CHAPTER VIII 

 YARDS AND FENCES 



The subjects of this chapter, usually treated as supplementary to 

 discussions of housing, are properly preliminary. The relations of 

 poultry and the land that it occupies is a primary question in perma- 

 nent poultry culture ; the question of supplied shelter is secondary. 

 Many kinds of poultry require no shelter other than that which 

 nature provides in conditions favorable to their existence. All 

 kinds of poultry thrive as well or better in the open during the 

 greater part of the natural breeding and growing seasons. To a 

 much greater extent than is generally appreciated, the advantage 

 of human protection to these birds is in protection from natural 

 enemies rather than in protection from the elements. 



The methods and systems of poultry keeping applicable in any 

 case depend (as shown in the preceding chapter) very much upon the 

 amount of land available and the extent to which climatic conditions 

 permit use of the land. While in order of construction fences follow 

 houses, the first point to consider in planning is the amount of land 

 available, or to be occupied, and how it may be used to best advantage. 

 The type of house or other shelter to be used, as well as methods of 

 management, will depend upon how the land is to be apportioned. 



A yard for poultry is a necessary evil. The degree of the evil 

 varies inversely with the size of the poultry yard. One man, who 

 appears frequently as a poultry lecturer, is accustomed to say that 

 the word "yard " should be banished from the vocabulary of poultry- 

 men and that they should accustom themselves to consider poultry 

 as creatures which need pasture. The idea is an excellent one to 

 keep in mind, though a great deal of poultry must always be kept 

 in small inclosures. To economize cost of fencing, most yards for 

 poultry are made even smaller than the limits of space require. 

 This is false economy, due usually to the fact that the poultry 

 keeper does not understand that the height of fence necessary 

 depends on the area of the yard, and does not know how to take 

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