Housing Farm Poultry 



By BYRON ALDER 



With the exception, perhaps, of actual starvation of the 

 fowls themselves, there is no other factor in connection with 

 the keeping of poultry that will affect egg production and good 

 vigorous growth so decidedly as poor or improper methods of 

 housing. This circular sets forth some of the essentials of a 

 good house for Utah conditions, and offers plans of three houses 

 in which an attempt has been made to include these essentials. 

 The ideas and plans presented here do not represent any one per- 

 son's original work. They are a compilation of the work done 

 on this subject by those who have preceded the writer in charge 

 of the work at this station, and suggestions that have come from 

 a study of the types of houses recommended and in use in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. 



The Colony or the Stationary House. 



There are two systems in common use throughout the coun- 

 try. The colony or free range system in which the fowls are 

 kept in small flocks, housed in small movable houses, and the 

 permanent yard system in which the fowls are more or less 

 closely confined and the house is built in such a way, or of 

 such material, that it is stationary. The colony system is ad- 

 mirably adapted to farm conditions where only from two to 

 three hundred hens are to be kept. Where the fowls are kept 

 in larger numbers than this considerable time is required to 

 go from house to house to feed or gather the eggs. The ad- 

 vantages are, however, in being able to move the house from 

 place to place about the farm or yard, thus giving the fowls 

 fresh ground and pasture and utilizing space which at certain 

 times could or would not be used for other purposes. The soil 

 is less likely to become filthy and contaminated with disease. 

 Where the soil on which these houses are kept is of a sandy or 

 gravelly character, with good underdrainage, there is no need 

 of floors in the colony houses, and the problems of cleaning and 

 keeping the surroundings fresh and sweet are reduced to a 

 minimum, since all that is necessary is to hitch a horse to the 



