R. I. RED EGG FARMS 



81 



larger buildings about 8 feet wide by 12 feet long, having a 

 6 foot post or stud at the eaves, with the peak of the roof 

 about 9 feet from the ground. These buildings are well 

 shown in the illustrations which accompany this article. 

 These larger houses quartered some 50 fowls each. Two or 

 three cockerels or yearling males are allowed to run with 

 each flock. 



Mr. Almy told us that he preferred the larger buildings. 

 His breeding and laying house capacity will comfortably 

 care for 2000 to 2200 layers, and the fall season is usually 

 begim with rather more than 2000 females in the laying 

 houses. A few selected breeders are housed in a long, low- 

 studded continuous house that was formerly used as a pig- 

 gery. This house is so used because it happened to be on 

 the place and was easily converted into a poultry breeding 

 house and, while somewhat inconvenient, it answers the pur- 

 pose and saves the cost of a more pretentious building. The 

 fowls in this house are confined in small narrow runs in small 

 selected flocks, and are the only yarded fowls on the farm. 

 They are housed and yarded solely for the purpose of keeping 

 a few select matings separate from the free range flocks, al- 

 though many of the colony house birds appear to be quite 

 as good and are equally ^ell bred. All the stock fowls on 

 the plant are thoroughbred Rhode Island Reds. This year 

 a few White Plymouth Rock chicks were grown for experi- 

 mental purposes but were nearly all sold off as broilers, 

 fryers and small roasters. 



Inexpensive Colony Houses 



The poultry buildings are all very economically built. 



being single wall of inch boards put on up and down on both 

 sides and roof. The cracks in the roof are battened. In 

 some of the buildings the cracks in the sides of the buildings 

 are also battened, but in many of them the cracks are left 

 open. As will be noted in the illustration, the roof of this 

 style of colony house has a sharp pitch so that it sheds water 

 freely. They have comparatively little snow in the Little 

 Compton district, but have a great deal of damp, foggy 

 weather and high winds. Being so close to, and almost sur- 

 rounded by salt water, snow seldom lasts long and the tem- 

 perature never falls very low, in the winter season rarely 

 going lower than 10 degrees below zero, but they do have a 

 great deal of raw, blustering, disagreeable cold weather. 



It is probable that the first cost of these typical Rhode 

 Island colony poultry buildings would not exceed 50 or 65 

 cents per bird housed in them, that is, at present prices the 

 house could probably be constructed at a cost not to exceed 

 $20 to $25 each, and the buildings would easily last twenty 

 to twenty-five years without repairs. Personally we believe 

 that we should prefer the fresh-air type of colony buildings, 

 but these Rhode Island houses are cheap to build, are the 

 type found on all the farms of this district, and they are 

 certainly giving entire satisfaction. 



All of these buildings have stout side sills which can be 

 made to serve as runners, so that all houses are portable and 

 may be moved about the farm when desired. This easy 

 moving feature of the colony houses is a very valuable one, 

 as it permits changing the buildings about from field to field 

 and growing some farm crop on the vacated range season 

 after season, thus keaping the soil sweet and the stock in 



VIEWS OF A RHODE 



No 5 Typical Rhode Islaid colony breeding and laying house 

 of the tirpi preiterred at Red Feather Farm. House is 8x12 ft floor 

 diiiensSa: 6 ft. stud or post at the eaves and ^bout 9 tt^at the 

 peak House faces south, roosts are in west end. Ventilatmg win 

 Sow for su^er use is shown open in rear wall of buildmg. About 

 50 fowls are lodged in each of these houses. 



V: 



No 7' Colony laying -houses at Red Feather Farm, 

 houses are' not more than 20 or 30 feet apart in the row. 



These 



ISLAND EGG FARM 



No. 6. Near view of Red Feather Farm colony roosting coop for 

 rowing stock. This shows construction. Dimensions about 3x6 ft. 

 .Ventilating window above the large opening for window sash is 

 closed with burlap screen in bad weather. Note large rooks on roof 

 required to keep these coops from blowing over. These coops are 

 exposed to heavy winds direct from the Atlantic Ocean. 



No. 8. Another view of colony roosting coops for growing stock 

 at Red Feather Farm. There is a six acre' field full of them. 



