their homes, rather than let them go out into the new neighborhood 

 at once, with the HabiHty of their getting confused and lost." 



Movable Coops for Chickens. 



The type of coop shown on page 7 will sometimes prove valuable 

 for housing growing stock. By its use many of the advantages 

 of a free range can be secured in localities where the area is 

 insufificient to permit such range. Confinement in such coops is not 

 recommended as superior to the Maine system just described, but it 

 may sometimes be the best available substitute. The usual practice 

 is to place these coops on grass land and one or more times daily to 

 move them their length or width so that the fowls may have a fresh 

 supply of green feed and unsoiled ground. Of course any given 

 area can be fed over in this way several times during a season. The 

 coops are light and very readily moved. Dragging would be made 

 easier by shaping the lower edges of the ends of the bottom scant- 

 ling of the frame like a sled runner. The coop can be still further 

 improved : 



1. By putting doors about a foot square in the gables so that 

 fowls on the perches beneath the roof can be reached from the 

 outside. 



2. By putting a hinged gate large enough to admit the blade of 

 a hoe opposite the end of the feed trough so that it may be conven- 

 iently cleaned when necessary. 



3. Light diagonal braces in the corners will render such coops 

 firmer and more durable. Wires might undoubtedly be used with 

 advantage for this purpose. 



Such coops have frequently been used with 

 Open Coops Useful satisfactory results for confining laying hens 

 for Laying Stock, during the summer. The care of the fowls will 



take rather more time than in houses, but the 

 use of the coop moved daily solves the problem of green feed : it 

 makes it possible to carry a large number of fowls with many of the 

 advantages of free range on limited areas and it is the observation 

 of the writer that hens kept in this way (with no fixed habitation) 

 become broody less than those in houses and may consequently lay 

 more eggs. An orange box beneath the roof with a hinged gate in 

 front of it for removal of the eggs affords the needed nests. This 



