112 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



feet long, and 6 inches wide, with sHdes for ventilating the closet 

 when necessary. There is a door in every partition, placed 5 

 inches out from the edge of the roost platform. They are 3 

 feet wide and 7 feet high ; they are divided in the middle, 

 lengthwise, and each half is hung with double acting spring 

 hinges, allowing them to swing open both ways, and close. 



Ten nests are placed against the partition in each end of the 

 ■room, in two tiers. They are of ordinary form, each nesting 

 space being one foot wide, one foot high and 2 feet long, with 

 the entrances near the partition, away from the light, and with 

 hinged covers in front for the removal of the eggs. Each section 

 of 5. nests can be taken out, without disturbing anything else, 

 and cleaned and returned. In constructing the house it was 

 designed to use these nests only the present year. The frame- 

 work where they rest was arranged for the use of trap nests, 

 the intention now being to install them at the end of the present 

 year, in October. 



Troughs are used for feeding the mixtures of dry meals, shell, 

 bone, grit and charcoal. The bottoms are made of boards 7 

 inches wide; the ends being of the same width and 18 inches 

 high. The back is of boards and the cover is of the same mate- 

 rial and slopes forward sufficiently so the birds cannot stay on 

 it. A strip 5 inches wide is nailed along the front edge of the 

 bottom to make the side of the trough. Pieces of lath are 

 nailed upright on the front, 2 inches apart, between which the 

 hens reach through for the feed. A thin strip 2 inches wide is 

 fastened to the front of the trough at an angle of about 45 

 degrees to catch the fine meal that the birds pull out and would 

 otherwise waste. They clear it up from this little catchall and 

 so waste is mostly prevented. 



Two lines of 4 by 4 inch spruce are arranged as an elevated 

 track above the doors. The track extends the entire length of 

 the building and being faced with narrow steel bands on top, a 

 suspended car is readily pushed along, even when heavily loaded. 

 The platform of the car is 2 by 8 feet in size and is elevated a 

 foot above the floor. All food and water are carried through 

 the building on this car. The 10 iron baskets, into which the 

 roost platforms are cleaned every morning,, are put on the car 

 and collections made as the car passes through the pens to the 

 far end of the building, 400 feet away, where the roost 



