POULTRY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 



11 



not be satisfactory unless the ventilator tubes are built well up 

 in the air above the house. 



X&O 



THE SIZE OF THE HOUSE 



In determining the size of a house, consider the number of 

 fowls that are to be kept in one pen. As a rule, fowls are too 

 crowded for economical production. A flock of fifty hens should 

 usually be allowed about five square feet of floor space per hen. 

 Where the attendant is careful to keep the house clean and the 

 floor heavily littered with straw, less floor space will be neces- 

 sary. As a rule, it is far better to allow too much floor space 

 rather than too little. The larger the pen, the less floor space 

 will be required per hen. This is shown in Figure 5. One 

 hundred hens will thrive in a 

 pen 20x20 feet, that is, four 

 square feet or floor space per 

 hen, but one hen will not 

 thrive in a pen 2x2 feet. In 

 the large pen, each one has a 

 chance to wander about over 

 the entire floor space thus get- 

 ting more exercise. As the 

 number in the flock becomes 

 less, the amount of floor space 

 per hen must increase, and 

 anyone keeping eight or ten 

 hens should allow at least ten 

 square feet of floor space per 

 hen, unless he is prepared to give special attention to cleaning 

 and bedding the house. A crowded condition in a poultry 

 house is responsible on many farms for lack of winter egg pro- 

 duction. 



Farm hens are frequently kept at the rate of about one square 

 foot of floor space per hen. Where hens have access to the 

 barnyard, straw stack, feed lots, etc., the amount of floor space 

 per hen is not so important as the house then becomes a roosting 

 place and the barnyard is the feeding floor. Many mistakes 

 are made when increasing the number of fowls on farms. 

 When hens become numerous, the barn yard is no longer avail- 

 able as an exercising place for them, with the result that the 

 ftens are too closely kept. When 80 hens are kept in a house 



Figure 5. The large pen is large enough 

 for 100 hens, but one hen could not thrive 

 in a pen 2x2 feet. 



