116 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 
do at any other time, and when they are not allowed ta 
do so by most poultry-keepers. “folks think there isa 
great mystery about making hens lay in winter. There 
1s none; anybody can do it; that is, the hens will lay 
if you let them. ‘They bear a good deal of cold in the 
sunshine, and even freeze their combs and toes, and yet 
will not stop laying altogether if they can sleep warm. 
Now do not begin to plan setting up a stove in the hen- 
house, or introducing steam-pipes. Artificial heat is 
not poisonous perhaps, but very nearly so, to chickens. 
They are warm themselves, and need only to be crowded 
on their roosts, with the roosts all on one level. The ceil- 
ing of the roosting-room should be only a few feet above 
the fowls’ heads, and provided with ventilation from the 
floor if possible. Give them very close quarters, with no 
draughts of cold air, and clean out under the roosts every 
morning, not excepting Sundays. The combs will then 
redden up, and eggs will be plenty on less feed than 
usual. It must not be corn, however, or only a smail 
percentage of it, for this will make them too fat to lay 
well if they sleep warm. 
A capital way to arrange a hen-house for winter is to 
make a ceiling of rails about six feet above the floor, cov- 
-ering the rails with salt hay, or coarse swamp hay of any 
kind. The roosts should he about three feet high above 
the floor, and movable, so that they may be kept per- 
fectly clean. For small flocks of thirty to fifty hens, it 
is little trouble to take the roosts down every morning 
when the flooris cleaned, and replace them at night. It 
removes from lazy fowls the temptation to sit in idlenes: 
on the roost for half the day. 
