332 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
up to the top of the underpinning. There are 
nests enough so that forty or fifty liens may he 
set at once, and leave room for fowls that are 
Fig. 2. —HOUSE roil SITTERS—INTERIOR. 
laying. The nests are placed so that the bot¬ 
tom of the lower ones is 6 inches higher than 
the perches, this higlit enabling the attendant 
to avoid stooping, as there is much work to be 
done about the nests of sitting hens; while they 
are not so high as to prevent the fowls reach¬ 
ing them by flying upon the nearest perch, or 
as to render a ladder necessary. The nests are 
made so that the hens enter them at the front, 
where a 2-incli strip set edgewise prevents the 
eggs from tumbling out. An alighting-board 
projects 2y 2 inches in front of each row of 
nests. The partitions at the backs of the nests 
are made of wire-clotli of a mesh fine enough 
to keep out rats, those at the sides of the same 
and of a coarse wire netting, alternately, for 
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3.—PLAN OF YARDS FOR SITTERS 
purposes described in another place. In this 
way the circulation of air is allowed for the 
health of the sitters. Sufficient attention is not 
generally given to this point. Fowls in a state 
of nature being accustomed to scratch holes in 
the ground under bushes, to form their nests 
and incubate where there is plenty of air, pant 
and show distress in hot weather when forced 
to occupy close boxes. Large doors of wire 
netting, with coarse meshes, not shown in the 
Fig. 4. —HOUSE FOR BREEDERS. 
illustration, prevent the fowls roosting at the 
entrance to the nests at night. These doors 
are closed after gathering the eggs towards 
evening, and opened again the first thing 
in the morning, and are made in two parts, 
folding together, so that there may be room 
for them overhead, when raised. A piece 
of rat-proof wire-cloth is placed in front of 
a nest occupied by a hen en¬ 
gaged in hatching, and fasten¬ 
ed by buttons, to keep out 
laying fowls by day and rats 
by night. To keep the fowls 
from using the upper part 
of the room as a roosting place, 
lath-work, a part of which is 
shown in the figure, extends 
from the top of the upper nests 
to the roof. Underneath the 
lower tier of nests is placed a 
feed-box, made like those with 
which the houses for layers are 
furnished, and others of the 
same construction should be 
placed on the ground at the 
ends of the perches, and at 
right angles with the latter. Five houses for 
sitters, each with its yard, will be required for 
an establishment of the size we are describing. 
The arrangement of the 
yards is shown by fig. 3. The 
fence, A B, is made like the 
buildings C, non-movable. 
The fences on the remain¬ 
ing three sides of the yards 
are moved yearly. Sup¬ 
pose that last year the yards 
were located at E; then this 
year they are at D, and E is 
devoted to crops. A strip of ground is 
left untilled near the doors of the bflildings 
for a wagon path. To keep the yards free 
from taint and afford scratch¬ 
ing ground, a part of each is 
plowed occasionally during 
the season when they are 
occupied by the fowls. All 
the fences running east and 
west, as F B, are composed 
of gates, so that by open¬ 
ing, for instance, at F G, 
through the whole range of 
yards, a strip of each may 
be plowed, and in a few 
days the operation may be 
repeated at another part of 
the yards. The quarters for 
ths breeding stock combine 
houses very much like those for layers, and 
yards like those for sillers, only both are small¬ 
er. The houses for layers are movable, with 
no yards; the houses for sitters are stationary, 
with movable yards; and the houses and 
yards for breeders are both movable. The 
breeders are kept in fives and tens, no flock 
ever to exceed the latter number. The build¬ 
ings are of two sizes, one 3 Vs feet wide, 
4 long, and 2y a high, and the other of the 
same width and bight, and 
7 1 /, feet long. There are no 
runners, and the doors are 
few in number, though com¬ 
prising the whole roof; each 
house is furnished with but 
one window, and but two 
or three nests are neces¬ 
sary, and one perch. Other¬ 
wise the houses are like 
those for layers on a reduced 
scale. They are designed to be moved by two 
persons, adjustable handles being attached at 
either end for this purpose. In this way, being 
without floors, they are shifted to different parts 
of the yards, and set on ridges of earth raised 
by the plow. In winter each stands upon the 
edges of a dust-bin of 2 x 8-incli plank. The 
arrangement of gates to admit the team for 
plowing, the stationary fence at one side of the 
yards, and the shifting of the latter to allow till¬ 
age, are the same as for sitters, with the excep¬ 
tion that the stationaiy fence is entirely detach¬ 
ed from the houses. The movable fences for 
the yards of both sitters and breeders are made 
as follows: Pickets 2 inches wide, J / 3 inch 
thick, and 6 feet long, are nailed to two rails 3 
inches square, and 12 feet long. At both ends 
of every rail, U-shaped pieces of stout, hogs¬ 
head hoop-iron are fastened by screws so as to 
form staples through which round posts, T/ u 
feet long, and 2*/ a inches in diameter, pointed 
at both ends, are thrust, and set in the ground. 
The rails in the alternate sections are at such 
distances apart that the tops of the pickets shall 
be in line, and the staples not interfere with 
those of the adjoining sections. Each post is 
supported so as to resist the winds to which the 
fences expose so much surface, by a brace upon 
the outside of the yard (fig. 5). This brace is 
—YARDS AND HOUSES FOR BREEDERS. 
made by sawing a rail slick in two, and furnish¬ 
ing each end with a staple like those upon the 
rails. Tiie staples are fastened upon the braces 
in an obtuse angle, and the ends of the braces 
are beveled, the better to fit the posts. One of 
these staples passes around the post between 
the two staples of the upper rails, and through 
the lower one, which reaches to the ground, a 
short stake is driven into 
the earth, with its top 
inclining away from the 
fence (fig. G). The gates ^ 
which compose the en¬ 
tire sides of the yards 
where the team passes 
in plowing, are hinged 
to stout posts, which 
are braced in a similar 
way. The stationary 
fence represented in fig. 
1, and the correspond¬ 
ing one which forms 
a part of the breeding 
yards, are made substan¬ 
tially with posts of good 
size, deeply set in the 
ground, so as to stand 
without braces. The Fi S- 6--movable fence. 
gates occupy a space of 12 feet each, the same 
as a section of the movable fence. The small¬ 
er breeding yards for five birds are 12 feet 
square (fig. 4); the larger ones for ten birds are 
24 feet square, and the yards for sitters are 48 
feet, or in each case a fraction over these fig¬ 
ures, to allow' for the room occupied by the 
posts ; the design being to use one, two, or four 
gates, or movable sections, to make one side 
of a yard. The openings between the pickets 
are 2‘/ 2 inches wide for breeders; for sitters 
W’hich are of larger breed, 3 inches arc allowed. 
The pickets are nailed on the yard side of the 
rails, to prevent fowls alighting on the latter. 
The gates which divide the breeding-yards are 
boarded for 2 feet at the bottom, to keep neigh¬ 
boring cocks from fighting. 
