POULTRY HOUSES. 601 



which, furnishes the fowls with pure water constantly. No. 1 shows the locality of the 

 several dust boxes where the fowls may take their dust bath ad libitum. The floors are kept 

 covered with clean gravel to the depth of three inches, which adds much to the neatness, as 

 well as the sanitary condition of the place. These pleasant quarters have for their favored 

 tenants Light and Dark Brahmas, White, Black, and Partridge Cochins, ten occupying a 

 single pen. We are indebted to* the courtesy of the publishers of the Poultry Monthly for per 

 mission to copy the foregoing illustration. 



Although such a building as this will doubtless be more expensive than the majority of 

 our readers would wish to build, yet a description of its plan will furnish valuable hints that 

 may be available in the construction of a cheaper or smaller house for poultry. 



The preceding cut of Mr. Sinsabaugh s poultry house will doubtless prove interesting to 

 both extensive poultry breeders and those keeping fowls in small numbers, as being very 

 convenient and comfortable for the purpose. The building is one hundred and four feet 

 long and sixteen feet wide; seventy-two feet of it being one and a half stories high. The upper 

 portion or second floor is used for hatching purposes, and as a run for young chicks when the 

 weather is too cold for them out of doors. The arrangement is such that each pen of fowls 

 has a roosting room twelve feet square, a ground floor shed twelve feet square, besides two 

 outside yards 24 by 60 feet, which are used alternately, the one being sown to oats which are 

 growing while they are running in the other, thus keeping them supplied with green food. 

 The sheds are valuable as furnishing a place for scratching in the dirt in winter, or as shade 

 in the hot summer weather. A hall- way 3^ feet wide runs the entire length of the building, 

 along the partition of which the nests are arranged in such a manner that they are entered 

 from the rooms, each nest having a separate lid in the hall-way, so that the eggs can be 

 gathered by passing along the hall, without entering the rooms. 



Mr. Comey s poultry house, of which we give an illustration, is 64 feet in length. There 

 are two one-story wings, each of which are 15 by 24 feet, the entire main floor being divided 

 into eight pens, 8 by 1 5 feet each. The second floor is arranged for hatching purposes, the 

 keeping of pigeons, &c., and is well ventila ted from the cupola. From the second story there 

 is a balcony 20 inches wide, from the edge of which a wire netting is attached in such a man 

 ner as to confine pigeons, and at the same time to provide them with an out-door run. The 

 ground floor is well ventilated by adjustable ventilators on the ridge of the wings, and by a 

 box in the center 20 inches square, extending to the cupola. An alley 3 feet wide runs 

 through the building, which in the main part enlarges into a room 12 by 1 6 feet, in which is 

 a stove for warming the building in damp or cold weather, grain chests, closets, stairway, etc. 

 The partitions are 7 feet in height, including the four feet of wire netting at the top. Each 

 pen has a perch located 8 inches above the center of a platform which is 28 inches wide and 

 1 6 inches above the floor, under which are movable nests and a dusting box. Both ends of 

 the perches are supported by cast iron perch-cup holders, which are filled with kerosene, and 

 by means of a wicking extending under the perch, from one cup to the other, the kerosene is 

 drawn the entire length, and all the vermin are kept off. A feeding trough 3 by 4 inches, 

 and 6 inches above the floor, runs the entire length of the pen on the side opposite the perch, 

 which gives the fowls room to eat without crowding, while at the end of the pen there are 

 boxes for ground shell, gravel, and a water-dish. Each pen has a window 4 by 5 feet facing 

 the south, also a yard 8 by 66 feet, with a southern slope and containing shade trees. (There 

 not being sufficient room in the cut for the representation of the yards, the artist omitted 

 them.) The partitions between the yards are boarded solid from the ground to a height of 

 3 feet, above which a lattice work of 3 feet extends. In visiting Mr. Comey s grounds we 

 were particularly impressed, not only with the convenience with which his poultry house was 

 arranged in all the minor details, but the gentleness with which he handled his fowls, and 

 the entire absence of fear that they manifested toward him, he being able to pick any of 

 VOL. II. 33 



