34 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



at all; and those of our readers who have only a limited 

 amount of space at their disposal will be able to decide how 

 many birds they can keep upon it. 



The first thing for the intending poultry keeper to do 

 is to see whether there are any existing buildings which 

 can be adapted for his birds. This is, of course, more 

 easily done by those who wish to keep a few than by those 

 who go into the matter extensively ; and cottagers or suburban 

 residents will often be able to find an unused shed, an out- 

 house, or a stable which, with very few alterations, can be 

 made to meet all their requirements. In most of these the 

 floor is the greatest drawback ; but this can be remedied very 

 easily, as we shall show in our next chapter. Failing such 

 places as we have mentioned, other things can be "requisi- 

 tioned " for the purpose, and where the cost is a most important 

 matter, a little ingenuity will do a great deal. A hogshead 

 can be made into a very good roosting-place for half a dozen 

 birds, if it is raised on its side above the ground by bricks 

 or stone, all chinks stopped up, well tarred outside and 

 whitewashed inside, the upper half of the lid fixed, with a 

 few holes bored in, and corresponding ones in the other end 

 for ventilation, and the lower half made a hinged door, and 

 a couple of perches and nests placed inside. A large packing 

 case can be used in a similar fashion, if it has a sloping 

 roof placed above the top of the box, so that the wet can 

 run off easily, and in fact almost anything can be utilised, 

 as we have seen old rail-car bodies, discarded carriages, and 

 summer-houses made to do duty. A short time ago we read 

 of a large farmer in Essex who keeps several hundred head 

 of fowls, and has bought up a number of old menagerie 

 vans at a cheap rate, which have been made the houses for 

 bis fowls, and very comfortable ones we are told they are. 



The objection to he brought against this kind of roosting 

 places, is that they do not provide sheds in which the birds 



