46 LOCATION AND SITUATION 



sidering the large number of birds kept. It is well adapted to egg 

 farms located on expensive land very near large centres of popu- 

 lation. The birds are closely confined and under observation at 

 all times. The disadvantages are danger of fire and of disease, 

 and extra expense required for fencing. This type of long house 

 is often used with only one to two yards. The house is then not 

 divided into small pens, as many as five hundred birds being kept 

 in one flock (Fig. 32). 



Semi-community is a term applied to plants in which the birds 

 are kept in smaller units, consisting usually of single or, at the 

 most, double pen houses arranged along streets or roads with yards 

 running to the front or rear. The pens are from twenty-five to one 



FIG. 32. Large community house, holding five hundred birds. 



hundred feet apart, depending on the length of the runs. This 

 type requires more land than the former and more labor to attend. 

 Advantages are: Giving the birds much more room, doing away 

 with the danger of fire, and reducing the risk of the transmission 

 of disease. 



These first two systems are suited to the production of 

 market eggs. In the breeding of high-class exhibition and fancy 

 specimens, it is absolutely essential to keep the different flocks 

 separate. The semi-community system does this well. It is 

 also adapted to the village or farm flock where the nearness 

 of a neighbor or the presence of some crop which would easily 

 be destroyed makes it desirable to keep them securely yarded 

 (Fig. 33). 



Colony system is a term applied to the method of dividing birds 

 into small flocks of from twenty to fifty and scattering them in 



