52 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



caring for lamps, turning and testing eggs, and other necessary 

 work. 



The house is one story and has four good well finished rooms, 

 with lavatory and closet, on the first floor, and a large unfinished 

 attic on the second floor. A shed for fuel and storage extends 

 in the rear of the building and shelters the rollway entrance. 

 The outside aspect of the building and its surroundings are 

 attractive. 



Brooder Houses. 



Portable brooder houses of several different sizes and styles 

 of construction are in use, sufficient to accommodate 2,000 

 chickens to maturity. The houses which have proved most sat- 

 isfactory are built on shoes so they can be drawn near together 

 for convenience in the brooding season, during April, ]\Iay and 

 June, and then to the grass fields for the range season. 



Each of the houses accommodates 125 or 150 chicks from the 

 time brooding commences until they are moved into winter 

 quarters. They are large enough so the necessary work can be 

 done comfortably in them. During rainy days, when the birds 

 must be kept indoors, there is room for them, and they will not 

 suffer seriously if the floors are generously covered with cut 

 clover or chaff. The birds in them are safe at night from 

 storms, and all thieves that walk on four feet, or fly. 



Such houses are almost indispensable to the person who 

 raises few or many chickens. Their use removes many of the 

 obstacles that tend to annoy and defeat the chicken raisers. 



Each house is 12 feet long and 7 feet wide. The front wall 

 is 6 feet 2 inches high, and the back 4 feet 2 inches high from 

 floor to roof, inside. This allows a full grown person to stand 

 erect in the front part of the house. The two shoes on which 

 it is built are 4 by 6 inches in size and lie flat. Their ends are 

 cham.fered on the under side so as to give them a sled runner 

 turn. They are 14 feet long, and extend a foot outside of each 

 end of the building. An inch auger hole slanting backward, and 

 outward, is bored through each end of the shoes. For con- 

 venience in moving the houses, a short chain with an eye bolt in 

 each end, which can be slipped through the auger holes and 

 keyed, is used. 



The floors are of two thicknesses of boards, breaking joints 

 so as to prevent the air from drawing through. The walls and 



