22 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
in shops is less than a fortnight to a month old. More often it is 
three months old. 
The way, and the only way, to make sure of getting “ new laid ” 
eggs is to grow them yourself. 
“But I have only a little patch of garden 12 feet by 8 feet,” 
I hear someone say. It is small certainly, but not too small if 
you give up one half of it to keep six nice fowls. If you give up 
the whole of it you may keep ten or a dozen. A fowl-house 
6 feet long, 5 feet high and 4 feet deep will just give you accom- 
modation—120 square feet—for six birds. It will also give each 
fowl 4 feet of floor space to allow it to scratch for food, to exercise 
and to keep in good laying condition. If you desire to keep more 
birds the same proportionate area and floor space is the necessary 
minimum. If you can give a little more so much the better. 
Better far to possess fewer birds than overcrowd. It has 
been proved again and again that, say, sixty birds in a house 
suited for only thirty will yield fewer eggs than if the smaller 
number were housed. It is not necessarily numbers of birds that 
count. It is birds kept under proper and healthy conditions. 
On the other hand, one does not want a house unnecessarily large. 
To put half-a-dozen birds in a house 12 feet by 16 feet might do 
quite well in summer-time, but they would be far too cold in 
winter. Fifty fowls in a house of these dimensions will enable 
them to keep up the necessary warmth in the colder months. 
PoULTRY WITHOUT CAPITAL 
When birds are kept in confined spaces and are not allowed a 
“yun” outside, it is better that the floor of the house should 
be of wood. Wood is much more easily cleaned than almost any 
other material. It is also warmer for the feet, no small matter 
in winter-time, when eggs depend on the fowls being kept cosy and 
comfortable. 
Most fowl-houses are built of wood, because they are lightest, 
cheapest and most portable. If you build one of brick or stone, 
you cannot carry it away with you in the event of removal. Of 
