THE POULTRY HOUSE AND EQUIPMENT 517 



enough to prevent drafts. The roosts may be placed just 

 above a low platform at the rear or on one side, below which 

 are the nests. In front, plenty of window space should be 

 provided, which should be covered with poultry wire netting, 

 and also have cotton cloth screens, to be dropped during very 

 cold weather. Doors of standard size are usually placed at 

 one or both ends of the house, with wire doors in the parti- 

 tions, to allow passage through the various pens. In houses 

 containing many pens, doors are sometimes provided to give 

 entrance from the pens into the yards. 



The fattening house is a small structure containing crates 

 in which fowls are fattened, arranged along each side of a 

 passage way. The house is of simple construction, and 

 has superior ventilation with inferior light, as fowls are best 

 fattened under conditions of subdued light. Fattening 

 crates are in tiers, with feeding trays in front of each, which 

 with other conditions provide for the least amount of labor 

 in caring for the birds. Houses of this kind are not com- 

 mon on American farms, but are used especially by men who 

 make a business of fattening fowls for market. 



A brooder is a device used in connection with the incu- 

 bator, and is in a sense an artificial mother. The general 

 plan of the brooder is that of a warm box or room, heated 

 either by a small oil stove or a coal stove. The former pro- 

 vides uniform warmth for from 100 to 200 chicks, and the 

 latter for from 200 to 500. Within the brooder is what 

 is called a ' 'hover." A circular plate or cover of more or 

 less diameter, according to the size of the hover, is placed 

 about ten inches above the floor. From the rim of this 

 plate a cloth curtain extends to the floor. Pieces of cloth 

 are also suspended from different parts of the underside of 

 the cover to the floor. Here and there the cloth is slit so 

 the chicks may freely pass through and find a warm protec- 

 tion among the strips of cloth, comparable to being under the 

 mother's wing. The small brooder house has but one hover, 



