November, 1915 
45 
The old theory that a hen must be kept warm in winter has been exploded. Modern poultry breeders advocate the use of fresh-air houses 
POULTRY HOUSES FOR THE AMATEUR 
A Record of Progress Up to the Present Model — -The House that is Best tor the Hens 
Costs and Methods of Construction—Fitting in the Accessories 
E. I. FARRINGTON 
T O the average man a hen house is 
simply a hen house and nothing more, 
but the average man is not familiar with 
the distinctive features of poultry archi¬ 
tecture. It is hardly necessary to point 
out, however, that there has been a great 
change in one respect within the past few 
years. It was not long ago that every 
poultry’ keeper, professional as well as 
amateur, supposed that fowls must be kept 
warm in winter. They built their houses 
with double walls, put on double windows 
and even set up stoves. 
As a consequence of this close housing 
there were sick fowls everywhere and win¬ 
ter eggs were few and far between. Then 
somebody discovered that the substitution 
of muslin cloth for glass in the windows 
would let out the 
moist, foul air that al¬ 
ways accumulated in 
a tight house without 
making the hens any 
less comfortable. 
That was the begin- 
ing of a revolution in 
poultry house con¬ 
struction, and before 
long a daring New 
Englander had gone 
to the extreme of 
building a house 
w h oily without a 
front wall. And, curi¬ 
ously enough, that 
form of house, just 
as he designed it, has 
gone all over the 
country, and even in Canada hens are being- 
kept in open-front houses of this type. They 
freeze their combs sometimes, but they are 
much healthier than they were in the old- 
style houses, and they lay more eggs. 
While the majority of poultry keepers 
have not gone so far as to erect houses of 
the extreme open-front type, some form of 
fresh-air house is now favored by prac- 
Interior of a model breeding house. The best roosting 
perches are made the same height of 2" x 4" scantling 
A novel and inexpensive shed roof colony house in use on 
the Government Poultry Farm at Beltsville, Maryland 
