79 



method of rearing chickens in gasoline-heated colony houses is such 

 a system. I have a few illustrations that will show this method of 

 I-'-H ring chickens as we have developed it at the New York State 

 Agricultural College. A full description of this brooding system will 

 be found in Bulletin No. 277 of the Cornell Experiment Station. 



In figure nineteen are a number of these houses with little bare 

 yards, which is entirely Avrong. The chickens do not have enough free 

 range and there is great danger of contamination. On the Cornell 

 Poultry Farm we reared 4,000 chickens in these houses last season, 

 having two hundred and fifty to three hundred chickens in a house. 

 These houses are arranged one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet 

 apart in cornfields or meadows, where chickens run without any 

 fences whatever between the houses. AVe simply have around each 

 of the houses for a few days a little yard. We hold the chickens there 

 until they become accustomed to the house, then the yard is removed 

 and the chickens are allowed to run all over a ten-acre field, and they 

 go back into their houses at night with almost perfect regularity. 

 In any system of rearing chickens there ought to be division fences 

 between chickens of different ages, otherwise they are likely to get a 

 few stronger ones in with weaker ones. 



The colony brooder houses are covered with matched boards and 

 building paper for cold weather use. A good grade of matched boards, 

 well painted, answer all purposes for summer use. The houses com- 

 plete cost in the neighborhood of $35.00 to build and equip with the 

 gas heater under the house, gas tank in peak of house and large hover 

 in the house. 



AVe started eight or ten years by keeping two hundred chickens 

 in each house, and this year we have as many as three hundred in a 

 single flock. It is simply a question of size of house and hover and 

 amount of heat how many chickens we can keep in a flock at least up 

 to three hundred to five hundred. In this colony house with this 

 great big hover they always have their own choice of temperature. 

 They can go under it and get one hundred degrees or stay near the 

 edge at eighty or ninety degrees, or they can go outside, w r hich would 

 be ordinary house temperature, or in good weather they can run 

 outdoors. The houses are eight feet square and are built in the form 

 of an "A." \V ( - go in at gable end and this gives us standing room. 

 The sides are two feet high. The chickens are kept there from the 

 day they are hatched until they go into winter quarters, except most 

 of the cockerels, that are removed when they are about ten to twelve 

 weeks old. AVe reared, the past season, eighty-four out of every 

 one hundred of the leg-banded experiment chickens placed in these 

 brooder houses, over 2,000 chickens all told. AVe let them have the 

 hover until they do not need any more heat, usually when they are 

 about eight weeks old, depending upon season of year, and as soon 

 as they go on top of the hovers we put in perches over a portion of 

 the house. These are flat and two inches wide on top. After about 

 two weeks the chickens l.-.-irn to percli and we take hover and heater 

 out of the house, everything in t'ju-t except the perches, which oc- 

 cupy the entire house. Perches are made so you can take them out 

 and clean them easily. On the north side of the house is a \vindow 

 so that air can pass through the house. The door in front of the 

 house has an opening in it. The house therefore is open on both sides. 



