12 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



must be provided, and there are many who desire to keep 

 poultry on rather a more extended scale than we have yet 

 considered. Perhaps a good piece of garden can be given 

 up, then some such plan as Fig. 6 can be recommended, and 

 represents with fair accuracy what was our own yard for 

 years, and, for its scale, is simple and cheap. If indeed there 

 is, besides, a lawn or grass-run on which chickens can be 

 cooped, it will rear in fair perfection a few of most breeds 

 which do not require separate pens to breed the two sexes. 

 The space here shown is twenty-five by thirty-five feet, 

 besides the lawn or grass-run. If more can be afforded, 

 give it, by all means ; but we found this, with moderate 

 care, sufficient, and believe it will meet the requirements of 

 a large class of readers. The houses are here shown, as 

 they were, closed, with perches and nests at back ; but the 

 more recent " open " or " semi-open " plan, as shown in 

 Figs. 4 and 5, would be easily applicable, and in our opinion 

 preferable, unless the roof consists, as it did in our case, of 

 open tiles. 



The plan, it will be seen, comprises two distinct houses, 

 sheds, and runs, with a separate compartment for sitting 

 hens. The holes by which the fowls enter open into the 

 sheds, which are wired in, so that in wet weather they can 

 be altogether confined. In dry weather the shed is opened 

 to give them liberty. The fencing should be boarded up a 

 foot high, as already described, not only to prevent rain 

 splashing in, but to keep in, when necessary, young 

 chickens, which would otherwise run out between the 

 meshes. The holes by which the fowls enter their houses 

 should be furnished with trap-doors, that they may be kept 

 out at pleasure whilst either part is being cleaned. Each 

 house should have a small window. 



The yards in front of the sheds should be gravel or 

 trodden earth j but if they can be as much as fifty feet long 



