IN: THE POULTRY YARD. 81 
“stuck” at this point, and failed to carry their expériments any 
further. But this was just the point that interested me; I could 
readily hatch out chickens in any numbers, and, under my own 
system, with very little trouble, but when it came to rear them the 
problem underwent an entire change. ‘The fact that I had had a 
pretty good training in the difficulties of the case encouraged me 
in the belief that I could achieve success. So far as the broods 
now in the hatching room were concerned, I did not feel uneasy, 
for by the time that they would be off, the older ones now on the 
lawn would have wandered off to the shrubbery, and I had enough 
single coops to take care of twenty-eight broods. It was the next 
season to which I looked forward with anxiety. 
I saw, after very little consideration, that each brood must be 
kept by itself, and that for the first four to six weeks it must be 
confined to its own coop. I therefore set to work to devise such a 
coop. 
The first question that presented itself was in regard to size. 
How much room does a hen and say twelve chickens require until 
the chickeus are, say, six weeks old ? 
On this point I could find very little information, and I had 
never kept chickens in such a bird cage before. I thought, how- 
ever, that a coop 5 feet long, 15 inches wide, and 13 inches deep, 
ought to hold them, and I adopted this as the size of my experi- 
mental coop. It was evident, however, that by using light lumber, 
not more than half an inch thick, five or six of these coops might 
‘be made in one block, and thus nearly half the lumber would be 
saved, while the whole coop would still be movable. I therefore 
procured a few half-inch boards of cheap stuff, 10 feet long and 6 
and 7 inches wide. Two of these boards put together would make 
just the right depth—r3 inches. 
Having cut the boards in two I made a box, without bottom or 
top, 10 feet long, 5 feet wide, 13 inches deep, and divided into six 
:. equal-.parts by means of divisions running across it. Across one 
end, and 12 inches from the edge, was nailed a strip 3 inches wide. 
To this was hinged a board 12 inches wide and 1o feet long, so 
that 15 inches of the rear ends of all the divisions were tightly 
