AMOUNT OF FLOOR SPACE AND OTHER CON- 

 DITIONS OF HOUSING IN RELATION TO EGG 

 YIELD, AND INCUBATION EXPERIMENTS IN 1902. 



G. M. GowELL. 



The cost of housing poultry is a very important item to the 

 poultryman, and the amount of floor space required by each hen 

 is a much discussed question which is worthy of the most careful 

 consideration and investigation. One test of this important sub- 

 ject has been undertaken and is here reported. Since it fur- 

 nishes only limited data, the work will be continued. 



A building 12 feet wide and 76 feet long, with walls 6 feet 

 high and a double pitch roof, was divided in the middle, making 

 two rooms, each 12 by 38 feet in size. The entire floor space 

 was available to the use of the birds, as the roost platform or 

 floor of the closet was elevated three feet above the floor. The 

 front of this long closet, or roosting room, had a light frame, 

 covered with white drilling, thoroughly saturated and glazed 

 with boiled linseed oil. This framed curtain was hinged at the 

 top and turned out into the house during the day, but shut down 

 at night, from fall until spring, thus confining the birds in a 

 small space, where it was hoped they would keep themselves 

 warm. From fear that the air would be foul, the closet was not 

 made very close and it froze in there quite hard during the cold 

 nights and the results were that the birds did not commence 

 laying much until March. 



The house did not have glass windows, but the front wall had 

 four frame curtains similar to those covering the front of the 

 roosting closet. These cloth covers were 3 by 10 feet in size 

 and came down to within a foot and a half of the floor. This, 

 we think, is too low, as the wind blew in directly on to the birds, 

 when the curtains were up, during the day. 



In one half of this building, in Pen No. i, 90 May hatched 

 Barred Plymouth Rock pullets were put, and daily egg records 



