242 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



should be kept in it and then do not attempt to keep more than the 

 space will allow. 



The ability to grow strong, vigorous pullets during the summer is 

 considered the most important factor in winter egg production. Some 

 may not agree with this, and it is surprising the large amount of litera- 

 ture that has been written about winter housing and feeding, all of 

 which is very essential, while but little has been written about the 

 summer and early fall management of pullets. Good houses are costly 

 and from that standpoint should be given much attention, but the great 

 advantage of this system of summer management is that it costs almost 

 nothing — a little extra time and trouble to feed. 



If a convenient house for summer is not already available, one may 

 be constructed very cheaply. A summer house to accommodate thirty 

 pullets should be 8x10 feet, with a G-foot front elevation and 4 feet in 

 the rear. If care is taken to clean this house and keep it so, one may 

 handle as many as forty pullets in it. If the desire is to keep more 

 than forty pullets in a house it should be constructed large enough to 

 give each one at least two square feet. Cheap lumber and building 

 paper will make a serviceable roof; the frame may be cut in the wood 

 lot if necessar}', otherwise use 2x4 inch scantling. Cover the sides witli 

 wire netting and then with a few cents for cloth or burlap cover the 

 sides and a good summer house is complete. The south side should be 

 left so that the cloth or burlap can be rolled up except when storms 

 come from that direction. Such a house should be placed on two good 

 oak runners with clevises attached so that it can be drawn to any part 

 of the farm. A movable floor should be placed in the house and cov- 

 ered with straw or chaff. This litter should be removed frequently in 

 order to keep the house clean and sanitary. When the pullets are four 

 months old, roosts may be placed inside and they will soon learn to 

 use them. 



If birds are to be shown at the fall or winter fairs one will find the 

 pullets that have been raised out in the open where they ranged at 

 will are much stronger, with brighter and more lustrous feathers than 

 those chicks raised in confinement. One of these free range pullets 

 when confined to coops will need a little more training, but will endure 

 a long journey and the strain of the show room much better than the 

 one that has been raised in close confinement on soil that has been 

 poisoned by years of accumulnted droDpinjis. 



There may be some disadvantages in the free range system for pullets, 

 such as the requirement of extra time and trouble which have already 

 been discussed. There, remains, however, the question of hawks, crows, 

 skunks and other vermin, which may be troublesome in some localities. 

 If care is exercised to shut the doors at night and have the opening 

 two feet from the ground there should be no more trouble with any 

 night prowling animals than is likely to occur in a small yard close 

 to the house. Hawks probably are the most troublesome in the day 

 time and should be shot whenever they visit the chicken yard. Crows 

 seldom trouble chickens large enough to put out on the range. Where 

 hawks are quite troublesome a corn field makes an excellent place to 

 keep the pullets as the chicks will usually hide away so that the hawks 

 cannot see them. Those who have tried the free range say that they 



