POULTRY ON A. TOWN LOT 103 
gate usually gives the most trouble, if he does the 
work himself, so it is well to know that a gate with- 
out the wire may be bought for one dollar. 
When a single hen escapes from a poultry yard, 
she commonly displays as much anxiety about get- 
ting in again as she did about getting out. Yet she 
is not willingly cornered and caught. There is a 
way to get such hens back into the yard without any 
effort on the part of the owner. As all poultry 
keepers have observed, a hen will run along the en- 
tire length of a wire fence, pressing against it and 
trying to find an opening. Let the amateur poultry- 
man make a little gate and fit it over an opening at 
the bottom of the fence just large enough to admit 
a hen. Let him have this gate open into the yard 
only, and so hung that it will close automatically 
but yield to gentle pressure. This may be done by 
the proper placing of the hinges. As the hen out- 
side the pale pecks along the fence, she presently 
comes to this little gate. Finding that it yields, she 
pushes against it a little harder. Behold, it flies 
open. She walks in and the gate closes behind her. 
Obviously, it cannot be opened from within and so 
makes a perfect self-acting trap for wandering birds. 
A flock of twenty-five hens given intensive cul- 
