104 



Fill. ST LESSONS IN FOUL THY KEEPJN(:^. 



of these in the front of the shed, and took out the partition between roosting room and scratch- 

 ing shed, tiius niulciHg a scratching room house. But some few lireedera of fine fowls, with 

 the object of liteping tlieir fowls in the liest possiljje condition, have gone hack to what seems 

 to have been the original scratching shed idea, and used the clo^ed part as any other closed 

 poultry house, making the open shed an additional protected outdoor privilege. Those who 

 have tried this way of handling breeding stock think it pays. 



Walks in Continuous Houses. 



The plans we have been discus-sing do not provide for a walk in the house. When a walk is 

 to be used the floor arrangement should be as in the accompanying diagrams. The first two 

 are for the ordinary closed house, and are identical except in position of the roosts. The third 

 shows how a scratching shed house is built with walk in the rear. On page 105 is reproduced 

 a diagram of such a scratching shed house built some ten years ago. As far as I recall now 

 this is the only house built on this plan I have seen. 



Houses are sometimes built with the walk in front of the pens. I have seen but one such, 

 and have seen descriptions of only one or two others. The plan does not commend itself to 

 many poultry keepers. The sun and light have not such ready access to the pens, and the walk 

 has to he elevated to allow the fowls to pass under it to the yards in front of the building. M'e 

 may consider this inrangement as warranted only by peculiar and insurmountable conditions. 



Doing the Work From the Walk. 



A number of continuous houses, both short and long, have been planned to do all work from 

 the walk, with the roosts placed as in the second diagram, the nests under the droppings 

 boards, and the feed troughs either below the nests or in the passage and accessible to fowls 

 standing under the nests. Not many who have arranged this way will build after that pattern 

 a second time. In _ 



only a very small ^ 



proportion of the \ 

 houses SI equipped ^ \ 

 liiive I found the 

 work all being done 

 from the walk as 

 designed. It is not 

 nearly as conven- 

 ient in practice as it 

 looks on paper, and 

 when the pens are 

 never ejitered in 

 doing routine work 

 there is likely to 

 be a great commo- 

 tion among the hens 



Walk. 



Diaffram Shoiciiig Method 0/ Building Scratching Shed House ^V'!h 

 when it is necessary to go into the pen. 



The Passing of the Continuous House. 



The continuous house plan In its extreme developments was a fad. Jlen seemed to vie with 

 each other in building long houses. From liuildings 100 to 150 or at most about 200 ft. in 

 length they went to in one case, as my memory serves, about 600 ft. The shorter buildinijs 

 answered their purpose very well. The very long ones, as a rule, were on plants that failed, 

 and these unwieldy buildings clearly had something to do with the failure. 



Just at present there is reaction against intensive methods, and with It inevitably goes a lack 

 of interest in continuous house plans which may easily be carried too fur. In the preliminary 

 remarks on this lesson I tried to show how and where the continuous house plan can be used to 

 best advantage, aiifl is superior to separate houses. In considering house plans, as in nearly all 

 matters relaliiig to i>oultry keeping, we will find it best not to commit ourselves unqualifiedly 

 to any one idea. 



