no MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXriiRIMKNT STATION. I906. 



In addition to the 80 Peep-O'Day brooders in these houses, 

 there are 8 Cyphers out door brooders in use. Six thousand 

 chickens are being raised this season (1906). 



The Laying and Breeding House. 



During the summer of 1905 a laying house was built to accom- 

 modate 2,000 hens. It is 20 feet wide and 400 feet long. It 

 is on the same general plan as houses No. 2 and 3 at the Experi- 

 ment Station. House No. 2 is 12 feet wide; house No. 3 is 16 

 feet wide, and this one is 20 feet wade. The widths have been 

 increased in the last 2 houses, as experience has shown the 

 advisability of it. At first il was thought the houses should be 

 narrow so they might dry out readily, but the widest house dries 

 out satisfactorily as the opening in the front is placed high up, 

 so that in the shortest winter days the sun shines in on the floor 

 to the back. 



The economy in the cost of the wide house over the narrow 

 ones, when space is considered, is evident. The front and back 

 walls in the narrow house cost about as much per lineal foot as 

 those in the wide house, and the greatly increased floor space is 

 secured by building in a strip of floor and roof, running length- 

 wise of the building. The carrying capacity of a house 20 feet 

 wide is 66 per cent greater than that of a house 12 feet wide, 

 and it is secured by building additional floor space only. The 

 walls, doors and windows remain the same as in the narrow 

 house, except that the front wall is made a little higher. Three 

 sills which are 6 inches square run lengthwise of the house, the 

 central one supporting the floor timbers in the middle. They 

 rest on a rough stone wall, high enough from the ground so 

 that dogs can go under the building to look after rats and skunks 

 that might incline to make their homes there. The stone wall 

 rests on the surface of the ground. The floor timbers are 2 by 

 8 inches in size and rest wholly on top of the sills. All wall 

 studs rest on the sills ; the front ones are 8 feet long and the 

 back ones 6 feet 6 inches long. The roof is unequal in width, 

 the ridge being in 8 feet from the front wall. The height of 

 the ridge from the sill to the extreme top is 12 feet 6 inches. 

 All studding is 2 by 4 in size and the rafters are 2 by 5. The 

 building is boarded with inch boards and papered and shingled 

 with gfood cedar shineles on walls and roof. The floor is of two 



