116 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



do at any other time, and when they are not allowed to 

 do so by most poultry-keepers. Folks think there is a 

 great mystery about making hens lay in winter. There 

 is none; anybody can do it; that is, the hens will lay 

 if you let them. They bear a good deal of cold in the 

 sunshine, and even freeze their combs and toes, and yet 

 will not stop laying altogether if they can sleep warm. 

 Now do not begin to plan setting up a stove in the hen- 

 house, or introducing steam-pipes. Artificial heat is 

 not poisonous perhaps, but very nearly so, to chickens. 

 They are warm themselves, and need only to be crowded 

 on their roosts, with the roosts all on one level. The ceil- 

 ing of the roosting-room should be only a few feet above 

 the fowls' heads, and provided with ventilation from the 

 floor if possible. Give them very close quarters, with no 

 draughts of cold air, and clean out under the roosts every 

 morning, not excepting Sundays. The combs will then 

 redden up, and eggs will be plenty on less feed than 

 usual. It must not be corn, however, or only a small 

 percentage of it, for this will make them too fat to lay 

 well if they sleep warm. 



A capital way to arrange a hen-house for^winter is to 

 make a ceiling of rails about six feet above the floor, cov- 

 ering the rails with salt hay, or coarse swamp hay of any 

 kind. The roosts should be about three feet high above 

 the floor, and movable^ so that they may be kept per- 

 fectly clean. For small flocks of thirty to fifty hens, it 

 is little trouble to take the roosts down every morning 

 when the floor is cleaned, and replace them at night. It 

 removes from lazy fowls the temptation to sit in idleness 

 on the roost for half the day. 



