34 TBE COMPLMTE POVLTRT BOOK. 



to TentUation we should place warmth, to be secured by building in sheltered 

 positions, and so arranging the buUding as to cut off all draughts of air. If it 

 be necessary to buUd in an exposed situation the walls should be made double. 

 Light may not be neglected, as the fowls will neither thriye nor even stay in a 

 dark house, while cleanliness certainly may not be put at the end of the list, as 

 filth is a certain breeder of disease. 



After the providing of shelter the next point in the winter care of our fowls is 

 to provide them with an abundant supply of suitable food. Fowls may be win- 

 tered, as some farmers do their other stock, in such a-way that they will not only give 

 no return for the little food they may chance to get, but will lose the flesh they 

 have accumulated in the summer and fall, thus reaching the spring in such a con- 

 dition that they must spend months in re-accumulating their necessary working 

 capital of flesh and fat before they can begin the production of eggs. Such 

 management is even more wasteful than tte other extreme of over-feeding, and 

 thus inducing laziness, which prevents the fowls taking the exercise in getting 

 their food which is necessary to health. The proper mean between these two is 

 the most readily attained where the fowls are kept in flocks of such size that they 

 can find most of their living among the wastes of the manure pile and barn- 

 yard, these being supplemented by the scraps from the household table, a regu- 



!#' 



! 1 



Jio, 2S.—Feedamg Box. 



lar allowance of green food in some form, such as the trimmings of cabbages, 

 small potatoes boiled and mixed with meal, and beets and. turnips served in the 

 same way. Unless they get a considerable allowance of meat in the table- 

 scraps this should also be provided. 



In general, where the fowls are fed regularly, it is as well to throw the food 

 on the ground and let them scratch for it, the exercise thus gained being bene- 

 ficial. When it is not desirable to feed in this manner, from inability to attend 

 to them regularly, or from other reasons, a feeding-box like that shown in Fig. 

 23 may be used, in which a quantity of food may be placed, and the fowls allowed 

 to hplp themselves at wiU. After once becoming satisfied, they will do this with- 

 out danger to themselves, and wUl consume no more food in this way than when 

 fed by hand all they will eat. 



The box is so arranged that the grain falls from the main hopper B, into the 

 trough <7 through the small aperture sliown. As fast as it is removed from the 

 trough more falls through, while the slats prevent the chickens from wasting 

 or [soiling the food. 



