CHAPTER VII. 



The Gillette Open-Air Poultry House 



JNOTHER MODEEN poultry house which has be- 

 come popular is the Gillette Open-air House, de- 

 signed and built by George K. Gillette, manager of 

 Sugar Brook Farm Company, Central Village, 

 Conn. Poultry houses of this type are used on tlie 

 400-acre plant of the company for housing all breed- 

 ing and laying stock. 



Plans for this house were first published in American Poultry 

 Journal for March, 1911. In the fall of 1911, Connecticut Agri- 

 cultural College and Experiment Station built a model poultry 

 plant of fifty 12x12 feet Gillette open-air houses for the purpose 

 of housing the North American International Egg Laying Com- 

 petition, each house being divided into two pens, five birds in a 

 pen. 



Sugar Brook Farm has found this house so satisfactory in opera- 

 tion and so attractive in appearance, as well as economical of con- 

 struction, that all new breeding and laying houses are to be built 

 after this pattern, either as separate colony houses or as a long or 

 continuous house, using plans for colon)' building as one section 

 of the long house. 



The Gillette open-air house is 20x20 feet ground measurement, 

 6-foot high walls back and front and 9 feet high at the peak. ( See 

 plans.) As is shown in "Fig. 17, Side Elevation," the roof pro- 

 jects about 1 foot beyond the front and back walls, making eaves 

 which carry the drip from rain or snow well out from the build- 

 ing. There is a ventilating door for summer use in each side wall 

 near apex. This door is 2 feet square (see "a" in plan), and in 

 hot weather both east and west doors are kept open, making the 

 building cool and comfortable. There is also a window ("b") in 

 each side wall about 4 feet from the floor, made of two half sash, 

 each, containing six 8xl2-inch lights. These sash are hinged at the 

 top. 



"Fig. 18, Front Elevation," shows open-front (covered only 

 with wire netting), location of doors, poultry slides, etc.; "c, c" 

 are the poultry slides, each 1 foot wide by 18 inches high, located 

 at each front corner for convenience. In some of the houses these 



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