POULTRY-HOUSES. 



SCOTCH POULTRY-HOUSE. 



In a paper published in the " Transactions of 

 the Highland Society of Scotland," for 1833, Mr. 

 England, of Aberdeen, gives a plan of a poultry - 

 house and yard, which appears to be very com- 

 plete of its kind, though he differs from 

 most of the authorities in many points 

 of management. The house is divid- 

 ed into separate wards, each ward fit- 

 ted up to lodge twenty-four hens and 

 one cock, with a yard attached, about 

 fifteen feet long, by ten broad. 



The following is a ground plan of 

 two such wards, with their yards and 

 houses ; a, a, a, three of the nests out 

 of the twenty-four in each house ; b, a 



ladder by which the fowls go up to the nests ; c, 

 c, c, three roosts, holding about two dozen fowls ; 

 c?, platform, to allow the fowls to pass in front 

 of the nests. 



The manner in which the nests, the roosting 

 perches, the ladders for the fowls to go up by, 



D 



GROUND PLAN. 



and the platform to allow them to pass in front 

 of the nests, are arranged, will be best under- 

 stood from the above figures. 



The poultry-house within the yard, if there 

 be a choice, should have a southern aspect, de- 

 fended from cold winds and the blowing in of 

 rain or sleet. 



Mr. England also provides what he calls a 

 storm house, for the fowls to run for shelter in 

 bad weather. 



It need scarcely be remarked, that the larger 

 the inclosure the better; for, although it has 

 been so much practiced in France, and so ur- 

 gently recommended by French writers, we are 

 no advocate for too strict confinement, unless it 

 be from rain or damp. When the state of the 

 fields can not render it injurious, they should 

 at least occasionally be given liberty to roam at 

 large. At the roots of hedges and shrubs they 

 will grub up many a hearty meal, and the pub- 

 lic roads will furnish them with a more grateful 

 rolling-bed than all the artificial mounds and 

 hollows of brick-dust, sand, and ashes, which 

 can be laid down in the poultry-yard. 



In the foregoing we have given several de- 

 scriptions of foreign poultry establishments ; we 

 will now give some American ones, among 

 which will be found some of our own plans, as 

 well as those of others. If there is nothing 

 original in them, they are none the less useful. 



