CHAPTER XI 



Market Methods 



Coops should be high enough to permit the 

 poultry to stand easily upright without bending 

 their legs and with space enough between slats 

 to pass their heads through. The coops should be 

 strong but light; heavy wood can be dispensed 

 with if long nails are used. They should not be 

 so large as to be awkward and cumbrous to handle. 

 Where large coops are used they should have par- 

 titions, so that when the coop is accidentally tilted 

 the whole weight of poultry will not be thrown 

 upon those at the side and end. The poultry should 

 have plenty of room. Crowding too many into a 

 coop causes loss by suffocation. Only one kind 

 or size of poultry should be sent in a coop. 



All poultry reaching market the following day 

 after shipment should be fed only lightly before 

 being placed in the coop, so as to avoid any in- 

 fringement of the law regarding food in the crops 

 of poultry. Western and southern poultry is gen- 

 erally shipped in carloads accompanied by a man 

 to feed and water the fowls. The first day or two 

 after the car starts the fowls should be fed lightly ; 

 after they have become accustomed to their new 

 quarters the quantity of food may be increased 

 with good results. Overfeeding on the start makes 

 the fowls dumpish and sick, from which they do 

 not recover on the journey. The rule of New York 

 is to let the coops go with the poultry free. Where 

 the patent wire cars are used either new or second 



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