34 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



can have no scratching sheds, and must have room 

 to shelter the hens when they need shelter. A house 

 8 x 10 feet should give comfortable room for twenty 

 heavy or twenty-five light hens. They can be moved 

 from place to place as circumstances require, can 

 be used with a heater for brooding young stock, 

 and afterward with heater removed for the grow- 

 ing pullets. The colony house is, in fact, the uni- 

 versal house. Four such houses would house a flock 

 of 100 Leghorns, or eighty to eighty-five Rocks and 

 would cost not to exceed $1.00 per hen. It is im- 

 possible to approximate the cost more nearly than 

 this, for cost of materials differs and the houses are 

 considerably cheaper when built by the owner than 

 when labor is hired. The shed roof style with open 

 side, or the gable roof style with open end, are 

 equally suitable, but the shed roof is cheaper. If 

 the house is built on runners it can be easily hauled 

 from place to place. 



Whatever plan is used, the house must be built 

 in such a way that there will be no cracks to let 

 drafts in. Matched lumber is best for the purpose, 

 but even with matched lumber it is difficult to make 

 the sides sufficiently tight. Probably the best way 

 to eliminate drafts is to line with some sort of build- 

 ing paper. Rough boards battened are sometimes 

 used, but one cannot be sure of tight seams. 



In large houses it is a good plan to use matched 

 ceiling back of the roosting platform and above 

 it, but this makes a portable house too heavy, and 

 building paper is, after all, quite as good for this 

 climate. 



Colony houses with a run for each house are quite 

 generally used, both at experiment stations and on 

 small poultry plants, East and West, and I think they 

 are growing in favor, but they are not quite as 



