38 AN EGG FARM. 



rest upon the roof below the windows. The side sills 

 project at both ends of the building ; they are beveled, 

 runner- fash ion, and strengthened with iron, where holes 

 are bored to attach chains ; thus the house may be drawn 

 by either end, for the purposes before described. The 

 sills, which receive the principal strain during moving, 

 should be so well braced as to keep the whole building 

 in shape. The end sills, of two-inch plank, should be 

 spiked upon the top of the others, flatwise, so as not to 

 touch the ground while moving, and the side sills, four 

 inches square, should be of chestnut or oak, to be as 

 durable as possible, for they rest on the ground during 

 a good part of the year. The spruce rafters, two by 

 three inches, which answer for studs and rafters both, 

 should be set at such distances apart as will correspond 

 with the width of the doors and windows which are 

 fastened to them. 



A stout ridgepole, sawn of a triangular shape, runs 

 the length of the building underneath the rafters, and 

 two sticks are fastened to this ridgepole, one five feet 

 from each end, and braced upon the center of the end 

 sills to give firmness ; for the covering, consisting chiefly 

 of doors, does not strengthen the building, as in ordinary 

 cases, where the covering is nailed to the frame. C, C, 

 are doors, each three by one foot, opening outwards and 

 downwards, to give the keeper access to the nests, which 

 are one foot square, and the same in depth, and so con- 

 trived that the hens enter them at one side from a pas- 

 sage six inches wide and one foot high, boarded at side 

 and top, running the length of the row of nests, and are 

 thus indulged in their liking for privacy while laying. 

 The nests are tight upon the top ; the outside door 

 should fit closely, and the opening admitting the fowls 

 to the passage be made so small that the nests will be 

 rather dark. It is found that when nests are open to 

 view from the main apartment, hens will, in stormy 



