POULTRY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 7 



used on the general farm. Its principle disadvantage appears 

 in fall when with the chickens all in one colony, it is necessary 

 to put the hens and pullets together, with the result that the 

 hens, being accustomed to the house, abuse the pullets when 

 they first come in from the range. With this type of house, 

 there is no chance to select the best laying and most vigorous 

 females. This plan makes it necessary to keep enough males 

 to fertilize the eggs of the entire flock. Market eggs are not 

 as good quality when fertilized for, fertilized eggs often start 

 to grow before they reach the consumer. Farmers seem to be 

 afraid of allowing infertile eggs because they feel that some 

 hens will steal their nests and not be able to hatch. There is 

 little advantage in hatching chicks from stolen nests for the 

 hens that steal their nests are generally hens that did not begin 

 laying until late in the spring and very often they are the poor- 

 est hens in the flock and do not produce chickens worth the 

 raising. 



THE LONG HOUSE SYSTEM 



Long houses with or without cross partitions, are used on 

 many large poultry farms. This type has the advantage of be- 

 ing less expensive to build, and they require less labor to care 

 for the fowls as the attendant goes from one pen to another 

 more quickly than he can go from one detached house to another. 

 Long houses have the ground more closely stocked and there is 

 much less natural feed such as insects, green grass, etc. As 

 large numbers are kept closely together, the tendency to disease 

 is greater. The grounds and buildings need more careful watch- 

 ing to keep them sanitary. Much fertilizer is wasted as the 

 ground next to the house cannot be utilized to advantage for 

 growing crops. Where large numbers are kept together, the 

 tendency to form bad habits such as egg eating, etc., is much 

 more pronounced. The long house with partitions across it is 

 usually to be preferred to the long house without partitions. 

 With several partitions in a house one can divide the hens to 

 advantage and treat them much more as colonies of chickens 

 are treated. 



With this type of house one can resort to several methods of 

 yarding. A good method is shown in Figure 4. Tn this dia- 

 gram each pen has an individual yard on the south where the 

 stock is allowed to run in vfall and early spring. The north 



