68 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



till the hatch is over. If she will eat from the hand 

 she may be given a little whole corn or wheat, but 

 she will not suffer if she is not fed. When the 

 chicks come out from under the hen and begin to 

 climb about the nest, it is time to remove them to 

 the coop. 



There is no better brood coop than can be made 

 from a good-sized drygoods box sawed through the 

 middle at an angle so that there are two coops, each 

 with a shed roof. The roof must be made tight, and 

 there must be no cracks in back and sides. Wire 

 may be tacked across the upper part of the coop 

 to keep out rats, and there should be a sliding door 

 of two-inch wire so that the hen may be confined 

 while the chicks go in and out. A wire run of one- 

 inch mesh about two feet high, four or five feet long, 

 and as wide as the coop, is used with it, and may be 

 attached to the coop by a hook and eye. The coop 

 should have a board floor. While chicks can be 

 brooded on the ground in dry weather, they need 

 a floor when it is wet. 



A grocery box, if it is high enough for the hen 

 to stand up in, makes a good brood coop, and has 

 this advantage, that, having cost but little, it may 

 be discarded at the end of the season. This is a 

 great advantage in California where mites have 

 always to be dealt with. 



The old-fashioned A-coop may often be made from 

 scraps of lumber, and is as good as any if it is not 

 used with a run. It would be particularly suitable 

 where several broods are kept in one yard. 



Before hen and chicks are removed from the nest, 

 see that the coop is perfectly clean, and cover the 

 floor with a layer of clean sand covered with fine 

 cut alfalfa. Scatter a handful of grit and another 

 of steel cut oats over the litter. The addition of a 



