IN THE POULTRY YARD. 17 
had only-a clay floor. ‘The latter I decided. to use for a hatching 
room, while the other was to be used fora feeding room. 
‘The hatching room was 12 feet by 10. ‘his gave 44 feet length of 
wall, and as I could have two rows of nests through the middle, I es- 
timated that I could have between fifty and sixty hens sitting in it 
at one time. Of course, in order to crowd this number into such a 
small room, it would be necessary to have nests made on purpose; 
old barrels, boxes and baskets would never answer. ‘Ihe nests 
might be made either fixed or movable, and the latter had many ad- 
vantages. Fixed nests would soon get infested with vermin, and 
could not be cleaned except by clearing out the entire house, and 
this might not he always convenient. So I set to work to de- 
vise a simple, portable nesting box that would give each hen 
her own nest separate from all the others; from which she could 
not escape when once she was in; which could be easily cleaned, 
and which would give the birds plenty of air. ‘This was how I 
did it. 
Fig. 5. 
I made a box, or rather a crate (for it had no bottom or front), 
4 feet long, 14 inches wide and 14 inches high. Fig. 5 shows a 
-perspective view of this box with the door partially open, and Fig. 
6 gives a section of one of the compartments. The top of the 
box is entirely.covered|; there is no bottom, so that the nests rest 
on the ground; across the front, at the lower edge, is nailed .a 
strip.4 inches wide, which not only serves to strengthen the: whole, 
-but keeps the. eggs and straw from falling out; along the lower edge 
