Il6 POULTRY CULTURE 



conditions shows that the important thing is not that a building 

 for poultry shall be of a particular pattern, but that, whatever its 

 pattern, conditions in it be regulated to meet the requirements of 

 the birds for fresh air and dry quarters. This can be done in any 

 type of house that is not radically wrong. But the warmer the 

 birds are kept, — the higher the range of temperature to which 

 they are accustomed, — the more necessary it is that the attendant 

 give close attention to ventilating through doors and windows, and 

 in practice it is too often found impossible to attend to this at the 

 proper times. The cold open house may be so constructed as to 

 require no manipulation whatever for ventilation and no attention 

 to doors and windows except for the exclusion of rain and snow. 

 Between these extremes are intermediate types requiring much or 

 little regulation according to construction and arrangement. Each 

 has its place. Whoever keeps a delicate breed, or one having a 

 tender feature, in a cold locality must use warm houses and give 

 as much attention as necessary to proper regulation of conditions 

 in them. Whether it is more profitable to do this than to keep 

 a hardier breed in a cheaper building, with less labor, is a point 

 that each must determine for himself. 



Floor dimensions. In a structure for poultry the floor area is 

 determined on the basis of the number of birds to be kept in it 

 and the proportion of time that they are to be confined to it. The 

 space per bird required varies inversely with the number of birds 

 in the flock, small flocks requiring much more space per bird than 

 large flocks, because the bird is not like a plant or a tree, or like 

 horses and cattle in barns, located in one place and constantly 

 occupying it, but each bird in the flock has the use of the entire 

 floor, less only the space actually occupied by its mates. A flock 

 of ten or twelve hens can be comfortably housed in a building 8 

 feet square (which allows 5 or 6 square feet of floor space per 

 fowl), if they can get outside for a good part of the time. If con- 

 fined almost constantly to the house, the same flock should have 

 about 50 per cent more floor space. With increasing size of flocks 

 the "per hen" space may be reduced gradually until from seventy- 

 five to a hundred hens have about 4 square feet each. Very small 

 flocks need relatively large "per hen' areas. A single bird needs 

 almost as much room as ten or twelve. 



