Portable houses for ten hens scattered over the green alfalfa field. These were 

 used many years ago, but now discarded for present system. 



24 by 40 feet, was given to brooding. This was mistake number one 

 in brooder house construction. In California, brooder house roofs 

 should be low and receive the direct rays of the sun. Then I cemented 

 the whole floor, which was mistake number two. Cement floors are too 

 cold and expensive for any kind of poultry house. Then a heater 

 system of pipes ran through the middle of the large room, and these 

 pipes were encased in a cement sill over which hover boards projected 

 on either side. The chicks ran under these hovers and could warm 

 themselves against this cement sill. In previous experiences I had 

 trouble in chicks crowding to the back side of the brooder and thought 

 by making this cement sill hot enough I could roast them out of the 

 corners. Perhaps this was one of the most foolish brooder heaters ever 

 installed. Cement is a poor conductor of heat and the oil consumed in 

 trying to heat all this bulk of cement was extravagant. Over this 

 large brooder room I fitted up four rooms into a sort of flat. The walls 

 were papered and with the fifty dollars worth of furniture they were 

 qu te cozy. 



This was my first attempt at home building, and it was the most 

 interesting work that my hands had ever attempted. It was rather an 

 unpresumptuous nest to invite a mate into, but I had the courage to 

 write back to that girl who sat in front of me at the old Academy and 

 ask her to join me in my simple abode and become partners for life in 

 the work which I had chosen. I wrote her that I could not give her a 

 home like that from which I would take her, but that I had a strong 

 pair of arms and a stout heart in a healthy body and big dreams of the 

 wonderful opportunities on the Pacific Coast. Perhaps the picture I 

 drew of that future home we might have in this glorious sunshine of 

 California, with its grandeur of natural scenery, perhaps this had some 



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