CHAPTER XIII 
POULTRY-HOUSES 
it now remains to enter more into detail. The three prin- 
ciples that ought to be kept in mind in building a house is 
that it should be water-tight, well ventilated and have plenty of 
light. Given these three qualities, and a reasonable thickness of 
timber for warmth, it does not matter much how houses are made. 
No doubt some designs are better than others, but all the essentials 
are included in the principles enumerated. Design is largely a 
matter of individual preference. If the house is made cosy, airy 
and dry, with sufficient light, one need not worry about the shape 
or the pattern. The house must also be adapted to the require- 
ments of the owner. If the birds are to be kept strictly on the 
intensive system one type of house is necessary ; if on the semi- 
intensive there is a little variation, and if the birds are to be kept 
in the colony system a still different style of house is required. 
One may say that for all urban and suburban poultry-keepers 
on a small scale only one type of house is necessary. Such a 
house may be of almost any shape or size, so long as there is a 
minimum of from ten to twelve square feet of run to each bird. 
If more space can be given so much the better. Where birds are 
confined to one house which has to do for sleeping chamber and 
scratching-shed the utmost cleanliness is necessary. The droppings 
must be cleared away every day, and the house frequently sprinkled 
with Jeyes’ or some similar fluid. In the best laying competi- 
tions each house holding six birds is 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, 
54 feet high in front and 44 feet at back. This is an ideal house 
for six fowls, and if one can approach this accommodation so 
much the better, but ten fowls are frequently kept to advantage in 
a house of these dimensions. 
I HAVE already spoken in general terms of fowl-houses, and 
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