Exercise is essential for good egg production. 
The poultry runs here provide opportunity for fresh air activity and are so designed that thev 
are not unattractive 
Building the Poultry Quarters 
PLANS SHOWING HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN HOUSES OF VARIOUS SIZES THAT ARE NEAT 
AND ACCESSIBLE AND WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO THE GOOD CONDITION OF THE BIRDS 
by Alfred Hopkins 
HERE has been such a deal 
of controversy, at least in 
the author’s practice, over the re¬ 
quirements of the chicken house, 
that he has felt an extended dis¬ 
cussion of this building had bet¬ 
ter be left to those who are pos¬ 
sessed with a knowledge of the 
subject, more satisfying to them¬ 
selves. Every chicken man has 
decided notions of his own as to 
what is necessary for the success¬ 
ful chicken house, and no two men 
seem to agree as to what type of 
structure will best assist or per¬ 
suade the hen to lay. A shortage 
of eggs has so frequently been as¬ 
signed by the master of the hens 
to faults in the architect’s plan 
that this architect at least has 
made up his mind—as has every¬ 
one else interested in chickens— 
that no one really knows any¬ 
thing about them but himself, and 
that a proper chicken house has 
never been built and never will be, until it can be carried out in 
its entirety by himself and himself alone. 
What the hen needs more than anything else is fresh air. and 
to be assured of this it was thought that she needed almost un¬ 
limited range and plenty of room 
in her house. Crowding in the 
pen was the worst possible condi¬ 
tion. A writer in The Country 
Gentleman, some years back, said 
that in the coop io sq. ft. of clear 
floor space per hen was desirable; 
this being exclusive of all passage¬ 
ways and floor space occupied by 
nests, roosts, etc. A certain Mr. 
Philo became enthusiastic over 
the idea of rearing chickens in the 
smallest possible space, and ad¬ 
vertised that a successful egg 
farm could be established on a 
plot of ground 40 ft. square. We 
cite this as showing the very great 
differences of opinion that may be 
found with regard to the housing 
of the hen. 
Undoubtedly, where space per¬ 
mits, the best method of arranging 
the chicken farm is to follow out 
the idea known as the Colony 
Plan. This is a separate and usu¬ 
ally movable house large enough to contain a cockerel and from 
six to a dozen hens. On the Skylands Farm, at Sterlington, N. Y., 
the two systems of the general chicken house and the colony house 
have been carefully compared, and a decided preference has been 
Photographs by the Author 
PLAN 
= 3 = 
The plans of a colony house at Sterlington that embodies all 
the essentials for convenience and proper ventilation 
( 482 ) 
