THE NUMBER OF LAYIXG HENS THAT CAN BE 

 PROFITABLY KEPT IN ONE PEN. 



G. M. GOWELL. 



To obtain data relative to the number of liens that can be 

 kept in a room of a given size, and the receipts from the same, 

 a test was made with fifteen pens of birds, of two breeds. 



In the Station poultry building were fifteen pens, alike in 

 size and arrangement. Each pen was ten by sixteen feet on the 

 floor. It was five feet high at the back and eleven high at the 

 front. Each pen had the same amount of window surface in 

 the south side. The roosts, gravel, bone and water dishes and 

 nests were arranged the same in all of the pens. The entire 

 floor space of one hundred and sixty feet was available to the 

 birds, as the walk was elevated above the floor so as not to 

 interfere with its use. Equal 3-ard space was attached to each 

 room. 



The birds employed were all of the same age — hatched I\Iay 

 2d — except those in pen No. i which were hatched April i6th. 

 Care was exercised in selecting, to have all of the birds in the 

 pens of a group as nearly alike in size, form and vigor as pos- 

 sible. 



GROUP I . 

 Pen No. I had fifteen Brahma pullets. 

 Pen No. 2 had twenty Brahma pullets. 

 Pen No. 3 had twenty-five Brahma pullets. 

 Pen No. 4 had thirty Brahma pullets. 



GROUP 2. 



Pens Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, were duplicates of Nos. i, 2, 3, and 4. 



