COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES 



11 



Cuts of both of these styles of houses will serve to show their 

 construction. 



A "fresh air" house that proved excellent and which I used for 

 years on my ranch was one hundred and twenty feet long and ten 

 feet wide. It was divided into six houses with scratching pens. I 

 also had another which suited me well. It was eight feet wide and 

 a hundred feet long; besides that, I had twenty colony houses for 

 the young and growing stock, and two brooder houses. 



The continuous house and scratching shed of which I give a 

 photograph and part of ground plan were built of flooring, tongued 

 and grooved. 



The other house was of boards, battened, and the colony houses 

 of resawed redwood or of shakes. Some were of rubberoid or 

 building paper. 



Many of the artistic looking house plans. which may be found in 



poultry books were planned by men who never owned a chicken, 

 and if built in this, or in any other climate, would be highly unsatis- 

 factory. The plans here described have all been used either by 

 myself or by successful poultry raisers. I have seen them all and 

 can assuredly recommend them for use on the Pacific Coast. 



The houses I am describing are of the inexpensive kind, for so 

 great is the variety of plans of houses designed for fowls that it 

 would be impossible to mention them all in a short article. We will, 

 therefore, consider only a few of the cheapest and most satisfactory 

 small houses adapted to this climate. 



The first requisite in the house is pure air. To secure this the 

 ventilation must be at the bottom. Some people think that the 

 bad air ascends, but this has been proved a mistake the foul gases 

 descend ; the pure air and the warm air are lighter and they rise 

 and we want to keep them in, but if we have an opening for ven- 

 tilation at the top or near the top of the house, we lose the 

 warmth. A loss of warmth at night in the winter means a loss of 

 eggs, or more food is needed to supply this loss. The ventilation 



