Various Plans for Yards.- g 



house between two sheds made to answer the purpose of two, by throwing a wooden door across, 

 about half-way up. The ground floor thus formed the house for the shed on one side, and the 

 "first floor," reached by an incHned hen-ladder, did duty for the other, both being littered with 

 straw. A hen-ladder, as is pretty generally known, is formed by nailing strips of wood an inch 

 square across a plank a foot wide, at intervals of about three inches. The top corners of the 

 strips should be taken off, or the feet may be injured by the sharp edges. 



Still further accommodation will be required if great success in exhibiting be desired, and 

 especially if there be any extensive demand for the proprietor's eggs and stock. In planning such, 

 regard must necessarily be had to the shape and amount of space at disposal, especially if grass be 

 at command. Scarcely any two yards are alike in these circumstances, and hence no one can 

 probably be exactly copied by the reader ; nevertheless, useful hints may be gathered from the 

 plans adopted by others. Fig. 7 is a plan of the yard of E. Tudman, Esq. (so celebrated for his 

 partridge Cochins), at Ashgrove, Whitchurch, Salop. A A are houses and yards for breeding-pens 

 or other purposes, each house measuring ten by eleven feet, and containing a dusting-trough, thus 

 answering the purpose of both house and shed ; the yards in front being laid in gravel, and 

 measuring thirty by ten feet. These runs have all access at pleasure to a grass-run, twenty-four by 

 fifty feet. B B are smaller houses and runs, a portion of these also having access to a grass-run, 

 twenty by fifty feet. C C are houses for cocwerels and pullets respectively, each sex having a, large 

 grass-run to itself. D is a large chicken-house with a glass front, measuring twenty-two by nine- 

 teen feet, in which early broods can be reared, under the most favourable circumstances, in any 

 weather. E is a house containing pens for feeding and preparing birds intended for exhibition. 

 F is a house and pens devoted entirely to the sitting hens ; and G is devoted to miscellanies and 

 stores. ■ All the grass-runs open behind into a shrubbery thirty feet deep, bounded by a brick 

 wall, which can be used for any of the pens at pleasure, or, by the use of portable houses, be 

 employed independent of them. 



In this yard may be observed all the essentials for breeding and showing any single variety 

 of poultry in the greatest perfection. There are pens of sufficient size to maintain the breeding 

 stock in perfect health, with separate pens, and accessible grass-runs, for bringing any bird wanted 

 for show into first-rate condition ; the sitting hens are well accommodated, and a spacious chicken 

 nursery prepares the young progeny for the ample range that awaits them when ready to be 

 turned out. There is also ample accommodation for any moderate amount of surplus stock till 

 it can be disposed of. This last is often overlooked by beginners, and if so is an occasion of serious 

 loss ; as cockerels must be either killed or provided for separ^^tely when the breeding-pens are 

 mated for the ensuing year, and unless there is accommoda,tion for tl■^em, birds must then be 

 sacrificed which might otherwise realise considerable sums. 



The most extensive and well-appointed poultry-yard in the United Kingdom, or, indeed, in the 

 world, is unquestionably that of the Right Hon. Lady Gwydyr, at Stoke Park, Ipswich. The great 

 extent of this magnificent establishment would have made it almost impossible to give even 

 a tolerably accurate representation of it,- however desirable ; but the kindness of Lord Gwydyr, 

 in placing at our service the results of a special survey, and a fully detailed scale-plan by 

 Mr. Buttenvorth, has enabled us to give a correct plan of all the arrangements, which we are sure 

 will be valued by many readers. 



The nucleus of the Stoke Park establishment consisted of an extensive range of buildings 



adapted to the necessities of a home-farm, which placed at disposal an extent of wide and lofty 



shedding very rarely available for such purposes, but which has been greatly extended and 



modified as found necessary. The nursery (numbered 49) may be given as an instance, consisting 



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