Vol. LXIX. No. 4051 NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1910. weekly, $i.oo per year. 
THAT FORTY-DAY HOUSE. 
More Matter From Mapes. 
I wish Mr. Mapes would explain more fully his $40 
chicken house, giving cost of lumber and how the inside 
is arranged. What was the market price of- eggs when 
he sold? a. s. a. 
Pittsfield, Ill. 
Judging from the flood of inquiries that have readied 
me, my new type of poultry house must have struck 
a popular chord. It is 
unfortunate that the 
printer put an erroneous 
caption to Fig. 212 by 
calling it a ‘‘$40" house. 
In building it I chose a 
level spot of naturally 
well-drained land, and 
first made a concrete 
wall six inches thick 
and 18 inches high, 30 
feet long and 20 feet 
wide, with the ends fac¬ 
ing nearly north and 
south. There is no 
trench under the wall, 
but it is built directly 
on the ground, simply 
taking off the sod. Upon 
this wall 2x4 hemlock 
plates are laid, embedded 
in cement so as to make 
an airtight job. I used 
2x6 rafters 14 feet long, 
using the entire length 
of the sticks. This gives 
a height from floor to 
peak of a little over 11 
feet. The north gable is 
sided with novelty sid¬ 
ing, over good building 
paper. The south end is 
closed with one-inch 
mesh poultry netting. 
The roof hoards extend 
a foot over the front 
rafter, forming a good 
cornice, and muslin cur¬ 
tains are tacked to the 
end rafters just within 
the wire netting. A light 
pole tacked to the edge 
of each curtain makes it 
easy to loop it back to 
the rafter when not in 
use, or fasten the two 
securely together when 
desired. 
The whole of the floor 
is a clear space for the 
use of the hens. The 
nests are fastened to the 
rafters at a convenient 
height, by means of 
brackets^ and extend 
about halfway from front 
to rear, on either side, 
while the perches occupy 
like positions about halfway from rear to front. I 
have not used tables under the perches, for droppings, 
but they can easily be added if desired, with no occa¬ 
sion to bend one’s back either in gathering the eggs or 
the droppings. Now add a second pair of curtains, 
tacking them to the rafters between the nests and the 
perches, and the house is complete. In severe climates 
it will be better to drop this second curtain also at 
night, occasionally, thus placing the hens behind two 
thicknesses of muslin where the warmth generated by 
their own bodies will keep them comfortable. Market 
quotations for period mentioned were from 25 to 27 
cents per dozen. 
I am now raising chicks to stock a good-sized plant, and 
would like to know more about your success with the 
house shown on page 537. Did you find it entirely satis¬ 
factory, and would you advise making any change in di¬ 
mensions? I)o you find it light enough, or would a win¬ 
dow in rear improve it? We have about 900 chicks, and 
are raising them in heatless brooders. I would like to 
hear how your 600 come out. If they do well it is cer¬ 
tainly less trouble and work to take care of them. 
Virginia. w. si. si-’x. 
At Fig. 271 is shown a picture of the rear end of 
my second house: The window might be omitted 1 
presume, hut I would not advise it, in a house 30 feet 
deep. It gives better light at the rear, and will be 
needed for ventilation in hot. weather. I am planning 
to build my next house 24x36 feet, using 16-.foot raft¬ 
ers. This will accommodate a flock of 300 hens and 
give about three feet of floor space per hen. This 
will reduce the cost per hen, and a flock of 300 can 
be fed and watered almost as quickly as 200. This 
will require material about as follows: Five barrels of 
cement; 26 rafters 2x6, 16 feet long; 1,200 feet roofing 
boards; 200 feet siding; 12 squares roofing felt; 200 
feet 2x4 hemlock studding; one window. This will 
cost in our market about $65. By using an earth floor, 
and cheap - roofing felt 
such as has given me 
good satisfaction on my 
colony houses by fre¬ 
quent painting, I can 
house 300 hens for $100, 
including cost of labor. 
Any farmer or farm hand 
with enough "gumption" 
to frame a pair of rafters 
can do the work. The 
brooding compartment-, 
which now occupies the 
rear of my house, is built 
under a U. S', patent al- 
ready granted. My 
“dream” is working out 
with much satisfaction so 
far. The whole scheme 
is based on the fact that 
chicks do not huddle and 
smother, or sweat, ex¬ 
cept as they feel the lack 
of sufficient warmth for 
comfort. It is just as 
easy to build a compart¬ 
ment that will maintain 
a uniformly warm tem¬ 
perature, with ventilation 
under complete control 
of the operator, as it is 
to build one that will 
hold ice below the melt¬ 
ing point all Summer, or 
eggs just above the freez¬ 
ing point for months at 
a time. There are no 
cold corners in this room 
for chicks to congregate 
in and huddle, because 
the whole room is kept 
warm, and a large space 
surrounding the oil stove 
in the center is nearly 
as warm as an incubator. 
I find that a temperature 
of anywhere from 80 to 
90 degrees will cause the 
chicks to spread out in a 
circle surrounding the 
heater at night as shown 
at Fig. 272. This is from 
a flashlight picture of 650 
week-old chicks taking 
their ■ comfort at night 
around a 75-cent kero¬ 
sene cook stove, such as 
can be bought in any of 
our hardware stores. Tt has two wicks, and pro¬ 
duces lots of heat for my room 12x20 feet, even on 
several recent nights of sharp frosts. I shall doubt¬ 
less have to use only one of the wicks as the weather 
gets warmer and the chicks older. I first tried a 
bedroom heater with round wick, the smallest size 
I could find, but that made too much heat, and be¬ 
sides the flame would “creep” up enough to make ; t 
dangerous. The horizontal radiator over the oil stove, 
REAR VIEW OF MAPES FORTY-DAY HOUSE. Fig. 271. > 
THE LITTLE CHICKS SPREAD OUT IN COMFORT. Fig. 272. 
