POULTRY HOUSES 17 



18 to 20 ft. wide are generally favored, especially where 

 several hundred hens are kept during the winter. 



The open-front house should be of close construction, 

 with both ends, back, roof, and floor as nearly air-tight 

 as they can be made, and with a front having the proper 

 arrangement of open and glass windows. Such construc- 

 tion is shown in Fig. 2, which shows a small house, well 

 suited for the side of a city lot. The roosting apartment 

 is to the left and the open runway to the right. This 

 house allows 4 sq. ft. of floor space in the roosting apart- 

 ment and 6 sq. ft. in the runway for each fowl. That 

 would be 20 fowls for 80 sq. ft. in the roosting house 

 and for 120 'sq. ft. in the runway. This house is intended 

 for fowls that are kept shut in. When there is no danger 

 of their injuring the crops, they may be permitted to 

 run about in that portion of the yard used for a garden 

 or for flowers. The runway can always be kept sanitary. 

 When it needs cleaning, the fowls can be shut inside the 

 roosting place, and with a hoe and a rake the filth can 

 be scraped up, carried away, and replaced by fresh earth 

 from the garden. 



Houses of this type can be built of almost any size 

 required. If there is plenty of room in the yard, the 

 runway may be made larger or an open runway added 

 to the end of the closed run. A cover of canvas can be 

 spread over the wire front to keep out heavy rains .and 

 snow. When the weather is wet or cold the open front 

 in the roosting place should be closed with a frame made 

 of wood and covered with muslin. A covered runway 

 affords dry footing for the fowls, and no opportunity for 

 rain or snow to fall into the runway and make the 

 ground unfit for the fowls to use. Such a runway can 

 be kept sanitary if cleaned frequently, and such yards 

 and houses will be a pleasure to the owner. 



For some reasons it may be better for the roof to slope 

 away from the yard rather than toward it. In Fig. 2 

 a tin water spout is shown that conducts the rainwater 

 to the left of the building down to a cistern from which 

 the stored water may be taken for sprinkling the gar- 



