HOUSES FOR LAYERS. 39 



weather, for lack of other employment, sometimes enter 

 them to scratch for food, and thus by chance break eggs 

 and learn to eat them, and acquire the habit of pecking 

 at and devouring eggs as fast as laid. But a darkened 

 nest will deter them from entering, except to lay, for 

 which purpose they prefer a dark, low corner. There is 

 a row of six nests running across the building at each 

 end, making twelve, which will be sufficient, as it will 

 not happen that more than that number out of a flock 

 will need them at once. The passages are made so that 

 they may be taken out with the nests for whitewashing. 

 The end sills, of plank 18 in. wide, serve as a tight floor 

 for the nests and passage. The perches, two in number, 

 are 18 in. apart, and each is 18 in. from the roof, and 



2 ft. higher than the sills. Perches should be of 2 l-2x 



3 1-2 in. sawed stuff, the widest part up, with the upper 

 corners rounded oh* a very little. From four to five aver- 

 age-sized fowls will occupy 2 ft. of perch. The perches, 

 being each 12 ft. long, will accommodate a flock of fifty, 

 and are to be placed SQ as not to extend over the part 

 occupied by the nests. 



The drinking vessel stands upon one of the platforms 

 formed by the nests, and upon these platforms are also 

 shallow boxes containing gravel, pounded charcoal, and 

 a mixture of loam, sand and oyster-shell lime, made into 

 an easily crumbled mortar. The boxes are ten inches 

 wide, and being placed next the end wall, leave a space 

 eight inches wide upon the platform, for the fowls to stand 

 upon. The drinking pail and gravel boxes are protected, 

 by their elevation, from the dirt that would otherwise 

 be thrown into them by the fowls when scratching and 

 dusting, and are fronted by slats with openings six by 

 two and three-quarter inches between them. An open- 

 ing is made in the end wall over the pail that is just 

 large enough to admit the spout of a large watering pot, 

 or the nozzle of a line of hose attached to the water cask 



