Various Plans for Yards. 15 



the passage, the houses for roosting and the sheds should be boarded up about tliree feet, 

 and the rest wired to the top, when the birds will be readily seen at roost ; and hinged flaps 

 should also give means of access to the nests without entering the houses, though doors will, 

 of course, be provided. The passage should be sky-lighted, though this is not absolutely 

 needful, as light will come in over the low shed walls. At the outside, next the grass, the 

 house will of course be boarded close up, and also at the sides, but the sheds may be left 

 quite open, the three-feet boarding at the back giving shelter enough from the draught. The 

 depth of the shedding from front to back is given as six feet, but may be increased with 

 advantage ; or the front of the sheds may be boarded up for half their length, to give more 

 shelter in very windy weather. And lastly, for an establishment intended to continue any 

 time, apple, filbert, or other crop-bearing trees, should be planted in each run, to give both 

 shade and shelter to the fowls. 



Such a yard, multiplied to the extent desired, and with as many of the small pens, D D, 

 as may be necessary, will rear prize poultry to great perfection ; but besides a store-rcom, a 

 certain length of the shed or some other covered building will be needed, to form an apartment 

 where birds can be put up for exhibition, to clean themselves among dry straw. If a few exhibition 

 pens can be found room for, as in Mr. Tudman's and Lady Gwydyr's yards, it will be a great 

 advantage, and nothing more will be really required. One of the sheds, boarded up outside, and 

 wired down to the bottom within, will make a capital chicken nursery for bad weather, and the 

 birds will grow better, if put about fifteen together in runs of this moderate size, than if they 

 have unlimited range, always providing they have the shade of trees in summer. The fences 

 between the runs should be boarded up about two-and-a-half feet, and wired above to any 

 height required. 



Were we erecting a wholesale poultry establishment, we would take the same general plan, 

 but making the runs and houses larger, so as to accommodate from twenty to thirty fowls for 

 laying ; the breeding-pens should be as before. As the height of the roof will be greater in the 

 passage than outside, pens for fatting birds intended to kill may be advantageously located at 

 the top, as shown at F, These should have open bottoms made of bars, two inches square, but 

 with sliding floors or drawers under, to prevent any of the droppings falling into the houses 

 beneath. In a very large concern, a railway should run along the passage, to carry trucks for 

 the food, water, and manure. Doors will of course be placed from the passage into every 

 house and shed, and also between run and run, so that entrance may be had from one part 

 to any other by the shortest way. The holes by which the fowls enter the houses from the 

 sheds should be next the passage, so as to keep all the draught on that side ; and as the 

 nests will be the same, the perches will of course be placed as represented. In severe climates, 

 the best plan would be to have the whole passage sky-lighted, and board up the entire sheds 

 outside, next the grass-runs, as well as the houses, only leaving a trap for the birds to enter- 

 Should artificial heat be wanted during any time of intense frost, such would be readily supplied 

 in an establishment of this kind by having a double row of hot-water pipes the whole length 

 of the passage, which would supply a temperature genial, but not injuriously warm. In fact, 

 wherever the ground permits it, and the whole has to be specially erected, some such a plan 

 as here given will give the greatest amount of shelter and accommodation, at the least possible 

 c-,st of material, and will also allow of the most thorough supervision, for the least expenditure 

 in'time and labour ; while it is equally adapted to six pens or sixty — to fancy poultry, or to a 

 concern for rearing table-produce only. 



Perches we have already spoken of, and it is only needful to add that, for many reasons, 



