PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 61 



The door should have a lock and be kept fastened 

 unless the place is absolutely safe from intrusion. 



The floor may well be of sandy loam. A dusting 

 place should be provided in the lightest part of the room. 



Adjoining the room on the sunny side make a small 

 run, surrounded and covered with wire netting. The 

 ground within the enclosure should be in turf except a 

 portion near the building, which should be spaded up 

 to provide a scratching and dusting place on pleasant 

 days. 



NEAT AND NATURAL NESTS. 



When a fowl makes her nest upon the ground she 

 usually selects a hollow spot in some secluded place, 

 collects a few dry leaves or bits of straw to line the 

 nest, lays her clutch of eggs, sits upon them comfortably 

 and contentedly the allotted time and hatches all the 

 eggs into healthy, hardy chicks. We may well imitate 

 her method in order to secure like excellent results. 



Take empty boxes, obtainable at the grocery stores, 

 and place them in rows on the floor along the sides of 

 the sitting place, as many as may be needed for the 

 sitting hens. An egg-case or an orange box will make 

 two nests for medium sized sitting hens or a soap box 

 will make an ample sized single nest. 



Each empty box is turned upon its side, the open 

 top thus becoming the front of the nest. A strip of 

 board is nailed along the front, with the upper edge 

 three or four inches above the bottom of the nest, to 

 keep the nesting material in place and prevent the eggs 

 from rolling out. 



If the floor is of boards or concrete, mellow, moist 

 loam or an inverted piece of grass turf may be placed 

 in the bottom of each nest-box. The loam is hollowed 

 out and shaped to nicely Ijold the eggs and have their 

 upper surface conform to the contour of the under part 

 of the hen's body. 



If the house has a dirt floor, hollows for the nests 

 may be made in the soil and the bottom boards of the 

 nest boxes removed. The bottomless boxes are placed 



