i6 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
they should be fixed so as to be instantly removed when required, for cleaning the house. The 
simplest plan is to fix small wooden ledges to the walls, on which the ends may rest ; and 
these places must be specially looked after in searching for insect pests. Cochins and Brahmas, 
as a rule, do better without perches, upon soft straw. This should be allowed pretty freely, 
and, if shaken up every day with a fork, so that the droppings may fall to the bottom, will 
last a week, when the whole must be removed and clean straw substituted. Some few breeders 
still employ barred floors for Cochins, whieh formerly were very general, but are now little used. 
These are made of bars two inches square, placed about one-and-a-half inches apart, and are, 
or should be, fixed about six inches from the ground. As, however, all the droppings do not 
always fall through, these floors are very apt to damage the plumage of the breast, besides 
occasionally causing tender feet ; and we should advise either perches or straw in preference. 
In erecting any range of buildings for poultry, it will save much, both in time and money, 
if all the details are so planned as to cut up the standard lengths of timber without waste 
The most usual length is twelve feet, but sixteen feet is not uncommon, and occasionally 
twenty-four feet may be had in quartering (two by three inches) or scantling (four by three inches). 
The latter will be the proper size for the main uprights, while quartering will do well for door- 
posts and to support the partitions. But as short wood is generally cheaper than full lengths, 
if the width of a shed be six feet, for instance, it will save both money and the labour of 
sawing if all the boards for the cross partitions be ordered from the yard in six-feet lengths, 
when they are ready for nailing on without any preparation or loss of time. If the width of 
shed be eight feet, a board will still cut without waste, as the tonguing will keep two four- 
feet lengths in place between the long ones. Much money is often literally thrown away for 
want of considering these simple matters. 
In describing our “ model ” plan, we have already hinted that doors should be liberally 
provided. One door into a run may be all that is absolutely necessary ; but if made all to 
one pattern, doors cost scarcely any more than fence, and it saves much time and temper in 
attending to a large stock of poultry, to be able to get about in every possible way, without 
having to go a long way round. And, let the doors be wide ones. In our earlier years we 
suffered much inconvenience from having made many only two feet wide. As a rule, of 
course, chickens will be reared in the place devoted to their use, but many occasions may 
arise for taking a coop, or a large exhibition basket, or other matters, into any pen ; and it is 
most vexatious to find the door will not allow your burden to pass through. 
The allowance of grass-run we have given is such as we know to be sufficient to keep 
both it and the stock in good condition, but it will conduce greatly to success if now and 
then each pen can have a month or two’s rest. In such a uniform plan as we have last 
described this might easily be effected by devoting all the runs, in regular rotation, to chicken- 
rearing, when those which are used any given year will be left for a certain time unoccupied; 
other pens getting their rest or fallow next year, and so on. By adopting such a system^ 
somewhat smaller pens might be made to do ; but it is well to say, decidedly, that small 
grass-runs do not answer, and unless proper space can be given, the yards must be laid in 
sand or gravel, and the green food supplied artificially. We have known a contrary plan 
tried repeatedly, but it has always failed; and the only real use of a very small grass-plot is 
either to cut grass from for the fowls’ use, or to accommodate a few favourite birds for a few 
weeks only, whilst preparing for show. 
Prize poultry may however be kept, and exhibited most successfully, without any regular 
“yard” at all, if ample space be at command. No one ever had more unvarying success at 
