394 9** RURAL NEW. YORKER 
Henhouse Building 
Henhouse Construction 
I would like some information as to 
■building henhouses; how many birds to 
keep in one house, kind of floors, etc. I 
understand a hen should have a space 3 
ft. square, but I should like to know how 
many it would be advisable to keep in one 
place, each hen having 3 ft. square space. 
Shelton, Conn. E. F. H. 
From 3 to 4 sq. ft. of floor space for 
each fowl is considered about right, but 
there is no rule as to the number of fowls 
that can advantageously be kept in one 
flock. On commercial plants flocks run¬ 
ning into the thousands may frequently 
be seen and, even in small plants where 
only a few hundred fowls are kept, the 
tendency is to make fewer subdivision and 
t care for more together. This saves 
much labor and so probably compensates 
for any loss due to what formerly would 
have been considered overcrowding. 
Flocks of from 200 to ”>00 are of conveni¬ 
ent size, and. except for the purposes of 
selection and breeding. I know of no real 
advantage in making them smaller. Con¬ 
crete floors have advantage over all others 
and, for permanent buildings, are to be 
desired. Either wood or dry dirt floors 
may be used with entire satisfaction, how¬ 
ever. though the labor involved in keeping 
the latter in a sanitary condition and the 
difficulty in excluding rats from the 
buildings where they are used militates 
against their popularity. M. B. D. 
House for 1,000 Birds 
What would it cost to build a poultry- 
house for 1.0C0 birds? The house to be 
20 ft. wide and required length to accom¬ 
modate 1.000 birds, floor t be concrete. 
Is 5 ft. high in rear and 8 ft. high in front 
the proper heights for poultry-houses? 
This house to be open front. 
How should this house be built in order 
to get the early morning sun during Win¬ 
ter months? Would pens of 100 birds 
each do as well as 50 in each pen? I am 
a firm believer in small pens, because the 
birds seem to lay more eggs when kept in 
small flocks. I have always had good re¬ 
sults from poultry, and have someone 
who would like to back me up in this bus¬ 
iness. I only want a house that is very 
plain. No fancy work about it. As this 
house will be built on a hill it will be 
high and dry; also birds will have the 
run of a young orchard of 00 trees. What 
do you think about this plan? Have you 
any idea just what a 1,000-bird plant 
would pay a year? I have made profits 
of 82 and more a year from small 
flocks, hut have no idea what a large 
plant like the one I intend to undertake 
will give in returns. c. B. it. 
New Jersey. 
As the cost of any building depends en¬ 
tirely upon the local prices for material, 
labor, etc., it would be impossible for me 
to give you any figures of value to youj 
Any local carpenter should be able to 
give you an approximate estimate, how¬ 
ever. The height of a poultry-house 20 
ft. deep, front and rear, will depend upon 
the type of roof used. With a two-slope 
roof. 4tk ft- to 5 ft. for the rear wall and 
7 ft. or 7*4 ft. for the front, would be 
good dimensions. Such a house should 
face to the southeast to get. the early 
morning sun. Few poultrymen, nowa¬ 
days, keep hens in such small flocks as 
from 50 to 100, the extra labor involved 
more than counter-balancing any in¬ 
creased production so gained. You will 
probably not keep 1,000 hens long in 
fewer than three flocks. As to predicting 
the probable profits from a plant of this 
size, I prefer to be excused; they range 
from zero to several dollars per hen, but 
I think that they seldom exceed the ex¬ 
pectations of those about to embark in 
the business. M. b. d. 
Building a Brooder House 
Will you give me plans for a 100-chick 
brooder and for a 200-chick brooder? 
Wlliat kind of wood would be the best 
to use, and about how much would it cost 
to build each? J. S. H. 
Scotia, N. Y. 
If I were to build a brooder for 100 
chicks, or a smaller number. I should 
February 21, 1020 
obtain one or two large dry goods boxes 
and make of them a little building having 
about 20 square feet of floor space and 
of sufficient height to work in | In this 
little building I should install one of the 
portable lamp-heated hovers, to be pur¬ 
chased from the poultry supply houses; 
this to be removed when the chicks became 
large enough to dispense with artificial 
heat and perches substituted. This little 
building should have large windows in 
front for. the admission of sunlight, and 
they should be hinged at the top to swing 
outward for ventilation : wire screens pro¬ 
tecting the opening. Never mind exact 
dimensions or details of construction; 
there aren’t any. Build it to suit your¬ 
self, only making it tight and warm, light, 
airy and cheerful, and then keep it clean 
inside, with plenty of clean litter upon 
the floor. An old standard style of small, 
portable brooder is 0 ft. long, 3 ft. wide, 
20 in. high in the rear. 30 in. in front. 
It has two glass fitted doors in front, tak¬ 
ing up about one-half the space there, and 
an end exit for the chicks. The roof is 
removable for convenience in cleaning. 
It is generally built of matched pine 
flooring, the walls being of boards placed 
vertically, the floor nailed to a rectangu¬ 
lar frame of 2x2-in. stuff, to which frame 
(he lower ends of the matched boards 
forming the walls are also nailed. The 
‘‘plate” to which the upper ends of these 
boards are nailed is of lx4-in. stuff, the 
upper edges of which are flush with the 
upper ends of the wall boards. The roof 
is of any light stuff, covered with pre¬ 
pared roofing. The front doors extend 
from near the floor to within six or eight 
inches of the roof, and may well be two 
in number, about 20 in. square each, and 
made to hold two large standard-size win¬ 
dow panes placed vertically. Almost any 
poultry supply catalogue will have an il¬ 
lustration of this small brooder which can 
easily be made at home by any one handy 
with saw and hammer. 
For 200 or more chicks in a flock, one 
of the coal-burning heaters is best: in 
fact, almost indispensable. This may be 
placed in any l-oorn or building where 100 
square feet or more of floor space is 
available. Where a special building is 
constructed for these, a portable colony 
house is usually built. For details of the 
construction of these, I can refer you to 
nothing better than the plans published 
by the State Agricultural College at 
Ithaca, N. Y. These will be sent to you 
without charge if you apply for them. 
M. b. ». 
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