FIRST LESSONS '"1N : 'FOWL TRY ' 



101 



as the small outlying houses will accom- 

 modate lu the summer. This, as the 

 reader will notice, is a modification of 

 what I call the ideal system, which is a 

 complete double system. 



For my own use, and for all round 

 economy, I would use the double capacity, 

 one set of buildings for winter, and the 

 other for summer, rather than adopt the 

 plan of grouping small movable houses 

 together for winter, and spreading them 

 over the farm in summer, because I believe 

 it would be cheaper in the long run, and 

 altogether more satisfactory. 



It is a good deal of a job to move a 

 building having a capacity of over a dozen 

 to fifteen fowls, anyway you do it. To 

 move a lot of such buildings twice a 

 year, it will take but a few years to make 

 the cost of movings exceed the cost of 

 a summer plant. Further, the moving 

 of buildings twice a year may interfere 

 seriously with other work ; or if other work 

 interferes with it the delays are expensive, 

 and may put operations out of joint for 

 the whole season. Then the grouping of 

 small buildings close together makes a very 

 poor substitute for the continuous house system in bad 

 winter weather. I would not say it was impossible to 

 group the separate buildings temporarily, and arrange 

 everything conveniently, but I have not seen it done. Where 

 I have seen one pen houses placed close together, it would 

 have been as well in my judgment to have placed them far 

 enough apart to make a system of houses like my two pen 

 house. Such houses placed with ends 30 to 50 ft. apart, 

 and the rows of houses 150 ft. or more apart give a 

 medium between winter and summer conditions of con- 

 venience that will be found very satisfactory on small Section / Continuous House With 

 , ...,., i , Connecting Pens and Enclosed Roosts. 



farms or on farms where it is desired to keep the fowls 



, it _ , B ground plan, B 1 front, B 2 partition 



permanently on the same ground. between pens. 



In conclusion I want to say to the reader debating the house question Don't give undue 

 weight to my opinion. I have tried to emphasize the need of adapting systems or plans to con- 

 ditions. I would also emphasize the need of adapting them tc personal preferences. Because 

 I don't object to traveling even through the snow the few hundred yards which must be 

 traversed in caring for my fowls as I have them in winter, it does not follow that you will be 

 suited with such conditions. One reason I don't object to it is that that may be the greater part 

 of my outdoor exercise at that season. If 1 were out doors all day it might be different. I 

 might still continue to do it as on the whole the best arrangement, but very likely would con- 

 sider that feature sometimes a drawback. 



Plan your buildings to suit your conditions, your methods of poultry keeping and yourself. 

 If you havfc preferences indulge them unless you find them condemned by persons of good and 

 fair judgment. Don't take anyone's ideas on authority unless the reasons they give seem good. 

 Some useless features have been introduced into all buildings in a community merely because 

 some one who was successful had them in his building, though these features were superficial 

 and did not at all affect results. 



