174 POULTRY HOUSES. 



Particular care should be taken to afford the utmost ventila- 

 tion of your poultry house in summer, by windows on two 

 sides, at least, to be of sufficient size to allow a perfect renova- 

 vation of the air within. Iron bars may be inserted, to protect 

 your fowls from depredators at night. I shall give the opinions 

 of several gentlemen, skilled in the science of henology, and I 

 will commence with some good suggestions from the " Journal 

 of Agriculture," which embody a description of the foregoing 

 poultry house, as here shown by the engraving : 



POULTRY HOUSES. When a man is bent on matrimony, he oftentimes 

 takes it into serious consideration, whether it be the better for him 

 to build the cage first, or first to procure the singing-bird that is to 

 tenant it But if any of our readers are attacked with the symptoms 

 of hen-o-mania, we can, at once, advise them to build the cage first, 

 and they can afterwards find a fowl to their taste. 



As in the management of milch kine, so with fowls, it is as neces- 

 sary to feed, and to quarter, and to care for your stock with judgment, 

 as to select with judgment. An ordinary breed of hens, well housed, 

 and well fed, will be of more profit to their owner, than a like number 

 of neglected and forlorn biddies, who may come of the best laying 

 tribe. 



It becomes us, therefore, to build houses for our poultry, convenient 

 for their habits, and convenient, also, for our own ; for if the tending 

 of any kind of stock is attended with too much trouble, they will 

 oftentimes be neglected. In building, therefore, let the house be as 

 handy for the hens, and as handy for yourself, as possible ; and of the 

 two, we would say in preference, make it handy for yourself. Let 

 there be every convenience for feeding, and for cleansing and warming 

 and ventilating, as the hour, or season of each comes round. 



Let the bins which contain the grain for their food, be in the 

 building, or they may, perhaps, occasionally lose a meal, when you 

 are too tired to go after it. Let the facilities for cleansing their 

 Bleeping apartments be always at hand ; or the atmosphere of their 

 dormitory may chance to be often over-charged with ammonia. For 

 the same reason, let your windows work easily. 



Hens ars modest birds, and seek seclusion and privacy, while the 

 symptoms of approaching egg-labor are strong upon them. It is 

 thought by many, that the production of eggs, is, like the yielding of 

 milk in a cow, somewhat under the control of the creature; if so, it 

 becomes us to add every inducement to stimulate the instincts of 

 nature ; and coax a fowl to prolificity by consulting their tastes and 

 w T hims, and making the nests as secret as possible. 



We present here a representation and description of a poultry 

 house erected by J. D. Bates, Esq., at his beautiful country seat at 

 Phillips' Beach, a very well contrived and excellent edifice. 



The frame of this poiiltry house consists of only the sill-plates and 

 corner posts ; the outside being formed of plank, tongued and grooved, 

 set together with white lead. The furring is laid on the inside of the 

 plank, and plastered. The inside of the roof is also plastered, and 



