POULTRY HOUSES. 173 



is not, perhaps, for any one to define with unerring precision, 

 any more than to define the exact style for all family dwel- 

 lings. In the first place, the number of fowls kept should 

 decide the proper size of the building' not the number kept 

 over winter, but the number that may be kept in the fall, after 

 the young broods have matured, or grown to a marketable size. 

 The next question is how large a building is required for 

 twenty-live, fifty, or one hundred fowls ? That will depend on 

 the breed of fowls. Fifty fowls of some breeds, will require as 

 much space as one hundred of some other breed, and then the 

 question arises how close will it answer -to crowd them upon 

 their roosts ? My opinion is, that we should have as many 

 feet of perches, as we have fowls of any breed. Then comes 

 up the query can we place perches, one above the other, so 

 as to accommodate a large number of fowls in a small build- 

 ing ? I answer, yes, it can be done, but it is not very good 

 policy. I think that nothing is gained by such a course, and 

 frequently great losses will be sustained, when diseases attack 

 the fowls, of a contagious character. A building twenty feet 

 long, may very well have two perches running the entire length 

 without detriment to the health of the fowls, but more than 

 two I cannot recommend. These perches should be of the 

 same height, as fowls will always strive to gain the highest, 

 when one perch is above the other. I have used perches in the 

 shape of an inclined ladder, with five or six bars to roost on, 

 the foot perch being some six feet from the wall, and the others 

 rising at an angle, each back of its lower neighbor, so far as 

 to admit the manure voided by fowls on one perch, from drop- 

 ping on those immediately below them ; but the fowls will not, 

 in all cases, sit with their heads the same way, consequently 

 this system is objectionable on that account, and also on account 

 of the strife that will exist, to some extent, to gain the upper 

 perches. 



In building a poultry house, convenience should be one of 

 your first objects. You should have it so arranged, that your 

 roosting perches shall not be near your nest boxes, and you 

 should have an apartment for grain, either in the same build- 

 ing, or in another, near at hand. You should have bins made, 

 rat proof, one for corn, one for oats, and one for buckwheat, or 

 some other grain ; and if you keep many fowls, a kettle should 

 be set to boil vegetables, to be mixed with meal for your fowls. 

 All of these may be under the same roof, if you please, to good 

 advantage, or in an adjoining building. 



