70 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



TENT COOPS. 



other side. In warm and dry weather we con- 

 sider it better to have them next the earth ; 

 but in the early spring, when the weather is 

 cold and the ground wet, a floor or platform of 

 boards, or an old door, should always be put un- 

 der the coops. It should be two feet long, or 

 if three feet much the better, and twenty- two 

 high in the centre. The back end should be 

 boarded up tight, with the exception of a small 

 hole at the peak to admit air. The front should 

 be secured by nailing strips of lath, as denoted 

 in the figure, leaving sufficient space between 



2 fee J ; '.Cinches. 



i 



tft 



& 



Sliding 

 front. 



them for the free passage of the chick.-; 

 without affording liberty to the hen. In 

 front there should be a broad strip of board 

 as long as the width of the coop on which 

 to feed them. This board may be secured 

 to the bottom bar of the coop with leather 

 hinges, so as to admit of its being raised up 

 to close the coop toward evening, which 

 will not only answer the purpose of guard- 

 ing the young brood against rats and other ene- 

 mies during the night, but will prevent the chick- 

 ens from wandering about the next morning on 

 the dew and wet grass. 



Precaution should be taken not to have the 

 coops too near each other, as the chickens of 

 the different broods are apt to wander to the 

 wrong hen, where they will be punished and 

 sometimes killed. Fifty or sixty feet apart will 

 be a sufficient distance in general to secure the 

 safety of the young broods from injury by other 

 fowls. 



Sliding "bottom. 



AN ENGLISH COOl>. 



The above is a front and end view of an ex- 

 cellent coop for early-hatched chickens, where 

 it is desirable to have command of the mother 

 as well as her young. A little court in front, 

 two feet six inches wide, and three feet long, 

 made of lath or wire-work, which restrains their 

 wanderings, and checks the incursions of other 

 members of our flock. When the weather will 

 permit it can be removed to a warm sheltered 

 ;<iece of gravel, where the benefit of the sun's 

 IMVS may reach them. Two or three hours of 



good sunshine are then worth a week of codling 

 and swaddling by the kitchen fire ; and rarely 

 does a young chick seem to think the sun too 

 powerful though if the mother differs with 

 them in this, she is always ready to call them 

 within the coop, for their play-ground is but 

 the limited little court. So soon as the day 

 wanes in spring, and while the temperature is 

 low, we would remove them to the shelter of 

 the house for the night ; and the barred front of 

 the coop closing altogether with a slide, they re- 



