Various Plans for Yards. 
'5 
the passage, the houses for roosting and the sheds should be boarded up about three feet, 
and the rest wired to the top, when the birds will be readily seen at roost ; and hinged flaps 
should also give means of access to the nests without entering the houses, though doors will, 
of course, be provided. The passage should be sky-lighted, though this is not absolutely 
needful, as light will come in over the low shed walls. At the outside, next the grass, the 
house will of course be boarded close up, and also at the sides, but the sheds may be left 
quite open, the three-feet boarding at the back giving shelter enough from the draught. The 
depth of the shedding from front to back is given as six feet, but may be increased with 
advantage ; or the front of the sheds may be boarded up for half their length, to give more 
shelter in very windy weather. And lastly, for an establishment intended to continue any 
time, apple, filbert, or other crop-bearing trees, should be planted in each run, to give both 
shade and shelter to the fowls. 
Such a yard, multiplied to the extent desired, and with as many of the small pens, D D, 
as may be necessary, will rear prize poultry to great perfection ; but besides a store-room, a 
certain length of the shed or some other covered building will be needed, to form an apartment 
where birds can be put up for exhibition, to clean themselves among dry straw. If a few exhibition 
pens can be found room for, as in Mr. Tudman’s and Lady Gwydyr’s yards, it will be a great 
advantage, and nothing more will be really required. One of the sheds, boarded up outside, and 
wired down to the bottom within, will make a capital chicken nursery for bad weather, and the 
birds will grow better , if put about fifteen together in runs of this moderate size, than if they 
have unlimited range, always providing they have the shade of trees in summer. The fences 
between the runs should be boarded up about two-and-a-half feet, and wired above to any 
height required. As the height of the roof will be greater in the passage than outside, pens 
for fattening birds intended to kill may be advantageously located at the top, as shown at F. 
These should have open bottoms made of bars, two inches square, but with sliding floors or 
drawers under, to prevent any of the droppings falling into the houses beneath. Doors will of 
course be placed from the passage into every house and shed, and also between run and run, 
so that entrance may be had from one part to any other by the shortest way. The holes by 
which the fowls enter the houses from the sheds should be next the passage, so as to keep all 
the draught on that side ; and as the nests will be the same, the perches will of course be 
placed as represented. Should artificial heat be wanted during any time of intense frost, such 
would be readily supplied in an establishment of this kind by having a double row of hot- 
water pipes the whole length of the passage, which would supply a temperature genial, but not 
injuriously warm. 
In any exhibition establishment, one great difficulty, as already hinted, is to provide 
for the cockerels. These are kept in flocks for awhile ; but after any are once exhibited 
they can rarely be restored to company, owing to their fighting. Of a good strain many 
are valuable, however ; and hence that great want in a breeder’s yard, of accommodation for 
such birds until of full age, or until they can be disposed of. Where the buildings are not 
extensive this is often done by erecting quite small wooden roosting-houses with limited wire 
runs in front, or a row of a few such, on some piece of grass. A few such small accom- 
modations are also most useful for sitting hens, hospitals, and all sorts of emergencies and 
occasional purposes. Such a small house, with a few dozen yards of netting, will even extem- 
porise an extra small breeding-pen if need arises. They are made for sale at a fairly cheap 
rate, of various sizes and patterns, but can be made by anybody with any experience of tools. 
’ Perches we have already spoken of, and it is only needful to add that, for many reasons, 
