LOCATING AND PLANNING POULTRY HOUSES 



disease is much greater. Wherever it is possible, land 

 enough should be provided so that the fowls will not have 

 to be crowded, and so that other crops can be grown on 

 the land at the same time. It is much more practical, 

 more profitable, and far safer to provide ample acreage, 

 utilizing the valuable fertilizer produced by the fowls in 

 the growing of profitable crops of some sort. Intensive 

 poultry keeping involves the supplying of green food by 

 hand practically the year round; it also necessitates 

 sweeping and cleaning the yards, constant and lavish use 

 of disinfectants, and after all this is done, there still is 

 great danger of soil contamination and the spread of 

 various forms of disease. 



Such factors as the price of land, the extra labor cost 

 of widely scattered flocks and other practical considera- 

 tions, must all receive due attention in this connection, 

 and the question of method can, in the last analysis, be 

 answered only by each individual for himself. It will be 

 helpful, however, to know that the general tendency 

 among practical poultry keepers is toward a combination 

 of intensive and extensive methods as suggested in the 

 layout on page 8, or the one on page 11. In other 

 words, the laying flock is kept in comparatively restrict- 

 ed quarters, while the breeders and the growing stock are 

 given all the room possible. Estimating land require- 

 ments on this basis, 10 acres is little enough for 1,000 

 hens, and 15 acres is decidedly better. The estimate of 

 10 acres is on the assumption that the soil is sandy and 

 well drained. With heavier soil the acreage certainly 

 should be -increased. 



Planning To Save Labor 



No poultry plant can lay claim to being wisely 

 planned, in which the labor problem has not received 

 most careful study, and the cause of failure, in a great 

 many instances, can be traced directly to unfortunate 

 oversights along this line. In planning the layout and 

 locating the buildings, therefore, the first consideration 

 should be to secure every possible advantage to the at- 

 tendant, in order to reduce the amount of travel involved 

 in the daily care of the fowls, and to utilize natural re- 

 sources, such as range, shade, water courses, etc , to the 

 fullest possible extent. As local conditions enter largely 

 into these matters, no hard and fast rules can be laid 

 down, but the principal features of the ideal poultry 

 plans illustrated on page 8 will be found adaptable to 

 a great variety of locations. It is, therefore, worthy of 

 close study. 



Y\ hile this layout is designed to meet the require- 

 ments of a "1,000-hen farm," it can, without material 

 change, be expanded to meet the demands of a much 

 larger plant, or reduced to the modest proportions of a 

 poultry department to be operated as a side line on a 

 farm or elsewhere. 



As here illustrated, it has a frontage of about 500 feet 

 and should have a depth of about 850 feet, the rear por 

 tion being reduced for lack of space. These dimen- 

 sions give approximately 10 acres and provide for a lay- 

 ing flock of 900 hens, also for the necessary breeding 

 stock, which should always be housed separately from the 

 laying flock and given much more range than it usually 

 is practicable to provide for the latter. Nursery space 

 is provided for the brooder chicks, range for growing 

 stock, and abundant ground for supplying the house table 

 with fruits and vegetables. The west side of the plot, 

 from the driveway back at least as far as the north end 

 of the yards, should have a row of quick-growing ever- 

 green trees to act as a windbreak. 



This plan of locating buildings, yards, etc., offers 

 many important advantages, such as easy access to the 

 different buildings, limited fencing, few gates to open, 

 and a comparatively limited amount of traveling in the 

 daily care of the birds. 



In this layout, as in every practical plant, the poul- 

 tryman's residence is taken as the center, the different 

 departments of the work being located and planned with 

 reference to distance from the residence and convenience 

 of access therefrom. 



A tolerably liberal allowance for lawn has been made, 

 because a well-kept lawn adds much to the attractiveness 

 of the home and to enjoyment of it. Moreover, the lawn 

 need not be waste land, but can be utilized for the young 

 chicks throughout the brooding season. Neat outdoor 

 brooders, hen coops, or even colony houses around the 

 edge of the lawn, detract little from its beauty, and a 

 smooth, evenly mowed grass plot provides ideal range for 

 chicks during the first few weeks of their lives. 



With light, sandy soil it is practicable to raise chicks, 

 year after year, on the same plot of ground, without 

 danger from gapes or other chick diseases. In most 

 instances, however, the poultiyman will find that much 

 better results can be secured if his chicks are not brooded 

 more than two years in succession on the same ground. 

 In this diagram, therefore, two plots of equal size have 

 been set aside, one of which is to be used as a chick 

 nursery and the other as a kitchen garden, alternating 

 them every two or three years, or as conditions require. 

 A sod or permanent growing crop of some sort is desir- 

 able on the plot used by the chicks, and with a little at- 

 tention this may readily be secured, seeding the ground 

 with a quick-growing lawn grass mixture, or with scarlet 

 clover, alfalfa, oats, rye, rape, etc., as season and climate 

 may dictate. 



At the rear of the lawn is located the barn, which 

 should be of good size, as it is intended to furnish room 

 for storage of feed, litter, etc. Being within easy access 

 of all the houses, little labor is required in distributing 

 supplies from here as needed. Except on large plants, 

 the plan of using a centrally located barn for general 

 feed storage will be found more satisfactory and more 

 economical than building a separate feed house, it being 

 understood that each poultry house is to be provided 

 with suitable bins, boxes or metal containers for storing 

 small quantities of grain for immediate use. 



If dressed market fowls are to form an important 

 branch of production, a suitable room for dressing and 

 packing them should be provided in the basement of the 

 barn, where the incubator cellar also can conveniently 

 be located, if provision is not made for the incubators 

 in the house cellar or in a separate house such as the 

 one illustrated and described in Chapter VIII. 



On the east side of the rear lawn' may be located 

 a permanent brooder house. Even where most of the 

 chicks are to be raised in outdoor brooders or colony 

 houses, a small permanent brooder house will be found 

 convenient. Early hatched chicks can be brooded more 

 conveniently and with less expense in a permanent house 

 than in scattered colony houses. When the house is not 

 needed for chicks, it may be utilized for many other pur- 

 poses, being especially convenient for fattening surplus 

 market birds, conditioning show specimens, or for any 

 of the various other purposes for which temporary ac- 

 commodations are required at more or less frequent in- 

 tervals the year around. 



Next to the brooder house is located the home fruit 

 garden, which, in the dimensions indicated, will furnish 

 room for such small fruits as strawberries, raspberries. 



