POULTRY KEEPING AND KEEPERS 



terial to constitute a large part of the food neces- 

 sary to maintain enough chickens to keep them 

 supplied with eggs and poultry meat. Sometimes, 

 too, there are neighbors who will be only too glad 

 to have their waste collected for this purpose. 

 Parings of all kinds of vegetables, refuse leaves of 

 cabbage and lettuce, onion tops, small potatoes, 

 stale bread crusts, and all such things which are 

 usually wasted, may well be utilized in this connec- 

 tion and will be found to give every bit as good 

 results as would higher-priced materials. 



Housing. Nothing expensive or elaborate is 

 necessary in the way of a house for a small back- 

 yard flock of hens, although, of course, a nice 

 house will add to the attractiveness of the place; 

 but that makes no difference to the hens, so 

 long as the homely-appearing house is comfortable. 

 A building ought to contain at least one hundred 

 square feet of floor space to comfortably house a 

 dozen to fifteen hens, and ought not to cost more 

 than ten dollars to twenty dollars, especially since 

 waste material can often be utilized in its con- 

 struction. 



A piano-box poultry house (that is, a house 

 made by joining together two piano boxes) makes 

 a very serviceable and very cheap house for this 

 number of fowls; in fact, as a general thing this 

 type of house is the cheapest form available for a 

 small flock. The addition of a window or two 



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