112 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
light up the floor, and enable the birds at all times to pick up their 
food. I have a medium-sized house in which I keep forty laying 
birds semi-intensively. The dimensions of the house are 16 feet 
long, 9 feet wide, 6 feet high in front and 5 feet at back. I know 
that it seems on the small side for forty adult birds, but the proof 
of its excellence is in the results, which were everything that 
could be desired. In the winter months I occasionally have had 
to keep them in the house for three or four days at a time, nor 
have I ever experienced any bad results. The birds were always 
happy and healthy. They laid well, and the eggs when required 
were very fertile. 
There may be other types of houses equa!ly good, but there are 
none better, and certainly none more economical to build. They 
will stand wind and storms fully better than any other make, and 
if necessary they are easy to cable down to the ground in exposed 
positions. Some people prefer the roof of the house to be low in 
front and high at back, but I think it better to have the roof 
high in front to carry off the rain at the back. On entering the 
house also it is much better to have plenty of headway at the door. 
To have to stoop low every time one enters the house is a nuisance, 
and one needs only to forget once to get a nasty blow on the 
head. The house I prefer has woodwork in front 24 feet from the 
ground. Above the woodwork is wire-netting with glass sliding 
shutters that can be raised during wet or stormy weather. 
I see nothing wrong with the gable type of house excepting that 
it needs a great deal more wood to make the roof. It is asserted 
by some that in a house of this type the sun cannot penetrate the 
large space above the windows and that it is usually filled by cold 
air. There may be something in this theory, but if there be an 
open ridge along the apex of the roof for ventilation the cold air 
should be continually passing away and being replaced with 
sun-warmed air. 
I use a couple of houses of this type, and they answer quite well, 
but they are more expensive to build and give no corresponding 
advantage. This style of house is rarely open-fronted, being built 
with four small windows in front, two on the floor and two about 
