BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 79 



room as by dividing it into several small ones, even though the 

 number of surface feet remains the same per bird, the labor of 

 feeding, cleaning and egg-collecting will be less in the undivided 

 house. Again ; the larger room offers greater field for the range 

 of each bird even though it be more densely populated per sur- 

 face foot than does the smaller one. 



CLOSE ROOSTING CLOSETS. 



In comparison with the above described curtained-front house 

 with its closet roosting room, a small cheap building, but with a 

 much warmer roosting closet, was stocked with pullets of the 

 same breed and age as those put in the colder house. 



It is not intended to contrast the work done in this second 

 house with the pens noted above so far as floor space, per bird, 

 is considered, for it was made much warmer, but was after the 

 same plan, with curtained closets for sleeping quarters, and oiled 

 cloth, on frame, to cover the large opening in front. The lower 

 edge of the front curtain was three feet above the floor, and this 

 bulkhead kept the wind from blowing directly on to the birds 

 when they were on the floor scratching their food out of the 

 8-inch deep, dry straw. The roosting closet was made as near 

 air tight as a common carpenter would make it. The outside 

 walls of the building, and up the roof where it came in contact 

 with the roosting closet, were packed with soft, fine hay. Its 

 floor surface was 250 feet and we put 50 of the birds in it and 

 treated them in the same wav as those in the colder house. They 

 did not get to laying until well along into November, but yielded 

 4.14 eggs each that month. In December the birds averaged 

 14.4 eggs each; January, 14.94; February, 13.4; March, 19.34; 

 April, 18.72; May, 17.20; June, 14.3; July, 15.4; August, 12.3. 



They averaged 144.4 eggs each, in ten months, and had still 

 two months in which to work before completing their year, when 

 nearly half of them were stolen and the record keeping interfered 

 with. There appears to be no reason v/hy the birds in this house 

 should do better than those in Pens Nos. i and 2 except that they 

 were better protected from the cold, both day and night. 



The curtained-front house with closet roosting room is inex- 

 pensive to construct, but one condition is imperative : the roost 

 room must be as near air tight as it is practicable to make it 

 when the curtain is closed down. There is no need to worry 



