30 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



tion. If the scratching shed is built separately, as 

 in the illustration of the houses used at the Oregon 

 Station, the house need not contain more than two 

 square feet per fowl. A house 6x8 feet would thus 

 suffice for from twenty to twenty-five birds, and a 

 house 8 x 10 feet would hold thirty-five or forty, 

 which is all the beginner should put in one house. 

 In this case the scratching pen with its sloping roof 

 could front north and would give shelter from both 

 sun and rain. 



The shed-roofed house fronting south receives too 

 much sun in the winter time for California, where 

 the February hot spell is as much to be expected as 

 the January cold spell. If there is a covered scratch- 

 ing pen like the one mentioned above, this will not 

 matter. If the hens have no shade except what the 

 house supplies, there will need to be curtains or 

 shutters or a door, hinged at the top, which can 

 be raised to make a little porch in front of the house. 

 This is one of the most satisfactory ways of deal- 

 ing with both sun and rain in a small house. Where 

 a gable-roofed house is used, as at the Oregon Sta- 

 tion (Fig. 7), there is no such problem. A gable- 

 roofed house, with the front slope of the roof shorter 

 answers the same purpose as the shed-roof house 

 with raised door. 



The best protection against both rats and damp- 

 ness is a cement floor and foundation. This is not 

 practicable when the movable colony houses are 

 used, nor is it needed. To make a good foundation 

 for a permanent house, excavate about three inches 

 and fill with a mixture of one part Portland cement, 

 three parts clean, sharp sand and three parts crushed 

 rock. On the surface of this foundation put a mix- 

 ture of pure cement and water to fill up the holes 

 in the surface. A concrete floor is hardly more ex- 



