by an attendant. The hens are given free range. It has been 

 found that when houses are one hundred yards apart, or even 

 less, flocks will not mingle, but each flock will keep in the neigh- 

 borhood of its own house. This plan has its advantages. It is 

 inexpensive. The houses may be of the cheapest kind. No 

 yards are required. The hens at certain seasons of the year pick 



Colony house to accommodate from 12 to 25 fowls. This house is eight feet square on the 

 ground, and eight feet from floor to apex of roof. There is no frame, but the roof boards are 

 nailed to the ridgepole and to plank baseboards. 



up a good deal of their living. If the houses are located in an 

 orchard the hens fertilize the ground around the trees and eat 

 the wormy fruit. No dangerous disease is likely to break out 

 among hens kept in colonies. But on the other hand the plan 

 has serious drawbacks. Even in pleasant weather it requires a 

 good deal of time each day to visit the scattered flocks ; but in 

 winter, when a blizzard is raging, to make the rounds of the 

 houses is an experience calculated to make one appreciate the 

 perils and hardships of a Polar expedition. Then, too, these 

 isolated, detached houses are shining marks for thieves; and 

 unless the neighborhood is exceptionally honest, the poultryman 

 may wake up some morning to discover that two or three hun- 

 dred of his fowls have vanished. 



