SHEDDING FOR SHELTER. 



this is not absolutely needed ; otherwise it must be provided, 

 and is better separate in any case. If this shed be fenced in 

 with wire, so that the fowls may be strictly confined during 

 wet weather, so much the better ; for, next to bad air, wet is 

 by far the most fruitful source, not only of barrenness, but of 

 illness and death, in the poultry-yard. If the space available 

 be very limited say five or six feet by twelve or sixteen the 

 whole should be roofed over ; when the house will occupy one 

 end of the space, and the rest will form a covered " run." But 

 in this case the shed should be so arranged that sun-light may 

 reach the birds during some part of the day. They not only 

 enjoy it, but without it, although adult fowls may be kept for 

 a time in tolerable health, they droop sooner or later, and it is 

 almost impossible to rear healthy chickens. 



Should the range be wider, a shed from six to twenty feet 

 long and four to eight wide may be reared against the 

 wall. Next the fowl-house will still, for obvious reasons, be 

 the most convenient arrangement, and it is also best wired in, 

 as before recommended. The whole roof should be in one, to 

 look neat, and should project about a foot beyond the enclosed 

 space, to throw the water well off. To save the roof drippings 

 from splashing in, a gutter-shoot will of course be provided, 

 and the front should be boarded up for a foot from the ground. 

 The floor of this shed ought to be raised a few inches above the 

 usual ground level outside : if by a stratum of clinkers or 

 brickbats, all the better. All this being carried out properly, 

 the covered " run " ought at all times to be perfectly dry. 



The best flooring for the fowl-house is concrete, made of 

 strong, fresh-slaked hydraulic lime and pounded "clinkers," 

 put down hot, well trodden once a day for a week, and finally 

 smoothed. The process is troublesome, but the result is a 

 floor which is not only very clean in itself, but easily kept so. 

 Trodden earth will also answer very welL The floor of the 

 shed may be the same, but on the whole, it is preferable there 



