CHAPTER XXVII 



Erection of a Yarded Plant 



I must say a few words here to those who have but a 

 Httle land and must yard their stock. First you wih want 

 a good laying house, and in order to house a large num- 

 ber of birds at the least possible expense, and to econo- 

 mize in labor, I advise a plain house without an alleyway, 

 one about 80 feet long for the least labor, for in a house 

 without an alleyway you must open all your doors in 

 passing through. I would divide this house in eight pens, 

 10 by 15 feet ; build your house 15 feet wide, 80 feet long, 

 7 feet high in front and 5 feet in rear; put one fair size 

 window in each department about two feet from the 

 ground ; fit your windows loose and slide up to roof and 

 make your holes for letting hens out under the window, 

 fitting wooden slides very loose to slide sideways so you 

 can open and shut them with your foot ; put in your wire 

 netting partitions every ten feet, hang your doors two 

 feet from front of house with spring hinges, and have 

 your doors all swing one way, then you can walk right 

 through the house and your doors will always close 

 themselves. In making your partitions you should al- 

 ways run a ten-inch board across at bottom and your 

 door should swing over this. You can also fit a pan on 

 shelf over this board between partitions, and in this way 

 you can water two flocks at once. Your nests can go on 

 one side and your feed hoppers on the other. This house 

 should be filled in with at least six inches of sand and 

 then it will always be dry Dropping boards can be 

 placed on back side of house ; a platform 3 feet wide is 

 about right, with three roosts over it 10 inches apart, 

 all on a level — one foot from platform is about right. You 

 can keep thirty Leghorn layers and two male birds to a 

 pen nicely in such a house, or, if the larger birds, twenty - 

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