130 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Fences built in this way are easily and quickly built, aud easily and quickly taken down and 

 put away or moved. For Brabmas I have fences from two to three feet high, preferably two 

 aud a half feet. The widths varied because sometimes when I wanted an extra roll or two 

 of wire 1 could not.get thirty-inch stuff, so took what I could get. Two feet is rather low, 

 though only old males are likely to cross it. Three feet is higher than necessary, aud a little 

 harder for the poultry keeper to walk over. 



For Rhode Island Reds, Mr. P. R. Park uses four foot wire, placing hie. posts or stakes 

 further apart (as I recall it about twenty feet) With posts far enough apart the wire will 

 slack enough in the middle to allow one to step over. A man of average height or above 

 the average, not overburdened with flesh, will get around much quicker going over fences 

 this way than opening and closing gates. A gate is a necessity if a wheelbarrow is to be 

 taken through the yards, but even with gates all round it is easier aud quicker for the aver- 

 age man to step over the fence beside the gate. For a short man it is a different proposition. 



In this style ot fencing there are no boards, no part of the fence tight. The lower wire 

 rests on the ground; where there is an elevation too abrupt for it to follow it will double 

 over, w,here there Is a depression which leaves an opening below it, it may be drawn 

 down close with pegs driven into thegiound 



A possible objection to fencing in this way Is that males may fight through the fences. Mr. 

 Park's. Reds get used to each olhei, and do littie damage. I have had no trouble with 

 Brahmas except In a few cases where males began ' scrapping' through the wire, and in 

 a rush and spring together landed both on the same side of the fence. Then the fight was 

 to a finish. No serious fighting through wire netting is possible. This year I had one male 

 I was not willing to lake any chances on, and between his yard and the next one containing 

 a male I doubled the fence, the yards joining only for a short distance, and there was no 

 fighting at all. This double fence was made just as the temporary fences I have been 

 describing, with only a few iuches between the two fences. Last year where there was 

 danger of males damaging each other, I ran a second piece ot thirty-inch wire above 

 the first. The objection to that was that you could not walk over such a fence. The parallel 

 lines oi low fence prevent fighting, while not Interfering with the method ol going from 

 yard to yard. The simple way of fencing poultry just described is applicable only when there 

 is room enough to give good sized yards, and especially wide yards. It will not answer for 

 such narrow yards as are usually used with continuous houses; nor in the limited space in 

 which many must yard their poultry, nor where males with large combs are kept; nor is It 

 advisable for permanent fencing. 



It a fence is to remain in the same place permanently it Is better to build it, though of wire, 

 more substantially, to set the posts plumb aud firmly, to fasten the wire on well, stretching 

 it to fit; and I think it is better to put a six-inch board along the ground, especially if one 

 wishes to keep the grass or the ground smooth, clean aud well trimmed along the fence. 



About Permanent Poultry Fences. 



More and more poultrymen are beginning to agree that the permanent poultry fence is a bad 

 thing an evil to be tolerated, perhaps, in some places, but avoided wherever possible. It is 

 only when poultry keeping is on a very limited scale, and the poultryman can keep his small 

 yards thoroughly renovated in fact, treating the yards as he does the house, that the evils 

 of permanent fencing are done away with. 



The great fault of permanent fencing is that the yards, unless very carefully looked after, 

 soon become foul, while the fences so interfere with a thorough working ot the soil thut the 

 soil either is not thoroughly worked or is worked largely by hand tools, and at great expense. 

 The result of this condition is that the yards are generally not thoroughly worked over, and 

 disease and filth lurk in the corners, about the posts, and under the fence boards, furnishing 

 the unsuspected cause for many a supposed mysterious epidemic. 



As in discussing the structure of the poultry house and the character aud arrangement 

 of the fittings, I tried to impress on readers the importance of having everything plain and 

 simple, because this made it easier to be thorough in treating the house for lice especially 

 but, also, in all ordinary cleanings so in regard to the arrangement of yards and fences I 



