IN THE POULTRY YARD. 113 
made, It was simply a light but strong frame work, two feet 
high, rour feet long and three feet wide. 
The bottom was closely slatted, and the sides and top were made 
of lath cut in two and nailed on. ° In the top was a door which 
lifted up and through which the fowls were dropped. ‘This door 
was Close to one side, and when we wished to give the birds their 
freedom the coop was placed on its side, the door opened, and 
_the birds allowed to run out. I could easily put twenty hens 
into it, and two men could then carry it to any part of the grounds. 
I soon filled it, carried it into the new yard, and gave the birds 
their liberty without a single accident. 
By this time, however, the hens had be- 
come pretty wild and somewhat difficult to 
approach. I therefore arranged some 
portable fence, so as to make at one corner 
of the large yard a small enclosure some- 
what of the form shown in Fig. ro. b 
At the corner, a, the two fences ran 
quite dose to each other; at 4 the space 
was much wider; at ¢ the outside fence 
and the portable fence came together 
a 
again, and another length of fence e 
stretched from ¢ to d, so as to make a 
wide throat to the enclosure. It was easy 
to drive any particular fowl into @, and ad 
when once there it could be driven 
through ¢, where a boy stood with a pole Fig. 10. 
and kept those that were in from coming 
out. If some got in that were not wanted it was no matter, as they 
need not be caught. When enough were in it was easy to close the 
passage at c, and by means of the net select the birds that were 
-wanted. It is possible that other poulterers have better methods 
of catching birds than this, but I have not seen any. Where there 
is but a small number of fowls together it is an easy matter to catch 
any one at night on the roost, and I have done this very often, 
But where 75 hens are to be selected and caught out of 500, and 
