw, which was never damp, 

 but always dry, because the whole house was open to the out- 

 side air and sun every day. There were no shut off corners of 

 floor or closet that were damp. We used this building through 

 three winters, with 50 hens in it, and have not had a case of sick- 

 ness in it yet. Not a case of cold or snuffles has developed from 

 sleeping in the closet with its cloth front, and then going directly 

 down into the cold room and spending the day in the open air. 



The birds have laid as well as their mates in the large warmed 

 house have done; averaging last year above 150 eggs each. 

 Their combs have been red and their plumage bright, and they 

 have given every evidence of perfect health and vigor. While 

 they are on the roosts, in bed, they are warm. They come down 

 to their breakfast and spend the day in the open air. Such treatment 

 gives vigor and snap to the human, and and it seems to work equally 

 well with the hen. 



The results of the three years use of this house have been such 

 that we feel very sure that this is one of the right systems of 

 treatment and housing of hens, and it was decided to build sev- 

 eral houses on the same plan and join them together under one 

 roof, as one house. 



THE CURTAIN-FRONT HOTJSF, FOR HENS. 



This building was erected in 1903 and is 14 feet wide and 150 

 feet long. The back wall is 5 1-2 feet high from floor to top of 



