1911 
'"'THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
30 r 
THOSE $9 JERSEY HENS. 
The Original House. 
The original house was made 40x15 on the ground. 
First there were posts set (we used cedar) deep 
enough to extend below the frost line; they were put 
eight feet apart, and extend one foot above ground. 
On top of the posts 4x4 sill was laid. The studding 
are 2x3 pine, 16 inches apart, and six feet long. The 
plate was 2x4 pine and spiked to each studding. The 
back and front are both six feet high. The back is 
made of one-half inch siding with sheathing paper be¬ 
tween, making it double. It is thus air¬ 
tight, and leaves no draughts. The 
front is made of wire netting, best of 
one-inch mesh. On each post there is 
an upright placed under the plate which 
leaves the front looking exactly like an 
old meeting-house shed. The wire net¬ 
ting is put on before the face boards, 
the tighter the better. The rafters are 
2x4, 16 inches apart, and shingle strips, 
covered with shingles for the roof. The 
roof has what carpenters call the 8x12 
pitch. 
The inside of house is made just as 
convenient as we were able to make it. 
There is one partition, making two sec¬ 
tions of the house; one 24 feet, and the 
other 16 feet long. We divided it in 
such manner that yards being made to 
correspond with the pens in the house, 
would bring the division fences between 
the rows of apple trees, as the house is in 
an orchard. The partition is made tight, 
of matched lumber for five feet from 
the back, and even with the plate. That 
prevents draught on the hens while on 
the roost. The door is next to this tight 
partition, and is made of two-inch wire 
netting like the rest of the partition. 
The bottom is made 16 inches above and 
16 inches below ground of dressed lum¬ 
ber, with wire netting from that to the 
roof. We found that a double roost was 
more convenient to work about than a 
triple roost, so adopted that style. The 
droppings board is 42 inches wide and 
rests on braces fastened to the back of 
house. Underneath the droppings board 
there are charcoal, grit and oyster-shell 
hoppers, with hopper for beef scrap 
hanging on the partition. Under each 
end of the droppings board is a nest box 
with four nests, which reaches from the 
back of house to even with the door in 
the partition, which makes it five feet 
long, and it is 17 inches high by 16 wide. 
That is on rollers, on a frame just high 
enough from the ground to permit of 
easy entrance under the droppings board. 
About the middle of the droppings 
board, and hanging to it, exactly like a 
money drawer under a counter, is a wire 
coop with a slat bottom, that is used 
to break up hens which want to sit 
when we don’t want them to do so. The 
convenience of that arrangement can 
never be really appreciated until used. 
Forty-eight hours’ confinement in that 
usually does the job. On the side of that 
coop there is a feed trough so made that 
it can be filled from the outside, and 
has compartments for water, grit, oyster 
shell and feed. Some persons claim that 
confinement should be on short rations, 
or none at all, but it appears to me that 
by doing so you really work against your 
own interest, as it will take as many days 
to build up the hen as it took to starve 
her, but if she is kept rightly fed she 
will have to lay in short time. On the 
floor is a box with slats across it which 
always contains bran, and near that is 
the water trough. Having used that 
house for three years, I will say that I 
think it nearly impossible to improve on 
the principle; I have few minor internal 
improvements in view. 
In front of each pen in the house is 
a yard, 50 feet long, and the same width 
as the pen. We placed as many in each 
pen as will just fill the roosts without 
crowding. In the front of the house 
hang curtains made 8x6 feet and 
hung on the plate; they are made of 
1x3 inch stuff and made double, with 
wire netting between it, and cotton mus¬ 
lin (10 cents per yard) is put on the 
outside of that wire. The object of that 
arrangement is two-fold: It strengthens the frame and 
prevents the muslin from blowing out, as it is be¬ 
tween two wires when closed. One wire is stationary 
on front of the house, and other stationary on the 
curtain frame. During three years I have never had 
to replace a curtain. I put two small iron pulley 
blocks ( 1^2 inch wheel) on the rafters over each cur¬ 
tain, and run clothes-line through them and fastened 
to curtain frame, and used that to open and close 
the curtain. It runs so easily that any woman can 
work them. On very cold or stormy days, the cur¬ 
tains may all be left closed, but seldom need them 
ROW OF COLONY FIOUSES. Fig. 103. 
STYLE OF BROODERS USED. Fig. 104. 
INSIDE OF HOUSE. Fig. 106. 
closed all day. In fact, I can think of but four days 
in three years. There may be better houses, but there 
has been profit in the poultry business from the 
time we began using that style, and loss before that. 
In the immediate neighborhood there are now five 
houses similar, or modified as near as could be, which 
were built after seeing this one, and in each one the 
hens have produced eggs all Winter. There are no 
patents on the ideas used, so anyone can build like 
it, if he chooses to spend $3.25 per running foot of 
the length, which will show you it is not cheap; but 
is the cheapest good house. You will see that by 
putting 60 hens in 16 feet length you 
have four square feet per hen; 16x15 
-4-60. That is less than one dollar per 
head of stock, and if anyone can do 
cheaper, for a good house, they beat me. 
I began here with the colony house sys¬ 
tem, “but never again,” as the other sys¬ 
tem beats it 40 ways. We still use the 
colony houses for young stock after it is 
taken from the brooders until ready for 
the big house. I have burglar alarm in 
the henhouse, and it paid for itself last 
July, -as it found visitors knocking at 
the door. There is no floor to this 
house; we merely drew sand and raised 
up the inside about six inches above the 
ground outside the house, thereby mak¬ 
ing it perfectly dry. We use litter on 
top of that sand; changing sand once 
a year is sufficient. 
Fig. 105 shows house closed for the 
night; Fig. 106 shows inside of the 
house; in first section you can see a 
hen just entering a nest under the drop¬ 
pings board, and shows how near the 
door of the partition the end of row 
comes. The door that shows so plainly 
swings either way; two 20-penny nails 
make the hinges. In the second part 
you can see the coop for breaking sitting 
hens, with three hens immediately over; 
just beyond you can see the nests drawn 
clear out, and also see one hen in the 
first nest, and one standing on top of 
the box. The nests are on rollers. The 
white things in upper left hand corner 
you can see are curtains hanging. In 
the picture they look like windows. Fig. 
104 shows the style of brooders we use, 
all outdoor brooders, with Philo prin¬ 
ciple improved on; it also shows the 
wire runs we use for little chicks, all 
one-inch mesh. Addition to house de¬ 
scribed is arranged in the same way. Fig. 
103 shows a row of four colony houses 
with some ducks on the right. It also 
shows the frame of another addition to 
present house. 
Having made a success of the egg 
trade direct to the consumer, we are 
now trying to build up trade for chickens 
the same way; but how we shall succeed 
is to be found out later, although I see 
no obstacle in the way—except the ex¬ 
press company. They may let a case 
of dressed chickens sit out in the sun 
a couple of days, and may not. That 
only brings us back to the old subject— 
parcels post. Whenever that comes, 
which it surely will, then the consumer 
and producer can deal direct, and not 
before, to any great extent. I have 
little fault to find with the express com¬ 
panies except their rates, which, to me, 
seem unreasonable in some cases. As 
for loss or breakage, the United States 
deals best with me, as they pay every 
claim made by me, with one exception, 
and that they claim I shipped broken 
eggs. They take their own time to set¬ 
tle. The rates seem large, as I have 
one customer for eggs from whom the 
express company gets one cent each for 
the eggs. Think of it, 60 cents for five 
dozen, but he is willing to pay the price, 
so he is no help for parcels post. 
w. J. DOUGAN. 
R. N.-Y.—Strange how every raiser 
of high-grade farm or garden products, 
whether in the line of fruit, general 
truck, dairy or poultry, is bound to refer 
to transportation as bis greatest prob-> 
lem. Here near the R. N.-Y. office are 
thousands of consumers asking to be 
fed; there in the open country are toil¬ 
ing men and women asking leave to 
feed them. Between the two stand the 
middlemen, taking toll from both. John 
Stout gives us something to think about, 
on page 306, especially in his reference 
to political activities of special interests. 
