LAYING HOUSES AND MANAGEMENT 35 



160 houses, each holding ten birds. That 

 would mean 160 doors to open and shut at 

 least three times a day, as against opening 

 and shutting eight doors for my four houses. 

 The difference in time in one day would be 

 considerable. Eoughly speaking, what is 

 done in a week's work on my farm in regard 

 to this item alone has to be done by the 

 small-house system every day. The same 

 applies to the number of gates going into the 

 yards. 



Then there is a great saving of money in 

 the netting for the yards. These 160 houses 

 would require two runs each, and these would 

 require about 5280 yards of wire-netting 

 with posts every ten feet. My eight runs, 

 which accommodate the same number of birds 

 as the above 320 runs, require only 2200 

 yards of wire-netting with the proportionate 

 number of posts. Plowing, which can of 

 course only be done in big yards, is much 

 cheaper than digging, which must be resorted 

 to in small yards. Each of the small houses 

 must have a water dish, in all 160 dishes. I 

 have eight dishes for each house, thirty-two 



