34 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



no trouble in getting an abundance of eggs all winter 

 long. For if you knock your hens out by over-heating 

 them or leaving your windows open, just one night, 

 carelessly, it will take three weeks to get them back 

 on eggs again. You must use judgment in this re- 

 spect. A yarded plant fed this way will keep per- 

 fectly healthy and lay an abundance of eggs the year 

 around, but can never compare with a free range plant, 

 fed on the system I described for producing the great- 

 est amount of eggs. 



One more advantage in feeding a plant this 

 way, }'ou can get eggs from Leghorns that will 

 run go 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 anyone 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 be- 

 fore them all the time or water first thing in the 

 morning before hens come off the roost. 



If your houses have dropping boards, }'ou 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 oftener 

 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 common 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 



