CARE OF CHICKS COOPS FOE THEM. 61 



try-house, and a door from this opened into it. It 

 measures ten by twelve feet on the ground, and seven 

 and a half feet high at the top of the roof. It required 

 seven common hot-bed sashes, purchased for one dollar 

 each (three of those are shown and the other four should 

 be seen under the overhanging eaves), and the rest of 

 the material cost about ten dollars. The floor was the 

 ground, which was sandy and dry, and soon became 

 quite warm under the heat of the sun even in January. 

 When the hens wanted to brood, they were carried in 

 the movable nest into this warm house, where they were 

 fed and watered daily, and could enjoy a bath in the 

 dry, warm, sandy floor. The droppings were gathered 

 up daily in a pail, and carried out, and the house was 

 kept as clean and sweet as possible. When the young 

 chicks appeared, and had been nursed in the warm 

 brooder, which has been previously described, they were 

 given to the hen, who was put into a coop, and usually 

 two broods were given to each, and sometimes three. A 

 good, quiet Light Brahma or Plymouth Rock hen will 

 take twenty-four or twenty-five chicks and rear them 

 all safely when thus cared for, as the warm house 

 greatly relieves her from the work of brooding the 

 chicks and keeping them warm. The chicks are fed 

 four, times a day, the chief food at the first being crushed 

 wheat and coarse oatmeal, with coarse cracked corn and 

 clean water in a shallow plate, in the center of which an 

 inverted tin fruit-can is placed, to prevent the chicks 

 from running through it. The advantage of such a 

 house as this is that chicks can be reared that are fit 

 for market so early as to bring the highest price. An 

 instance may be given of the income from a small flock 

 of twenty light Brahma hens for a year, from January 

 to December, which left a clear profit of a little over 

 seven dollars per hen. It is quite possible to do this 

 with a flock of one hundred hens which are good brood- 



