194 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



Station up to the fall of 1913. If the proof of the pudding 

 is in the eating, this Louse has been satisfactory. An aver- 

 age of over 200 eggs per hen has been secured in this house 

 with a flock of 40 hens, and it was in this house that hen 

 C521 made a record of 303 eggs in a year. 



Improved Oregon Station House. This house, how- 

 ever, has been modified with the idea of furnishing a still 

 more copious supply of fresh air. A study of conditions 

 led to the opinion that the exchange of air at night in the 

 roosting end of the house was not rapid enough for the 

 number of fowls in the house. For thirty fowls the ven- 

 tilation is ample, but for forty or fifty it was decided that 

 the fowls were too close together to avoid re-breathing the 

 exhaled impure air. It had been noted that several of the 

 highest record hens at the Station had roosted close to the 

 door on a step up to the trapnests. Hen C543, with a 

 record of 291 eggs ; C508, with record of 268 ; A122, with 

 record of 259, and a number of other high-record hens had 

 formed this habit of roosting at the open door instead of 

 back among the other fowls on the perches. This was roost- 

 ing practically in the open air so far as fresh air was con- 

 cerned, and it might lead to the inquiry as to whether 

 fresh air is not, in itself, a good egg producer. 



The improved colony house is shown on page 178. In 

 the cooler parts of the north or where the temperature gets 

 down to zero and snow covers the ground two or three 

 months of the year, and for 30 to 35 fowls, the house with 

 the end open instead of the side is probably preferable, 

 because where the temperature is lower there will be natur- 

 ally a more rapid exchange of air. In warmer sections the 

 house with the side open instead of the end is to be pre- 

 ferred. In this house single walls are used made of rustic 

 siding. Trapnests are placed under the dropping platform. 

 Nests may be placed at the end wall of the house, in which 



