74 Hubbard's poultry secrets. 



saddle feathers are the most effected. As an Orpington cock- 

 erel does not look finished if his saddle feathers are not of 

 the proper length, his actions must be carefully watched. As 

 soon as a cockerel gets "boss," and runs the others, he should 

 be taken away and put into one of the male houses and yards 



Every poultryman who has seen the houses and yards used 

 on Foxhurst Farm says that it has the best system of caring 

 for male birds that he has ever seen. You will find on an- 

 other page a picture of one of the houses and yards ; this will 

 give you a more adequate idea of them. 



The house we have built for shedding our male birds is 72 

 feet long and six feet wide with a partition, which runs the 

 whole length of the house. Then every six feet is a side par- 

 tition. This gives us twenty-four pens, twelve on each side 

 of the house. Each pen is 3x6 feet and each one of the twen- 

 ty-four pens has a yard six feet wide and twenty-five feet long, 

 with a gate at each end. Each yard is boarded up 2J/2 feet 

 high to keep the birds from fighting, and also to act as a good 

 wind break. Even on cold windy days in December the birds 

 stay out in these yards all day, for the wind cannot get to 

 them. Cold winds are bad for chickens ; there are many days 

 during the winter that I would have had to keep the chickens 

 in the coop all day if the yards had not been boarded up in 

 this way. 



In these houses I train and condition each team of birds 

 which I show at Madison Square Garden. I give them about 

 ten days in their training quarters to put on the finishing 

 touches, and to teach them the tricks of the show room. Fox- 

 hurst Farm is known the world over for having its birds in 

 prime condition in the show room. The method I have just 

 described for housing and yarding male birds has more to do 

 with the prime condition than anything else, as the birds enjoy 

 the open air up to a w«ek or ten days before they are judged. 



