POULTRY RAISING 39 



You must use judgment in this respect. A 3arded plant 

 fed this way will keep perfectly healthy and lay an abun- 

 dance of eggs the year around, but can never compare 

 with a free-range plant fed on the system I described 

 for producing the greatest amount of eggs. 



One more advantage in feeding a plant this way, you 

 can get eggs from Leghorns that will run 90 per cent 

 fertile right in January under this system, and hatch 

 fully as good as eggs usually hatch in April. Wyandotte 

 and Rock eggs will run from 80 to 85 per cent fertile, 

 and for any one who wants to raise early broilers, you 

 can easily see the great value of this method of feeding. 



In case you cannot conveniently give your hens warm 

 water to drink in the morning leave water before them 

 all the time, or water first thing in the morning before 

 hens come off the roost. 



If your houses have dropping boards you should clean 

 the droppings off at least twice a week the year around. 

 In the houses I have described for your free-range plant, 

 your droppings go right on the ground, and it is not at 

 all necessary to clean them out often than twice a year, 

 so you can see the amount of labor saved. 



For nests in these colony houses that I have told you 

 how to build, I advise making three sets of five nests 

 each for each house, which can easily be made. A com- 

 mon hemlock board, twelve inches wide, will answer 

 every purpose. Saw a piece, four feet six inches long — 

 three of these will make your top, bottom and back. Use 

 four partitions one foot long, and for your front a four- 

 inch strip is all you want, and you have a set of five nests 

 quickly and easily made. You can either nail these to 

 siding or put a couple of holes in them and hang them 

 on hooks, about one foot from the ground, just so a 

 hen can look in them, and then she will jump in them 

 from the ground. 



Three sets of these nests should go in every house for 

 a flock of sixty layers. 



