REPORT OF THE POULTRY MANAGER 205 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



THE OPEN SHED ATTACHMENT TO POULTRY HOUSE. 



One way of securing fresh air and exercise during winter is the open shed attach- 

 ment to the poultry house, a plan of which, is shown below. This arrangement has been 

 adopted and successfully operated by numerous farmers. The following shows a single 

 house and shed owned by Mr. J, S. Jeffreys of St. Catharines, who writes a description 

 of the premises as follows : — 



St, Catharines, November 10, 1902. 



* The house referred to is 12 x 60 divided into four pens, each having a roosting and 

 laying house 7 x 12 and scratching shed 8 x 12. The roosting room is built of double 

 boards and battens outside, then paper and matched sheeting on the inside. The 

 sheeting and all studs are of hemlock, the outsides boards pine and sills of cedar set on 

 cedar posts, 6 feet apart. 



' The hemlock sheeting was used for two reasons. Fii-st, because it was cheaper 

 than pine and second rats do not go through it as much as they do pine. 



' There are no floors, but the earth on the bottom of the pens is raised three feet 

 higher than the ground outside.' 



THE BEST TIME FOR AND MEANS OF HATCHING THE CHICKENS. 



The strong germs being secured in the manner as outlined, it is now in order to 

 consider the best time and means of hatching and rearing the chickens so as to have the 

 most satisfactory results. These will to a great extent be governed by the exigencies of 

 locality and facility. In some cases it may be quite possible to begin operations earlier 

 than in others, and such effort will doubtless be rewarded with a higher price, for the 

 earlier the chicken the better the price. To such persons the open scratching shed 

 poultry liouse will be invaluable. But it was pointed out in report of this department 

 for 1900 that the most suitable time for the great majority of farmers to hatch out their 

 chickens is in April, or, early May, for the reason that unless provided with inculiator 

 room and brooding house, so as to be independent of outside temperatures, it would be 

 inconvenient, if not impossible to raise chickens in papng numbers at an earlier season. 

 Further experience and expressions of opinions from farmers strengthen that statement. 

 Experience has also shown that pullets hatched prior to late April, or. May, 

 although they may begin to lay in late summer or early fall, are apt to moult and 



