CHAPTER IV 



THE COLONY PLAN 



This is really the most economical way of running a poultry plant 

 and orchard combined. To save yourself worry and loss it will be 

 cheaper to fence the land at the start. Redwood posts cost a trifle 

 more at first but save later on because they last a long time. Put a five- 

 foot wire fence of two-inch mesh and a couple of strands of barb wire 

 on top and you have a fence that will keep out all animal marauders, 

 and chicken thieves will fight shy of it. All houses for the colony 

 system s'hould be built on runners, so that they may be hauled around 

 by horse power. In summer they can be taken to the farthermost 

 points of the land, and when fall comes haul them closer in for the 

 winter. This need not be such a big haul, either, because if the houses 

 are placed in line in the first place, and moved every few days just 

 their own length, they are on new, clean ground all the time, saving 

 the labor of cleaning out and gradually coming into winter quarters. 

 As the houses are moved, the cultivator can be run over the ground, 

 mixing the droppings with mother earth so that the land is getting its 

 full share of the elements for nourishment in the best possible form, 

 for by being mixed with the dry earth at once there is very little loss 

 in the droppings. 



The Houses. — All houses intended for colony plant should be built 

 on runners, as before stated, and if both ends are shaped like sled 

 runners the houses can be moved either way without twisting and 

 turning, as is the case when only one end of the runners are shaped 

 sled fashion. This appears a simple thing, but it saves most of the 

 wear on houses. The houses should not be of very heavy material, and 

 yet heavy enough to stand a storm without danger of blowing over. 

 The ideal colony house should hold fifty or sixty Leghorns or Min- 

 orcas, and from thirty-five to forty of any of the large breeds. 



It should be open front and built of material suitable to its location. 

 In the northern part of this State we used to build the walls of sawed 

 shakes, lapped over like shingles; the roof was also of shakes, but laid 

 on a little differently. These made light, portable houses, that were 

 rain proof, wind proof and when painted or whitewashed, very re- 

 spectable looking. But shakes are now as higth as lumber, and paper 

 appears to be in more demand for light houses. A Riverside poultry- 

 man, who keeps several thousand hens, has nothing but these light 

 houses covered with roofing paper. The cost of bis houses he says, 



