INTENSIVE AND SEMI-INTENSIVE POULTRY-KEEPING 



The tour of the twenty compartments (ten 

 to each floor) of these formidable-lookmg 

 double-deckers naturally takes time ; but the 

 working had become so systematised that 

 Mr. Potter and his father then felt equal to 

 the attention of another i,ooo birds without 

 making the labour too arduous. Hardy young 

 stock reared on farms were then being used, 

 and we thought advisedly so as not to add 

 the dangers and troubles of intensive rearing to 

 the work. Every precaution is taken against 

 disease, and ailing birds are promptly elimi- 

 nated. This risk of wholesale infection seems 

 to us to be the danger-spot of these huge 

 colony houses, and their success in this respect 

 greatly depends upon being able to anticipate 

 disease before it gets hold of a bird. 



SEMI-INTENSIVE HOUSES. 



Another interesting plant of the large flock 

 description, which we also visited m 191 3, 

 IS that of the Molassine Company, near Twy- 

 ford, where, on a large experimental poultry 

 farm on the extensive system, this firm also in- 

 stalled three houses on the intensive system, 

 each to hold a flock of 500 birds. 



These houses are situated a hundred yards 

 apart, with ample land around each, so that 

 they can also be used as semi-intensive houses 



by allowing the birds their freedom in fine 

 weather, and this is the plan now adopted. 

 The houses are 100 ft. long, 16 ft. deep, and 

 the roof at the front is 7 ft. high, sloping 

 back to 4 ft. 6 m. at the rear. The eaves 

 overhang, and two tiers of canvas shutters 

 provide shelter against cold winds and driving 

 ram or snow. 1 he floor is of wood, and the 

 houses are raised on brick piers, varying in 

 height, owing to the slope of the ground, 

 from I ft. to 4 ft., thus allowing ample air- 

 space beneath to avoid moisture from the 

 ground, and also incidentally affording capital 

 dry storage cover for spare coops and ap- 

 pliances as well as litter. 



The internal fittings are: (i) Nest-boxes at 

 the back of the house, with entrance from 

 behind, so as to ensure privacy and a certain 

 amount of darkness as a first preventive against 

 cgg-eatmg ; (2) two rows of perches, arranged 

 on a shelf above the nest-boxes, running longi 

 tudinally down the house, but ending short 

 of the side walls, so as to avoid crowding into 

 the corners ; (3) the floor bedded fairly deep 

 with long straw and the usual water and food 

 troughs. 



Experience here, as in many such houses 

 recently visited, points to the subdivision of 

 these large intensive houses into several 



Interior of one of the Molassine Co. s Semi-Intensive Houses at Twyford. 



