LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN!VERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
POULTRY 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 A Practical Guide 
 
 for Construction 
 
 of Poultry Houses^ 
 
 Coops and Yards 
 
 ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Compiled by 
 
 GKORGK B. FISKE 
 
 New York 
 O R A X (1 K J U I) 1) COMPANY 
 
 1907 
 
 \ 
 
 TY \ 
 
Copyright 1QO2 
 
 ~by 
 Orange fudct Company 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LOCATION AND METHODS 
 
 Foundations and walls Glass in cold weather Roosts, etc 
 Troughs Fountains Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LOW-COST HOUSES 
 
 Poultry house of G. R France Convenient house Cheap and 
 labor-saving A handy hennery A house for layers 
 Cheap houses and shelters. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 
 
 House for mild climates H. H. Stoddard's poultry house 
 Northern colony houses Rhode Island colony houses. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 Grundy's prize house Farmers' poultry house Removable 
 houses WyckofFs houses Portable coop House for 
 Pacific coast House for south House with cloth run 
 Good winter houses Maine henhouse Interior plans. 
 
 j ( o 
 
 *i- o *-> 
 
JV CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES 
 
 A Kansas sod house A Nebraska plan House in a sand 
 bank Windproof structures A house of logs Bank wall 
 houses. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 
 
 Well-made house in detail A business poultry plant A model 
 house Practical poultry home. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 
 
 Using a second storyAdding a scratching pen Shelter and 
 lean-to Protected coop Run of sash and straw Cheap 
 runs. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 
 
 A brooder plant Improved incubator house A brooder and 
 growing house Brooder boxes Houses for separate 
 brooders Brooder attachments. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS 
 
 Cold storage Turkey houses Improved duckhouses Pigeon 
 lofts Combination house. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 
 
 Glass roof coops Hotbed coops Rat-proof Cool runs Ten- 
 cent coops Orchard chicken coop Fattening pens Sum- 
 mer and fall shelter Movable yards Hen-tight fence. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FIG. PAGE 
 
 i Up and Down and Crosswise Boarding . . 3 
 
 2 Sections of Foundations and Wall ... 4 
 
 3 Sash with Double Glass ... 7 
 
 4 Window for Cold Weather . .8 
 
 5 House for Mild Climates 10 
 
 6 House of Mr France ...... 12 
 
 7 Convenient House. End View and Front Elevation 13 
 
 8 Cheap and Labor-Saving. Cross Section . . 14 
 
 9 Cheap and Labor-Saving. Ground Floor . . 14 
 
 10 Handy Hennery ....... 16 
 
 II House for Layers ....... 19 
 
 12 Ten-Dollar Henhouse ...... 20 
 
 13 House and Shed ... ... 21 
 
 14 Interior of House with Shed ..... 21 
 
 15 A Small House ... .22 
 
 16 Colony House for Mild Climates .... 24 
 
 17 H. H. Stoddard's Colony House .... 26 
 
 18 Northern Colony House ... -3 
 19 Rhode Island Colony House . 3 2 
 20 Grundy's Poultry House and Yard . . 36 
 
 21 Farmers' Poultry House . . 3^ 
 22 House Easily Removed ... -4 
 23 Interior and Details ... 4 [ 
 
 24 End View of House and Details . 43 
 
 25 Movable Coop 45 
 
 26 An Oregon Plan 46 
 27 House for Warm Climates ... 48 
 
 28 House for One Hundred Fowls . 5 
 29 House with Cloth Run . . 5 1 
 
 30 L-Shaped House with Shed . - 5 2 
 31 Octagon House ... -53 
 32 Good Winter House 54 
 
VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FIG. PAGK 
 
 33 Good House with Interior Fixtures 55 
 
 34 Interior Contrivances 56 
 
 35 A Maine Henhouse 57 
 
 36 A Prairie Henhouse 60 
 
 37 Henhouse of Kansas Farmer ..... 61 
 
 38 A Nebraska Sod Hcruse ...... 62 
 
 39 House in a Sand Bank ...... 63 
 
 40 Windproof Structure ...... 65 
 
 41 A Log Chicken House . .66 
 
 42 A Bank Wall House 67 
 
 43 Interior of Bank Wall House ..... 67 
 
 44 Warm and Convenient Building .... 68 
 
 45 Well-Made House. Front and Rear Elevations 71 
 46 Well-Made House. End Elevation and Pen Run 72 
 47 Interior of Well-Made House 73 
 
 48 Section Through Pen ...... 74 
 
 49 Plan Showing Roosts ...... 75 
 
 50 Business Poultry House ..... 76 
 
 51 Front Elevation of Model House .... 79 
 
 52 Ground Plan of Model House .... 79 
 
 53 Side View and Floor System ... -79 
 
 54 Cross Section of Model House .... 79 
 
 55 Practical Poultry House . . . . .81 
 
 56 Runway to Second Story and Upper Room . . 82 
 57 House with Scratching Shed ..... 83 
 
 58 Shelter and Lean-to . . -84 
 
 59 Protected Coop . . . . . -85 
 
 60 Run of Sash and Straw ... .86 
 
 61 Protected Scratching Sheds . -87 
 
 62 Plan of Duck or Brooder Buildings ... 89 
 63 Double Roof Incubator House . . . .90 
 
 64 Banked Incubator Room ..... 91 
 
 65 Incubator House and Tank ..... 92 
 
 66 Double Brooder House ...... 93 
 
 67 Combination Brooder Building .... 94 
 
 68 Construction of Brooder Box ..... 95 
 
 69 Pipe Brooder House ...... 96 
 
 70 Houses for Separate Brooders . . 97 
 71 Oregon Brooder House . . .98 
 72 Houses for Winter Chicks 99 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Vll 
 
 FIG. 1'AGK 
 
 73 Plan for Cold Storage House for Poultry . . 101 
 74 Buildings for Turkeys ...... 104 
 
 75 Improved Duckhouse ...... 107 
 
 76 Duckhouse and Shed . . . . . .107 
 
 77 Pigeon Loft and Interior ..... 108 
 
 78 House for Poultry and Pigeons . . . .109 
 
 79 Ground Plan for Combination House . . . 109 
 
 80 Glass-Roofed Coops no 
 
 81 Hotbed Run and Coops . . . in 
 
 82 Rat-Proof Coops and Run . . . . 112 
 
 83 Box and Barrel Coops . . . . . 115 
 84 Coops from Barrels and Crates . . . .116 
 85 A-Shaped Coops . . . 117 
 
 86 A-Shaped Coop and Frame . . . . .117 
 87 Coop from a Shoe Box . . . 1 18 
 
 88 A Packing Box Coop 119 
 
 89 Brood Coop with Run ...... 120 
 
 90 Light Box Coops ....... 120 
 
 91 Shelter and Portable Coop 121 
 
 92 Colony Shelter Coop 122 
 
 93 Orchard Coop 123 
 
 94 Fattening Boxes ..... .124 
 
 95 Coops for Sitting Hens ...... 124 
 
 96 Shipping and Exhibition Coops . . . .125 
 
 97 Yards for Three Flocks . 125 
 
 98 Yards for Two or Four Flocks . % . . . 126 
 
 99 Movable Poultry Yard 127 
 
 100 Making a Fence Chicken Proof . . . 128 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The aim of this book is to give designs of sufficient 
 variety to suit conditions everywhere. Few requests 
 come more often to the office of a poultry editor than 
 those asking designs and directions for some part 
 of a poultry plant. The number and variety of such 
 requirements is surprising. 
 
 On the other hand, the very diversity of conditions 
 which create the demand has also developed a supply. 
 A multitude of houses and coops of differing styles 
 have been designed by ingenious poultry keepers in 
 accord with their experience and to meet local condi- 
 tions. This little volume aims to bring together these 
 two classes, the intending builders and those who have 
 already built successfully. It is thought that the one 
 hundred designs of such wide range of style, cost and 
 adaptation will meet all requirements. 
 
 Many of the designs originally appeared in Ameri- 
 can Agriculturist weeklies in response to definite re- 
 quests. The plans are carefully selected from a much 
 larger number, and only those are given which are 
 in successful use and which are adapted to the needs 
 of practical poultry keepers ; pretentious or overorna- 
 mental and elaborate affairs having been excluded. 
 Wherever thought necessary or desirable, complete 
 specifications of cost and construction have been in- 
 cluded, so that the structures may be put up by anyone 
 who can handle saw r and hammer. 
 
/ Xy5>m* . 
 
 / OP-TIT 
 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LOCATION AND METHODS 
 
 Poultry can be made to do well almost anywhere, 
 just as cattle are made profitable on many farms not 
 especially adapted for dairying. Management and 
 system of housing should be varied to suit the location. 
 
 Some good paying poultry farms are on stiff, 
 heavy clay land, where water collects in pools after 
 rain. Others just as profitable are on rather thin, light 
 soil. Still, it is generally agreed that a good, free, well 
 drained loam has certain advantages. The soil dries 
 quickly after a rain, snow melts more quickly, it warms 
 rapidly in the sun, every shower purifies it by carrying 
 down a part of the impurities. On wet, heavy soil the 
 fowls should have very wide range or the ground 
 becomes muddy and unwholesome. Yet such land is a 
 rich storehouse of plant food and affords the best of 
 grass and insect diet even when drouth checks all fresh 
 growth on other land. Heavy land is best suited to 
 the colony or free range systems. Some of the largest 
 and most profitable farms have been thus located and 
 conducted, and the fowls maintained in perfect health 
 and vigor. 
 
 On rather poor land the fowls should also have 
 wide range in order to find enough wild food. Good 
 pasturage should be considered as important as for 
 cattle. 
 
 Rocky land is seldom made the location of large 
 farms for poultry culture, since frequent cultivation 
 and cropping is a part of most systems. Money saved 
 
2 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 in buying rough or sandy land is soon lost many times 
 over in decrease of net returns. If one may choose, 
 let him buy good, clear, well drained loam, with a 
 gradual southern slope and a forest protection at the 
 north. But, as said before, most locations can be made 
 satisfactory by suitable buildings and system of man- 
 agement. 
 
 The site of permanent buildings should be well 
 drained naturally, but in a great majority of cases the 
 conditions will be improved by at least heaping up with 
 a horse scraper a little knoll of earth about the same in 
 area as the house. Dryness is the great preventive of 
 disease in poultry, and is even more important than 
 warmth. A dry hen will stand a great deal of cold 
 weather without much injury. 
 
 Foundation and IV alls It pays to have a stone 
 foundation reaching down to frost line, or from one to 
 three feet below the surface and rising about one foot 
 above th^, ground level. When covered with earth, a 
 dry, dusty floor is ensured all winter, and rats are kept 
 out even without a cement covering for the stone floor. 
 Anything but a stone foundation is likely to take up 
 more or less moisture, which will freeze and thaw, 
 making the floor hard and cold, or muddy, neither state 
 being suitable for scratching and for dust baths. Floors 
 below ground are unsatisfactory in moist climates 
 Dampness works in, spoils the scratching floor, stops 
 laying and causes lameness, colds and bowel trouble. 
 If the floor, however, has been raised by a rock filling, 
 the outside of the building may be banked with earth to 
 good advantage. 
 
 Tight Foundations When small buildings are 
 erected upon the farm, there is a temptation, in the 
 interest of economy, to omit the tight stone foundation 
 and put the building on posts. This leaves the building 
 open beneath and permits the cold winds to reduce the 
 
LOCATION AND METHODS 
 
 temperature. A plan is shown in the cut, Figure i, 
 which obviates this. The walls are boarded up and 
 down, using matched cedar boards, and allowing these 
 to extend to the ground, as shown. A little soil is then 
 banked up against the lower end, which is grassed over 
 quickly, making a tight foundation that will last many 
 years. If the framing is made to use crosswise board- 
 ing, put on the latter as shown at right of Figure i, 
 using a wide cedar board to extend from the sill down 
 to the ground, and bank with a few inches of earth as 
 before mentioned. The building can then be shingled 
 or clapboarded. 
 
 FIG I I UI' A XI) DOWN A XI) CROSSWISE UOARDIXG 
 
 In placing a house, let it face the south or as nearly 
 so as possible. It is cooler in summer and warmer in 
 winter than one facing either east or west. The sun 
 in summer during the hottest part of the day is nearly 
 directly overhead and does not shine in so strongly in 
 a south window. In winter, when low in the heavens, 
 the south window catches more of the sun's rays. 
 
 A Poultry House Floor of cement may well be pat- 
 terned after the plan shown at left of Figure 2. The 
 foundation is of loose stones to give drainage. The 
 stones above are cemented. A layer of small stones 
 beneath the cement serves as drainage. The sills of the 
 house are bedded in cement to keep out vermin. This 
 plan gives an exceedingly warm house, and the cement 
 floor will keep out all rats and poultry enemies. A 
 
4 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 cement floor is a cold affair in winter unless covered 
 with plenty of dust and litter. 
 
 A Very Warm Wall designed by G. C. Watson of 
 the Pennsylvania experiment station is double on all 
 sides and practically air tight, with a two-inch air space 
 between the walls. A section plan is shown at right 
 of Figure 2. A two by three scantling set edgewise 
 forms the plate, and to this the boards of the side walls 
 are nailed. These boards may be of rough lumber if 
 economy in building is desired. If so, the inner board- 
 ing should be nailed on first and covered with tarred 
 building paper on the side that will come within the 
 
 FIG 2 : SECTIONS OF FOUNDATIONS AND WALL 
 
 hollow wall when the building is completed. This 
 building paper is to be held in place with laths or strips 
 of thin boards. If only small nails or tacks are used, 
 the paper will tear around the nail heads when damp 
 and will not stay in place. 
 
 The cracks between the boards of the outside 
 boarding may be covered with inexpensive battens if 
 they are nailed at frequent intervals with small nails. 
 Ordinary building lath will answer this purpose ad- 
 mirably, and will last many years, although they are 
 not so durable as heavier and more expensive strips. 
 The tarred paper on the inside boarding and the battens 
 on the outside make two walls, each impervious to 
 
LOCATION AND M KTILODS 5 
 
 wind, with an air space between them. Common build- 
 ing paper may be used or stout paper of any kind. 
 
 It has been left for the West Virginia experiment 
 station to determine just how much difference there 
 would be in egg production between similar flocks kept 
 in warm and cold houses. Two houses, built exactly 
 alike and situated side by side, were selected for the 
 experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pul- 
 lets. One house had previously been sheathed on the 
 inside and covered with paper to make it perfectly 
 tight. Both were boarded with matched siding and 
 shingle roofs. 
 
 The fowls were fed alike in each case. The morn- 
 ing mash consisted of corn meal, ground middlings 
 and ground oats, and at night whole grain was scat- 
 tered in the litter. They also had fresh water, grit and 
 bone and granulated bone. The experiment started 
 November 24 and continued for five months. The fol- 
 lowing table shows the number of eggs laid during each 
 period of thirty days : 
 
 RESULTS FROM COLD AND WARM HOUSES 
 
 12345 Total 
 Warm house .... 87 130 138 120 154 629 
 Cold house 39 106 103 124 114 486 
 
 The experiment clearly indicates that it is impor- 
 tant to build warm and substantial houses for winter 
 egg production. 
 
 In very cold climates special pains should be taken 
 to make the roosting place warm. Combs are usually 
 frozen during the night. Double walls battened with 
 lath outside and lined with building paper make a 
 warm roost room. With single-wall houses, double 
 boarding on the north side is a protection. An outside 
 shield of corn stalks or hay and litter is also effective. 
 
6 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Costly material is not needed for the poultry house. 
 Often a discarded barn or other building can be bought 
 cheap and the sound lumber used again. Others on 
 farms can work up home grown timber. For city 
 poulterers, large packing boxes bought at dry goods 
 stores are a cheap source of lumber. Sometimes old 
 street cars have been bought for a trifle and remodeled. 
 Serviceable houses have been made from staves of old 
 barrels as an outside covering. Old strips of carpet, 
 oilcloth, wall paper or building paper may be utilized 
 to some extent as mside protection. 
 
 A coat of home-mixed paint improves the durabil- 
 ity and appearance of a house enough to pay for its cost. 
 Whitewash is much better than nothing, and will add 
 years to the life of second-hand lumber. 
 
 Shingles properly applied to a roof of fairly steep 
 pitch are the best and warmest roofing, but a strip of 
 building paper should be laid beneath to keep out cur- 
 rents of cold air which work in between the shingles. 
 Tin or iron is sometimes cheaper than wood, and for 
 temporary structures, felting paper with a coat of paint 
 will last about two years. An advantage of sheet mate- 
 rials for roofing is that a steep pitch is not needed to 
 carry off the water, but such materials are cold in 
 winter and hard to repair when damaged. 
 
 Glass in Cold }Vcathcr Amateur builders com- 
 monly use too much glass, which makes a house un- 
 naturally warm on sunny days, but extremely and 
 dangerously cold by night and on stormy days. One 
 window not over three feet square and about eighteen 
 inches above the floor to each ten feet of house length 
 is enough. Warmth is much increased by a shutter or 
 curtain for night. Windows should be arranged to 
 slide to oii side or be easily taken out during hot 
 weather. 
 
LOCATION AND METHODS 
 
 Double windows are sometimes used, but these are 
 expensive, somewhat of a bother to put on and hard to 
 keep clean. 
 
 The cut, Figure 3, shows a single sash, double 
 glazed, which a poultryman has recently described. 
 The sash is made so that the glass can be set on both 
 sides of the wooden bars, leaving a half inch or more 
 of space between. This gives a double window and 
 the cost is said to be not more than twenty-five cents 
 extra per sash for the glass and the labor of setting. 
 Those who are providing windows for new or re- 
 
 FIG 3 : SASH WITH DOUBLE GLASS 
 
 modeled poultry houses will do well to experiment with 
 this plan. The glazing must be tight and carefully done 
 to keep out all dirt and dust from the inner surfaces 
 of the glass. Figure 4 shows a window partly 
 double, making a convenient arrangement for ventilat- 
 ing without draft, and securing greater warmth at 
 night and on cloudy days. 
 
 Roosts, Nests, Troughs, Fountains, etc, will not be 
 treated at length in this volume. Roosts should be all 
 
8 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 on a level, should be about two inches thick, rounded 
 on the upper side, not over two feet from the floor, and 
 removable. 
 
 Troughs and Drinking Places should be protected 
 by slats. Nests should be numerous, secluded and 
 easily removed. Beware of too complicated inside 
 arrangements when large numbers of fowls are kept 
 for profit. Successful large farms are nearly always 
 
 FIG 4: WINDOW FOR COLD WEATHER 
 
 conducted on very simple plans, but with emphasis 
 placed on the main needs of the fowls. 
 
 Notes Dryness and warmth are the two main 
 essentials in most climates. 
 
 Everything inside should be removable, also 
 doors and windows. 
 
 The house should be made tight enough feo hold 
 smoke when fumigated. 
 
LOCATION AND METHODS <j 
 
 Cost ranges from twenty-five cents to five dollars 
 per fowl. A reasonably good business house may be 
 built at one dollar per head. 
 
 When building an all-around house, provide for 
 summer as well as for winter. 
 
 Rather than extend beyond seventy-five feet, better 
 start a new building. 
 
 Study actual needs of fowls rather than comfort 
 of the attendant. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LOW-COST HOUSES 
 
 Buildings fairly comfortable and lasting can be 
 erected at fifty cents to one dollar per fowl. Where 
 old material is used, very little money need be paid out. 
 The plans of the low-cost structures are so simple that 
 almost anyone may do the work. Some of them can 
 be made for about one dollar per running foot, includ- 
 ing labor. The number of fowls accommodated by any 
 house varies with the breed, the climate, the size of 
 
 FIG 5 I HOUSE FOR MILD CLIMATES 
 
 outside run, and the care given. Expert poultry men 
 can obtain good results from crowded pens. For aver- 
 age conditions allow ten to twenty square feet of floor 
 surface per fowl. 
 
 In regions where the snow does not cover the 
 ground too deeply, a cheap, low structure can be built 
 after the plan shown in Figure 5, that will answer the 
 purpose very well. Stakes are driven into the ground 
 
LOW-COST HOUSES II 
 
 and rough boards nailed to these to a hight of three 
 feet in front and two feet in the rear, leaving spaces 
 for low, wide sash in front. A long and a short roof 
 is put on, with roof doors in the front, short roof. 
 These are made with overlapping edges to secure tight- 
 ness against the wind and rain. The attendant stands 
 outside and through these roof doors cares for the 
 fowls, securing the eggs from nests that are within 
 reach, putting in water and scattering grain in the 
 litter. The whole structure is covered with tarred or 
 resin-sized paper, the edges being securely tacked or 
 battened with laths. The roof is covered in the 
 same way. 
 
 Select a dry location, and put in three inches of 
 gravel upon the ground and keep a thick layer of chaff 
 upon that, and the inmates will scratch away merrily 
 for grain all winter long. Make the building any 
 length desired and part off with boards or with net- 
 ting if only females are to be kept in the pens before 
 the roof is put on. Roosts can be put up just out of 
 the fowls' way when on the floor. With care to make 
 the roof tight, such a building, while it costs but little, 
 will prove very satisfactory. 
 
 This Low Cost Building, designed by G. R. France, 
 Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, for about twenty-five 
 hens, could also be built in duplicate with the main 
 alley running the whole length of the connected build- 
 ings and in front of the different sections, about 
 twenty-five hens to be kept in each. (Figure 6.) 
 
 It is intended to be built of rough hemlock, the 
 price of which is based at ten dollars per thousand 
 feet. It could be made of mill slabs doubled, with a 
 space between, packed with straw and battened with 
 slabs. The ground space is filled up with loose stone 
 thrown in until on a level with the bottom of the sills, 
 and then dirt is spread over the stone and tamped down 
 
12 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 hard. This filling is cheap and the stone allows the 
 moisture to go through, and the dirt floor is always 
 dry. However, if a board floor is wanted, add one 
 hundred and sixty-eight feet of matched hemlock 
 flooring at fifteen dollars per thousand feet. For a 
 partition, in place of netting use straight poles from 
 the forest, for cheapness. Mr France had the sash, and 
 battened his roof with slabs, but still was very careful 
 to make it warm, and it cost him only about four 
 dollars for material. 
 
 Below is an itemized list of lumber and other sup- 
 plies : Two hundred and sixty feet of ten-foot inch 
 
 FIG 6: HOUSE OF MR FRANCE 
 
 boards for siding (must not be cut to waste) ; two hun- 
 dred and thirty-one feet of fourteen-foot boards for 
 roof and nests; one hundred feet battens three inches 
 by ten feet ; two pieces two by six inches by fourteen 
 feet, and two pieces two by six inches by twelve feet for 
 sills ; eight pieces two by four inches by fourteen feet 
 for plates and cross-beams ; four pieces one by six 
 inches by twelve feet for window casing; two squares 
 of felt roofing at one dollar and fifty cents per square, 
 including nails for same ; one roll building paper, five 
 hundred square feet, sixty cents ; netting six by sixteen 
 feet, seventy cents ; ten pounds nails, thirty cents ; two 
 pairs strap hinges, thirty cents ; four half sash, two dol- 
 
LOW -COST HOUSES 13 
 
 lars and fifty cents. Total cost of lumber and supplies, 
 fourteen dollars and forty-five cents. Waste material 
 can be used where there is some on hand. The labor 
 would occupy a carpenter with one man to help about 
 two days. 
 
 Convenient House Figure 7 shows the front ele- 
 vation and end view of a poultry house that has some 
 good points. The arrangement of the roosts, / / 
 (which are made movable to facilitate cleaning away 
 the droppings), on a stand in the middle of the room, 
 makes it convenient to get at them. The door in front 
 of the nests, g, swings up so as to gather the eggs, the 
 
 FIC, 7 : CONVENIENT HOUSE. END VIEW AND FRONT 
 ELEVATION 
 
 hens entering at the rear ; h is the ventilator, which 
 is opened and shut by a weight and cord ; this system 
 of ventilation is defective. As has been frequently ex- 
 plained, the proper way to ventilate a poultry house 
 is by means of a shaft running from within a few 
 inches of the floor to several feet above the roof. Thus 
 a draft is created that draws up the cold air and bad 
 odors from near the ground, while the warm air at the 
 top is thus brought down and the fowls are kept much 
 warmer than would be the case if a hole in the roof 
 let out all the warm air. The space underneath the 
 nests, marked e, can be utilized for sitters or for 
 storage. 
 
14 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Cheap and Saves Labor The accompanying 
 illustrations, Figures 8 and 9, show a very handy and 
 convenient henhouse. It is located near the kitchen and 
 is so cleanly that the women of the house can run in 
 and out after eggs or for feeding purposes. It is built 
 
 FIG 8l CHEAP AND LABOR-SAVING. CROSS SECTION 
 
 of matched siding, running up and down, and the roof 
 is of the same material, with tarred paper on the 
 inside. All the inside fixtures are movable, and 
 monthly during the warm weather everything is taken 
 
 ^ 
 
 * 
 
 _*feU-_. 
 
 1-f J 
 
 
 ( 
 
 
 __A 
 
 f 
 
 * * 
 
 y* 
 
 FIG 9: CHEAP AND LABOR-SAVING. GROUND FLOOR 
 
 out and the whole inside, including the roof, is given 
 a shower bath of lime water and carbolic acid, applied 
 with a spray pump. The roost poles are covered \vith 
 
LOW -COST HOUSES 15 
 
 cloth, which is occasionally saturated with kerosene. 
 Near the right, as seen in the diagram, Figure 8, is the 
 entrance door, and a is a bin four feet high and eighteen 
 inches wide, running the whole length of the building, 
 with a hinged lid, for storing droppings. Above this 
 box is a shelf, b, for holding feed, shells, gravel, etc. 
 At the left of the door is a tight platform, c, one foot 
 beneath the roost poles, c, for catching the droppings. 
 At d is a hinged door opening on a level with the plat- 
 form, through which the droppings are shoveled once a 
 week into bin a. The nest boxes, f, are one foot square 
 and fifteen inches high, leaving an eight-inch passage 
 for the hens to enter the nests ; a small crack is left 
 at the top in the back, so that the light strikes the eight- 
 inch alley, but not the boxes. Each nest is a separate 
 box, and when a hen becomes broody the nest box is 
 pulled forward close to the drop door, thus shutting up 
 the alley and locking biddy on her nest. As the nests 
 are all alike, it makes no difference which nest she 
 chooses to brood in it can be moved to the end and 
 thus does not obstruct the passage. About two inches of 
 moist sand are put into the bottom of each nest before 
 the hen is set; the straw nest is built thereon and the 
 eggs are given her. The door, g, is then shut down. 
 Every morning the hatching hens are let out for fifteen 
 minutes to eat, drink, wallow, etc, after which they 
 will usually take their own nests ; if not, they can be 
 easily changed. The eggs can be gathered through 
 the door, g. 
 
 At /, under the nest boxes, is a long trough with 
 partitions for soft feed, water, milk, etc, running the 
 whole length of the building. The space between this 
 trough and d in Figure 9 is slatted up with common 
 lath, running from the front side of the nests to the 
 back side of the trough, thus leaving the trough in the 
 alley where the fowls cannot get into it the lath being 
 
[6 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 far enough apart to allow the fowls easy access to the 
 feed. The lath are nailed to narrow strips at top and 
 bottom, to be movable. At / is a dust bath the whole 
 length of the building in front of the windows, which 
 face the south. 
 
 In Figure 9, at s, is an oil stove which is used when 
 the temperature gets too low. At m m are ventilators 
 with slides to gauge them. The doors, h h, are for 
 access to dust baths, etc, and n n are windows. Each 
 of the two apartments will accommodate twenty-five 
 fowls. 
 
 FIG IOI HANDY HENNERY 
 
 A Handy Hennery The chief objection to a two- 
 story henhouse is the inconvenience of going upstairs, 
 carrying up earth and cleaning out the upper story. 
 But all the annoyances are obviated in the hennery 
 shown, Figure 10, and twice the amount of space is 
 secured which the same amount of roof usually covers. 
 This was built at a cost of ten dollars for carpenter's 
 work and twenty-eight dollars more for the total cost 
 of sash, nails, lumber, etc. As the perspective shows, 
 the bank wall and digging required some labor. The 
 cut shows the south and west sides of the house. It is 
 
LOW-COST HOUSES IJ 
 
 fourteen by sixteen feet and is an unusually warm 
 structure considering the fact that it is not lined. The 
 estimate does not include some old lumber which made 
 the roof boards. The roofing is not included. The 
 south slope to the roof is shingled. This covers but 
 one-third the area, and two bundles of shingles are 
 sufficient. Board floors are used only in the second 
 story. On the ground floor the earth is filled in to the 
 top of the stone underpinning. It remains perfectly 
 dry in the wettest weather and is much more satis- 
 factory than board or cement could possibly be. The 
 building has a window both above and below on the 
 east side. 
 
 The sills are four by six inches, two being fourteen 
 feet and two sixteen feet long. The corner posts are 
 four by four inches by twelve feet long, another stick 
 four by four inches and ten feet long, four joists three 
 by four inches and sixteen feet long, two more* of the 
 same only fourteen feet long, nine joists for the floor 
 two by five inches and fourteen feet long, eight rafters 
 two by four inches and twelve feet long, eight more 
 of the same only seven feet long. This made in round 
 numbers four hundred and fifty feet, and five hundred 
 and fifty feet more of Georgia pine planed on one side 
 and sixteen feet long was bought at a cost of sixteen 
 dollars per thousand. Also two bundles of shingles 
 at one dollar per bundle and ten sashes at forty cents 
 each, second hand. The frame timber cost eighteen 
 dollars per thousand feet. Twenty pounds of eight- 
 penny nails and ten pounds of tens were bought for 
 seventy-five cents, five pounds of spikes twenty-five 
 cents, the same weight of six-inch spikes twenty-five 
 cents, seven pounds of wire nails thirty-five cents, four 
 pairs of hinges thirty-two cents and two door handles 
 for thirty-five cents. The front of the structure is made 
 of pine which cost seventeen dollars per thousand. 
 
 9 
 
1 8 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Only one Hundred and seventy feet were used, costing 
 three dollars. The pine was got at this low price, being 
 a cheap lot, with here and there narrow seams of 
 decayed wood. These places were soaked with hot lin- 
 seed oil as soon as the house was completed, which 
 will stop all further decay. A little putty will fill all 
 the seams and paint will hide everything. No window 
 frames were used, the sash being put just behind the 
 siding and arranged to slide sidewise. 
 
 The partitions run north and south upstairs and 
 down. A three-foot hall extends along the north side 
 of the exposed upper story, thus adding to its warmth. 
 From this hall doors open into both apartments. The 
 partitions running north and south are made of mov- 
 able poultry hurdles that can be used out of doors in 
 summer if desired. The hens like these deep rooms, 
 they are so cool in summer, and afford dark retreats at 
 the rear for skulking away to lay. Screens have been 
 put up downstairs to increase the darkness at the back. 
 The house is not an unsightly one, as many poultry 
 houses are. It is to be painted light drab, with white 
 about the doors and windows to represent frames. A 
 quantity of pieces of boards from three to five feet long- 
 were left after cutting the sixteen-foot boards. These 
 came in handy for flooring, screens, nest boxes, etc. 
 
 A House for Layers It is sometimes better to 
 have a number of small houses suitable for laying 
 rather than have roosting, feeding and laying accom- 
 modations combined under one roof, as is so often the 
 case. Hens soon learn where the comforts for laying 
 are to be found and seek them, giving better attention 
 to what duties they have to perform in this respect 
 than they do under other surroundings. The illustra- 
 tion, Figure n, shows a cheaply constructed laying 
 house, to be built any size the builder wishes to make it. 
 It is made against the wall of another building with a 
 
LOW-COST HOUSES HJ 
 
 southern aspect or shelter. This acts to advantage to 
 the laying quarters, keeping it free from the severe 
 cutting winds and snow of winter and damp rains of 
 spring time. Nothing but nesting compartments are 
 within the building and the hens know what is to be 
 expected of them upon entering. The entrance for the 
 hens is, as will be noticed, at the end of the building. 
 In cold weather it shuts out the cold that leaving a 
 larger opening would involve. At night a board on the 
 
 FIG II : HOUSE FOR LAYERS 
 
 inside should shut up the inclosure to keep the build- 
 ing warm. 
 
 A Ten-Dollar Henhouse This coop, Figure 12, 
 costs ten dollars and is large enough for a dozen fowls. 
 The coops are built seven by ten feet of boards costing- 
 six dollars per thousand. From ground to eaves 
 the distance or the length of the boards is two and a 
 half feet. The roof boards are five feet long and are 
 covered with tarred paper. The doorway in front on 
 
20 
 
 I'O U LTK V ARC H ITECT URE 
 
 the south side is twenty inches wide by five feet high. 
 This kind of coop does first rate for summer and fairly 
 well for winter use. 
 
 The House and Shed shown in the illustration, 
 Figure 13, can be made for sixteen to twenty dollars, 
 and will answer for a flock of thirty fowls of average 
 size. If more fowls are kept, not over thirty should 
 be housed together, but by uniting two or more of these 
 small houses end to end, with continuous walls and 
 roof, the accommodations can be increased to any ex- 
 tent desired. The building is sixteen feet long and 
 ten feet wide, and is similar to the houses used by 
 
 FIG 12: TEN-DOLLAR HENHOUSE 
 
 Buffinton, Hunter, Shoemaker and other practical poul- 
 trymen. Half the space is occupied by an open scratch- 
 ing shed, which should have a curtain of oiled cotton 
 cloth in front for stormy weather. Figure 14 shows 
 the interior plan, which needs little explanation. A 
 board to catch droppings is placed under the roosts, 
 and the nest boxes are often kept under the dropping 
 board, for seclusion and economy of space. By making 
 the building higher a passageway for the attendant 
 can be partitioned off at the rear. This arrangement 
 is convenient where these buildings are joined in a 
 long series. 
 
LOW-COST HOUSES 
 
 21 
 
 A small henhouse furnishes no space for exercise, 
 and a large room is too cold during winter nights. The 
 best combination is a small, snug, one-windowed room 
 for laying and roosting, having attached a large, cheap, 
 light shed, the latter, according to location, open south 
 or entirely closed, containing several windows. 
 
 FIG 13: HOUSE AND SHED 
 
 FIG .14: INTERIOR OF HOUSE WITH SHED 
 
 Scratching sheds with closed front should have a 
 large, wide door which can be thrown open in mild 
 weather, the hens being confined by an inner door of 
 netting. When several of these houses are joined, they 
 should be built roosting pens joining and scratching 
 sheds joining alternately, thus reducing cost and mak- 
 ing roosting oens warmer. The ^ous^ reciuires about 
 
22 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 one thousand square feet of sheathing, besides the 
 frame lumber, roofing sheet or shingles, etc. The floor 
 of both parts should be covered with litter. Extra pro- 
 tection for large combed breeds is afforded by boxing 
 in the roosts. 
 
 Economical Small House The cut, Figure 15, 
 shows the construction and advantages of this house. 
 The space beneath has a dirt floor, and gives the hens 
 
 FIG 15: A SMALL HOUSE 
 
 out-of-door air in winter and a cool scratching place in 
 summer. It can be cleaned out with an iron rake by re- 
 moving the wire netting. Made of matched boarding 
 with building paper beneath, such houses are very in- 
 expensive and will serve admirably for use with the col- 
 ony plan of keeping fowls. A number of such houses 
 can be scattered about the pastures, allowing large 
 flocks to be kept. This house can be built of any size 
 
LOW-COST HOUSES 2$ 
 
 desired, but eight by ten to eight by twelve feet will be 
 found a very handy size and will accommodate from 
 twenty to thirty fowls. 
 
 A Cornstalk Shelter can be made quickly and 
 cheaply for the hens. The hens are very fond of a low, 
 open shed facing the south, and one can be built of 
 stalks that will last two or three years or longer. 
 Drive a few posts in the ground and wire some rails 
 against and on top of them. Lean the stalks against 
 these and lay them thickly on top for the roof, which 
 should have a steep slant. Cover the roof with a few 
 inches of straw and lay a few stalks on top to keep it 
 in place, which will make it waterproof. In the spring 
 the stalks may be taken down and thrown in the barn- 
 yard if no longer needed. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 
 
 For certain sections of the country where there is 
 but little snow in winter, the poultry house shown in 
 the cut, Figure 16, will be found a most practical affair. 
 It is built something like a chicken coop, but much 
 wider, and can be carried to any length desired, accord- 
 ing as one, two or a dozen flocks are to be given accom- 
 modations. 
 
 FIG l6: COLONY HOUSE FOR MILD CLIMATES 
 
 The interior of each pen is reached from the hinged 
 door in the roof. From this the house can be cleaned 
 out, new litter added, eggs collected and the fowls fed 
 in unpleasant weather. At all other times they are fed 
 in the yards. The hinged doors in the roof are in 
 perspective in the picture, and do not show their full 
 width. Of course, they can be made as wide as one 
 may wish. Make the whole roof of well-seasoned lum- 
 
BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 2$ 
 
 ber, and paint it well. Under each edge of the hinged 
 doors make a deep groove running down the roof to 
 the eaves. This will keep rain from beating in under 
 the doors. Small windows open out from the side 
 toward the yards. 
 
 In some circumstances small detached houses can 
 be made after this pattern and located far enough apart 
 so that the hens can be divided into small flocks but 
 given free range over a pasture or other rough land, 
 each flock learning to know its own home, and going to 
 it to lay, eat and roost. Even in far northern latitudes 
 where snow lies deep in winter, such a plan could be 
 used for the summer colonizing of fowls, the flocks 
 being brought into winter quarters at the approach of 
 winter. 
 
 A Business Poultry House, designed and used in 
 large numbers by H. H. Stoddard, Nebraska, is well 
 adapted for use in the colony system, whereby the 
 houses are placed about ten rods apart in large fields 
 and the fowls given free range. Mr Stoddard put the 
 cost at not above forty cents per fowl for materials. It 
 is fifteen by eight and a half feet and four and a half 
 feet high, with roosting accommodations for fifty fowls. 
 The house is shown in Figure 17. 
 
 The part of the roof on the south side at a a a, 
 and nearly all on the north, consists of hinged doors 
 opening to the right or left, and overlapping when 
 closed, to shed rain. When it is desired to whitewash, 
 throw open all the doors, thus turning the house inside 
 out, take out the perches and nests, all built movable, 
 and there will be no nook or cranny of the woodwork 
 that the brush cannot be made to reach with ease, and 
 no lack of elbow room. This arrangement of doors 
 makes it convenient also to catch fowls upon the 
 perches by night. The doors should shut as snugly as 
 may be in coarse joiner work, and the cracks unavoid- 
 
26 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 ably left around them will afford all the ventilation 
 needed in winter, while in summer they may be opened 
 more or less widely, according to the weather. When 
 it is warm, yet wet, they may be partly opened and 
 propped up, and a board put across their edges to shed 
 rain. It is very desirable, under any plan for henneries, 
 to build so that while moderately tight in winter, they 
 may be thrown open on every side in hot weather; 
 for fowls are warmly clad, and suffer much from the 
 heat when in buildings made, as is too frequently the 
 case, only with reference to the cold. The doors which 
 form the north roof project six inches at the ridge to 
 keep out rain, as there is no ridge-cap. The two win- 
 
 FIG 17: H. K. STODDARD'S COLONY HOUSE 
 
 dows in the south roof are glazed greenhouse fashion, 
 that is, with overlapping panes, that snow may slide 
 from them readily as soon as loosened by the warmth 
 inside. They are two feet high and three feet wide, 
 and set eighteen inches from the peak of the roof. A 
 strip of tin is fastened over the upper part of the sash, 
 and the sides and bottom bf the sash overlap the roof, 
 to be rain-proof. The shutters, b B, used to darken 
 the building on certain necessary occasions, elsewhere 
 referred to, are hinged to the lower part of the sash, 
 and when opened, as in the illustration, rest upon the 
 roof below the windows. The side sills project at both 
 
BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 27 
 
 ends of the building, are beveled runner fashion, and 
 strengthened with iron where holes are bored to attach 
 chains ; thus it may be drawn by either end. The sills, 
 which receive the principal strain during moving, 
 should be so well braced as to keep the whole building 
 in shape. The end sills, of two-inch plank, should be 
 spiked upon the top of the others, flatwise, so as not 
 to touch the ground while moving, and the side sills, 
 four inches square, should be of chestnut or oak, to be 
 as durable as possible, for they rest on the ground dur- 
 ing a good part of the year. The spruce rafters, two 
 by three inches, which answer for studs and rafters 
 both, should be set at such distances apart as will 
 correspond with the width of the doors and windows 
 which are fastened to them. A stout ridgepole, sawn 
 of a triangular shape, runs the length of the building 
 underneath the rafters, and two sticks are fastened to 
 this ridgepole, one five feet from each end, and braced 
 upon the center of the end sills to give firmness, for 
 the covering, consisting chiefly of doors, does not 
 strengthen the building, as in ordinary cases, where 
 the covering is nailed to the frame. C C are doors, each 
 three feet by one foot, opening outward and downward, 
 to give the keeper access to the nests, which are one 
 foot square and the same in depth, and so contrived 
 that the hens enter them at one end from a passage six 
 inches wide and one foot high, boarded at side and top, 
 running the length of the row of nests, and are thus 
 indulged in their liking for privacy while laying. The 
 nests are tight upon the top, the outside door should fit 
 closely, and the opening admitting the fowls to the 
 passage be made so small that the nests will be rather 
 dark. It is found that when nests are open to view 
 from the main apartment, hens will, in stormy weather, 
 for lack of other employment, sometimes enter them to 
 scratch for food, and thus by chance break eggs and 
 
28 POL" LTRY A RC II 1TECT f RE 
 
 learn to eat them, and acquire the habit of pecking at 
 and devouring eggs as fast as laid. But a darkened 
 nest will deter them from entering, except to lay, for 
 which purpose they prefer a low, dark corner. There 
 is a row of six nests running across the building at each 
 end, making twelve, which will be sufficient, as it will 
 not happen that more than that number out of a flock 
 will need them at once. The passages are made so that 
 they may be taken out with the nests for whitewash- 
 ing. The end sills, of plank eighteen inches wide, serve 
 as a tight floor for the nests and passage. The perches, 
 two in number, are eighteen inches apart and each is 
 eighteen inches from the roof and two feet higher than 
 the sills. Perches should be of two and a half by three 
 and a half inch saw r ed stuff, the widest part up, with the 
 upper corners rounded off a verv little. When fowls 
 not fully grown roost upon narrow perches, their 
 breastbones sometimes become deformed. From four 
 to five average sized fowls will occupy two feet of 
 perch. The perches, being each t\velve feet long, will 
 accommodate a flock of fifty, and are to be placed so 
 as not to extend over the part occupied by the nests. 
 The drinking vessel stands upon one of the platforms 
 formed by the nests, and upon these platforms are also 
 shallow boxes containing gravel, pounded charcoal, 
 and a mixture of loam, sand and oyster-shell lime, 
 made into an easily crumbled mortar. The boxes are 
 ten inches wide, and, being placed next the end wall, 
 leave a space eight inches wide upon the platform for 
 the fowls to stand upon. The drinking pail and gravel 
 boxes are protected by their elevation from the dirt 
 that would otherwise be thrown into them by the fowls 
 when scratching and dusting, and are fronted by slats 
 with openings six by two and three-fourths inches be- 
 tween them. An opening is made in the end wall over 
 the pail that is just large enough to admit the spout 
 
BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 2() 
 
 of a large watering- pot without the sprinkler, to afford 
 the most convenient arrangement for watering. The 
 door, d, one foot wide, opening downward, is for re- 
 moving the pail and gravel boxes when desired, and 
 when fastened ajar will he found more convenient for 
 ventilation than the roof doors, when the weather is 
 only moderately warm. Both ends of the building alike 
 are furnished with doors. 
 
 During the severest weather, generally about three 
 or three and a half months of the year, this building 
 does not stand with sills upon the ground, but for 
 winter it rests, as in the figure, upon the edges of a 
 box or bin of dimensions corresponding with the cen- 
 ter of the sills of the building, made of planks nine 
 inches wide and two thick, like a mortar bed with no 
 bottom, filled with dry earth. This should be set upon 
 ridges thrown up by the plow. 
 
 During the winter a low structure six feet wide 
 and twelve long, and one and a half high on one side 
 and three and a half on the other, seen at the left in 
 the illustration, serves the purpose of a feeding room, 
 and the rest of the year is used as a shelter for chickens. 
 Its winter location is about four feet from the larger 
 building, e e e e represent doors which overlap each 
 other to shed rain, and when closed rest upon the 
 highest or north wall, and open upward and to the 
 south, resting upon a rail attached to posts set in the 
 ground. In each door is a window three feet square, 
 glazed, as are all the windows in the various fowl 
 houses, greenhouse style. 
 
 This feed house is movable, being furnished with 
 planks set edgewise, with runner-shaped ends for side 
 sills. Inside a feed box, slatted on both sides, rests on 
 cleats attached to the end walls, twenty inches from the 
 north wall, and near the top of the room, so that dirt 
 cannot be scratched into it. It has a shelf seven inches 
 
30 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 wide on both sides in front of the slats, on which the 
 birds stand while feeding, and contains a trough made 
 by nailing boards three inches wide to each edge of a 
 board five inches wide. A door, f, in one end of the 
 feed room, large enough to admit a fowl, communicates 
 with a similar door, G, in the south side of the main 
 building by a movable covered passage five and a 
 half feet long, one and one-fourth high and one wide, 
 it being like a box with a lid and but one end, and with 
 an opening on one side. This passage is not shown in 
 the illustration. 
 
 FIG l8l NORTHERN COLONY HOUSE 
 
 Northern Colony Houses Farmers in the north 
 who raise poultry extensively usually have started with 
 but little capital, and have tried to build the cheapest 
 possible house that would afford enough shelter to 
 secure winter eggs in a severe climate. A typical house 
 of this kind is shown herewith, Figure 18, depicting the 
 style in use on a colony poultry farm in New Hamp- 
 shire. Other farms in the state use a house of same 
 style but shorter and therefore cheaper. 
 
 A number of these houses are arranged in two 
 rows at opposite sides of a ten-acre lot. 
 
 Each house in the row is several rods from its 
 nearest neighbor. All of the houses are accessible by 
 
BUILDINGS FOR COLONY SYSTEM 3! 
 
 means of a team, which is employed to transport sup- 
 plies. No fencing" is used except for a few flocks, 
 during the breeding season. The houses, which, by the 
 way, have been liberally copied by the whole neighbor- 
 hood, are A-shaped, fifteen by sixteen feet, the narrow 
 side to the front. The seven two by four rafters are 
 eleven feet long, and are nailed at the bottom directly 
 onto the sills, which are four by four and raised a foot 
 or so above the ground on stones. The roof is double, 
 sloping east and west, and is covered first with rough 
 hemlock boards, over which are laid two thicknesses of 
 tarred paper, well battened down, and finally a liberal 
 coat of coal tar over all. The ends of the houses are 
 made in different ways, and some are boarded and 
 shingled, others battened only. Still others are treated 
 like the roof. In the south end on the right side is a 
 door swinging outward, which is left open every day 
 unless the weather is very stormy. A slat door inside 
 is found useful to keep the hens from going out in 
 inclement weather. At the left of the door is the only 
 window in the hous.e. It consists of two sashes of ordi- 
 nary size, which are screwed fast in their places and 
 never opened. For ventilation a hole six to eight 
 inches square is cut high up in each gable. During 
 summer both of these are left open, while in winter 
 the back one only is closed. The soil being naturally 
 rather light, no special preparation for floors is re- 
 quired, further than to fill up each house with sand to 
 about the top of the sills. The roost platforms are in 
 the back side about four feet from the ground, and 
 are four feet wide. The roosts,, three or four in num- 
 ber, are about one foot above the platforms, which 
 latter are cleaned weekly, and the roosts as often 
 smeared with kerosene. Cheese boxes for nests are 
 placed on a platform at the left as one enters. 
 
32 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 All the chicks are hen hatched in nests at the 
 right of the door, each of which is shut off by itself 
 by means of slat divisions and a door which is sus- 
 pended from the roof. Whenever a hen wants to sit, 
 she is moved, nest, box and all, into one of these divi- 
 sions and given her eggs if she means business. The 
 chicks are all raised in brooders. From thirty to 
 forty fowls occupy one of these houses. 
 
 f Ylf / ,,.,ff .^.sff^^Uti'l- 
 
 FIG IQ I RHODE ISLAND COLONY HOUSE 
 
 Rhode Island Colony Houses In some towns of 
 southern Rhode Island poultry farming is the main 
 industry. The farmers keep from two hundred to five 
 thousand chickens, with smaller numbers of ducks and 
 geese, and depend on them for a living. With care and 
 industry a profit of one to two dollars per fowl is 
 counted on each year. The soil is heavy clay and very 
 wet after rain, but the fowls, having free range, keep 
 
nriLDixr.s FOR COLONY SYSTEM 33 
 
 in good health. In fact the heavy, rich soil is often 
 mentioned by the owners as a main factor of success, 
 because of the good hen pasturage it supplies. 
 
 About two hundred and fifty fowls are assigned 
 to the acre. The houses, Figure 19, are of the simplest 
 plan possible, built of rough hemlock boards and hav- 
 ing a small window in front, and very simple arrange 
 ment inside. The cost cannot be over twenty dollars 
 per house and may be made considerably less. Some 
 of the houses have a double roof, others are single and 
 made of rough, unmatched hemlock lumber. The roof is 
 of plain boards not shingled, and no roofing or batting 
 paper is used unless as an experiment. Air Wilbour, 
 however, one of the most extensive growers, writes : 
 "We have found it more economical to shingle the 
 roofs. We are also careful to batten the cracks, so that 
 no direct draft can come upon the fowls. The average 
 cost is sixteen to twenty dollars per house complete. 
 We have demonstrated that an inexpensive attachment, 
 to serve as a scratching shed, is a good investment. 
 As to warmth, direct drafts are always to be avoided, 
 but we have never suffered from low temperatures. 
 We use tarred paper sometimes inside, which is clean 
 and healthy, but we never have been able to discover 
 specially favorable or improved results." 
 
 The cheapest style is considered the most profita- 
 ble. Built in this style there is no need of providing 
 for ventilation, as the air is admitted through numerous 
 cracks between the boards. The fowls are outside 
 almost every day in the year, as there is very little 
 snow. In summer, fresh salt breezes keep the air cool 
 and the fowls are vigorous and active the year around. 
 Kept in such large numbers, the laying poultry docs 
 not reach the high average production found in some 
 small flocks. Probably one hundred to one hundred 
 and twenty per hen would cover the average annual 
 
34 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 production of the southern Rhode Island hen. But 
 this rate of product is found quite profitable because of 
 the small expense for buildings, labor and feed. On 
 account of the lack of railroad transportation, grain 
 costs more than elsewhere, but the addition of this is 
 not serious. 
 
 It might be supposed that the various flocks, hav- 
 ing no fences between, would become hopelessly mixed 
 at feeding time. But such is not the case, after the 
 birds have learned their home by being shut into it for 
 a few days. Mr Wilbour says : "We have no trouble in 
 feeding, with a horse and man driving from one 
 poultry house to another. If the hens do mix up a 
 little they separate at once and return to their respec- 
 tive houses. Except our breeding flocks we keep no 
 males with our hens upon the theory that infertile eggs 
 keep best.'' 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 When properly managed, poultry is one of the 
 most profitable products of the farm. With a few in- 
 expensive, conveniently arranged buildings and yards 
 one person can annually raise five hundred to eight 
 hundred chicks without much difficulty, and the loss 
 need not exceed two per cent. Here is a sketch and 
 description of such an outfit. The plan and description 
 is by Fred Grundy, Christian county, Illinois, and was 
 awarded first prize in a poultry descriptive contest by 
 publishers of American Agriculturist in 1900. 
 
 The two yards, Figure 20, are one hundred and 
 fifty feet long. Number I is for the hens and is 
 thirty-two feet wide. Fence is four-foot netting, two- 
 inch mesh, with six-inch board at bottom. Number 
 2 is for chicks and is sixteen feet wide. Fence same 
 as Number i, except that there is twelve-inch board 
 at bottom to keep chicks in. Some prefer twelve-inch 
 netting, one-inch mesh, at bottom. Either will do. 
 Each yard has a five-foot gate next to the house to 
 admit horse and plow. Cherry or other fruit trees are 
 set near together at lower end of yards and partly 
 along sides, outside the fence, and one apple tree at 
 front corners of house. Both yards are plowed early 
 in spring, Number i heavily seeded with millet, Num- 
 ber 2 with rape. Plow Number i again in October 
 and sow rye. 
 
 At north or west end of yards is house, eight feet 
 high in front, six and a half at back, ten and a half feet 
 
Ft 41, 
 
 32 x/S(T 
 
 FIG 20: CRUNDY'S POULTRY HOUSE AND YARD 
 
IIOMKS FOR FARM I'OTLTRY J7 
 
 wide. Plain barn siding' battened, interior lined with 
 two-ply tarred sheathing and roof covered with three- 
 ply tarred roofing felt. This makes it wind and rain 
 proof. Floors are earth raised a few inches. House 
 is painted and looks neat. The building is divided as 
 follows : a is an open scratching shed sixteen feet long ; 
 front is boarded down three feet from top. b is hen- 
 house with door at each end. Perches are eighteen 
 inches high, hinged to back wall, and supported in 
 front and center by legs which stand on the Moor. 
 They can be raised out of the way and hung to the 
 ceiling when the floor is swept. There is a double 
 row of nests, twelve by twelve inches, one above the 
 other, separate from the house and can be moved about 
 or taken out for cleaning, c is chick house, sixteen 
 feet long, door at each end. There is a row of coops, 
 fourteen by twenty-four, at back for hens with chicks. 
 The partitions between the coops are loose and can 
 be drawn out so the hen can be passed along when a 
 coop needs cleaning. The floor of the coop is a single 
 inch-thick piece and lies loose on three inches of gravel 
 or coal ashes. Front is fitted with a sliding door made 
 of inch-mesh netting attached to a wood frame. 
 
 Fanners Poultry House A Massachusetts poul- 
 tryman, W. H. Wells, has built a house, Figure 21, 
 which he finds successful and which he made at low 
 cost by using odds and ends of lumber about the 
 farm. .It is located on a natural ridge where drainage 
 is good in all directions. To quote from Mr Wells's 
 directions : 
 
 "The illustration shows a farmers' poultry house 
 outside, with plan of roosts shown in lower corner 
 and dimensions in feet and inches. Also frame of 
 house, a, foundation stone; b, frame and rafters; c, 
 boarding paper under shingles ; d } window partly open 
 for ventilation. 
 
38 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 "Dig two parallel ditches fourteen and a half feet 
 apart, measuring from outsides, and each eighteen 
 feet hy twelve inches. Fill them with cobblestones. 
 Place flat stones on a bed of cobbles every six feet, with 
 their faces inclined toward each other. These are 
 within the ditch. For rafters I prefer eight-inch round 
 timber split through the center. Don't let the stone 
 that the rafter sits on project above the support or it 
 will conduct the water against the end of the support 
 and rot it. Let the first course of shingles lap over 
 the foundation stones. 
 
 "The scratching shed is the last or end section in a 
 house of three sections, but would be in the middle 
 
 FIG 21 I FARMERS POULTRY HOUSE 
 
 section in a house of five sections, or the two center 
 sections in a house of six sections. Each section repre- 
 sents six feet of the length of the house. The sections 
 used for scratching sheds are partitioned from the 
 main house. When we have a scratching shed we place 
 the door in the partition between the shed and the 
 house as near the front side as possible. 
 
 "In forming the projections for the window, don't 
 use any timber larger than two by four inches, and 
 those only for the short rafter and the upright. If two 
 by six inches is used for the main timbers, use one by 
 four for the uprights or the division between the win- 
 dows. The ends of this house are finished the same 
 as the roof, except that the shed is not papered, but the 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 39 
 
 partition between the shed and house proper is papered. 
 The roosts are shown in the plan, but are not taken 
 into account in the cost, as nearly everyone has his 
 own ideas in regard to what is required for roosts and 
 nests. Standards for the roosts are three feet high, 
 notched at the top to hold the roosting poles. The box 
 underneath for the droppings should be sunk into the 
 ground within two inches of the top, or hens will roost 
 on the sides. The roost is movable and must not be 
 fastened to the top of standards, as it will interfere 
 with cleaning the trough. 
 
 "The twenty-five-hen size requires lumber as fol- 
 lows, cheap grades being used and odds and ends util- 
 ized where possible. Four pieces each of the following : 
 Fourteen feet by two by six inches, twelve feet by two 
 by six inches, six feet by two by six inches, six fejt 
 by two by four inches, three pieces eight feet by two by 
 four inches and two pieces twelve feet by two by four 
 inches ; one door two and one-half by six and one- 
 third feet by one and one-fourth inches ; eight hundred 
 feet Number 2 boards, six dollars per thousand feet; 
 five thousand Number 2 shingles, one dollar and a 
 quarter per thousand ; two sashes to fill space four and 
 one-third by five feet ten inches, glass nine by twelve 
 inches ; ninety square yards building paper ; twenty-- 
 five pounds tenpenny nails and three sets hinges with 
 screws. Total cost of material, twenty-one dollars 
 and forty-eight cents ; labor one man four days, six 
 dollars. 
 
 "By using cheap material, such as paper mill 
 waste for sheathing paper, shingles sawed from lumber 
 of the farm, old windows, etc, I managed to reduce 
 actual cost of labor and all to twenty dollars and three 
 cents. In longer houses of the same style the cost can 
 be brought down to one dollar per running foot, in- 
 cluding labor. A small house requires as many gables 
 
PO U LTR Y ARC II 1TECT U RE 
 
 and ends to be finished as if it were three times as long, 
 and hence is more costly in proportion. Don't think it 
 necessary to follow exactly the measures here given. 
 If you have old windows, build your section to fit 
 them. If there are old boards that will do to cover the 
 roof, use them and put in more of the main rafters to 
 nail to. One can use simply round poles for main 
 rafters and still the building will be a success. Simply 
 do the best you can with what you have to do with in 
 time, money and material, but don't forget to paper 
 underneath the shingles." 
 
 FIG 22 : HOUSE EASILY REMOVED 
 
 Can Be Easily Taken Apart Herewith is pre- 
 sented a plan, elevation (Figures 22, 23), details and 
 bill of materials for a movable chicken house which 
 almost anyone can construct. The cost is not great, 
 depending on the kind and quality of lumber used. 
 The elevation shows a shed roof, which is the cheaper, 
 though not so fine in appearance. A double-pitched 
 roof allows more available head room, thus making it 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 41 
 
 more convenient to work inside. A movable house 
 having the floor raised some distance above the ground, 
 thus affording underneath a resting place and shelter 
 from sun, wind and rain, is for many reasons a de- 
 cided improvement over stationary houses. 
 
 *l 
 
 tft ' 
 
 ***"** 
 
 """"I 
 
 W l% A* *. 
 
 FIG 23: INTERIOR AND DETAILS 
 
 A house like this has been in use over a year and 
 a half and seems to meet all requirements for fifteen 
 to twenty fowls. It has a run thirty by forty feet. The 
 house is moved to a new site, spring and fall, and is 
 
4^ POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 easily moved on rollers and some pieces of two by fours 
 by a man and boy. A ground floor should be pre- 
 viously prepared by spading around a center line and 
 throwing the earth up until a space eighteen inches 
 larger each way than the house has been raised six 
 inches above the surrounding surface. This should be 
 raked level, and well rammed, so as to pitch slightly 
 toward the front. The margins should be particularly 
 well rammed to discourage scratching and prevent 
 washing. Upon this floor lay the two pieces of two 
 by fours for the house to rest on. 
 
 The gable is shown not inclosed. The triangular 
 piece which closes this may be hinged to the roof so as 
 to swing outward, which will afford ventilation in 
 summer. The roosts should be all the same hight from 
 the floor, and if each is divided by a couple of pickets 
 projecting one foot above it there will be less crowd- 
 ing. Loose nest boxes are set on the floor. The win- 
 dow shown is amply large. It is covered outside with 
 small-mesh wire netting, and in summer the sash is 
 removed. A very useful addition for winter would 
 be a sort of closed "lean-to," which could be set against 
 the open side to provide extended shelter and a pro- 
 tected feeding place in stormy weather. This could be 
 used as a coop during the breeding season. 
 
 The following bill of materials is required : Four 
 two by four sixteen feet for plates, sills and posts, two 
 two by four twelve feet for plates, sills and foundation, 
 twenty-four one by eight twelve feet, or one hundred 
 and seventy square feet for sides, seven one by eight 
 fourteen feet, or sixty-five feet, for roof, six one by 
 eight sixteen feet, or fifty feet, for floor, two pounds 
 tenpenny, four pounds eightpenny and one pound 
 sixpenny cut nails, one piece small-mesh wire netting 
 three by three, with staples, one six-light eight by ten 
 glass sash, one roll two or three-ply roofing paper, one 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 43 
 
 and one-half pounds inch wire nails and tins, one pair 
 three-inch strap hinges. 
 
 The buildings on the C. H. Wyckoff farm, Tomp- 
 kins county, New York, the well-known Leghorn 
 specialist, are twelve feet wide by forty feet long and 
 
 P PERCHES 
 r FTEDTROUtiHS 
 
 a SMELL eaxcs 
 
 rt VtAT ER FWh 
 a OUST BATH' 
 
 THOUGH*. FOR OROPMN6S 
 A ALEY 
 JU NESTS 
 
 FIG 24: EXD VIEW OF HOUSE AND DETAILS 
 
 six feet high (see Figure 24), having a shingled roof 
 with a one foot in three feet pitch. The sides and 
 ends are double boarded, so as to break joints, with 
 tarred paper between. The plates, sleepers, etc, are of 
 two by four-inch scantlings. Each house is divided the 
 long way by a partition into two equal compartments 
 and each has a yard adjoining which accommodates 
 sixty fowls. The two perches, which are along the 
 
44 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 north side of the house, are placed thirteen inches apart 
 and eighteen inches ahove the platform which catches 
 the droppings and also serves as a cover to the nest 
 hoxes. Everything in the building is easily removable. 
 The floor is cleaned once a week and the partition 
 under the perches is cleaned twice a week and plastered 
 daily. Cleaning under the nests is accomplished by 
 lifting the perches and scraping the trough. The 
 eggs are gathered by lifting the hanging board floor 
 which forms the sides and roof platform. A dark 
 passageway leads along the back of the nest boxes and 
 affords a secrecy and exclusiveness to the laying hen 
 which is highly desirable. 
 
 The feed trough is made by nailing together two- 
 inch boards sixteen feet long' by six inches wide in the 
 form of a V trough. Water is kept in a pan, over 
 which is placed a round flat box (see Figure 2 in 
 Figure 24), through the sides of which the fowls can 
 reach for the water and still cannot soil the water nor 
 overturn the pan. The dust box is made by nailing a 
 board across one corner of the room. Two windows, 
 each containing six ten by twelve-inch lights, are placed 
 in the south side of each apartment. More glass would 
 make the house colder at night and warmer during 
 the day owing to the rapidity with which glass radiates 
 heat. No other ventilation is provided, except as the 
 windows are, opened by sliding. The floor is laid with- 
 out an air space over a bottom of fine stone and gravel 
 and is made practically air-tight by the dirt which fills 
 the cracks. Well drained earth floors were first tried, 
 but proved unsatisfactory because of the moist con- 
 dition of the soil, which kept the floor cold and damp 
 and made it necessary to remove the soil frequently, 
 replacing it with new earth. 
 
 The yards are two rods wide by eight long and 
 contain twelve thrifty plum trees set in a row through 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 45 
 
 ihc middle. Every two weeks during' the summer the 
 halves of the yards are alternately plowed. The fence 
 is six feet high and is made by wiring" to chestnut 
 poles panels made by nailing pickets two and one-half 
 inches wide the same distance apart. The entire cost 
 of each building, including the fence, did not exceed 
 one hundred dollars. The fence alone cost for material 
 seventy cents per rod. 
 
 Movable Chicken Coop During winter poultry- 
 men should find time to repair old chicken coops and 
 make new ones. With ordinary care more vigorous 
 
 FIG 25 : MOVABLE COOP 
 
 pullets can be raised by scattering them about the fields 
 in small colonies after haying, as insects then form a 
 very cheap and important portion of their diet. When 
 biddy brings forth her brood, place in one of the coops 
 with the movable run in position. This allow r s her to 
 get to the ground. After she leaves her chicks the 
 run is removed, the roosts placed in position and the 
 family moved to any convenient spot. Pullets may 
 be sheltered in such a house until cold weather or until 
 they begin to lay. The coops will accommodate 
 twenty-five chicks or ten well-grown pullets. It is 
 four bv three feet, and two and one-half feet high at 
 
POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 the eaves. The run is four by three feet. The run and 
 roof are built with a pitch of ninety degrees. The 
 sills are of two by four material and extended as shown 
 in Figure 25, to facilitate moving. The plates are of 
 two by two-inch material, and extended each way one 
 foot beyond the eaves for handles. The sides, roof and 
 floor are of jointed pine boards. The roof is covered 
 with one thickness of sheathing paper, held in place 
 by cleats. If this is jointed it will make a waterproof 
 
 12 
 
 FLOOR PLAN 
 
 FRONT ELEVATION 
 FIG 26 1 AN OREGON TLAN 
 
 roof that will last a number of seasons. The first fifteen 
 inches below each gable should be of half-inch wire 
 netting for ventilation. Each end is provided with a 
 door one foot wide, one hinged, the other arranged 
 to slide. The roof should have a two-inch projection 
 all around to throw rain. The run is made by nailing 
 laths two and one-half inches apart upon a frame made 
 of two by two-inch scantling. Two men can easily 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 47 
 
 move this coop from one part of a field to another, 
 giving the chicks new feeding room. 
 
 An Oregon Plan The plan of Figure 26 was used 
 for the construction of a house for one hundred fowls 
 and has been found convenient and satisfactory. It 
 is built box style with the joists placed on top of the 
 sills. The roof has a one-third pitch, or four feet rise 
 in twelve, with eight-inch eaves. Place the building 
 upon posts two feet from the ground, so the fowls can 
 get under it, as it makes a fine dusting place in winter 
 or summer. Entrance for the fowls is made under each 
 window, which should face the south or east. A board 
 may be placed from the entrance to the ground and 
 cleats nailed on as steps. In the construction was 
 used ten or twelve-inch ship lap for floor and sides, 
 lined with tar paper both sides and roof. For the 
 house, as illustrated, there will be needed one thousand 
 one hundred and seventy-five feet ship lap, two sills 
 four by six by thirty-two feet, seventeen joists two by 
 six by twelve feet, seventeen rafters two by four by 
 fifteen feet, six plates two by four by sixteen feet, for 
 posts one piece six by six by sixteen feet, old boards 
 for roof boards or new lumber laid close together. 
 Lay the shingles four inches to the weather, of which 
 four thousand five hundred will be required. Parti- 
 tions may be of one by two-inch strips placed two 
 inches apart or they may be of boards. In the floor 
 plan are shown the four windows by heavy lines, doors 
 inside opening from partition to wall from coop to 
 coop. The nests are conveniently arranged on each 
 side of each pen. 
 
 Coop for the SoutJi D. D. Doane, a successful 
 Florida poultry keeper, describes a house of slats, 
 Figure 27, warm enough for the climate and cool in 
 summer : 
 
UNIVERSITY ] 
 
 \ F 
 
 1IOMKS FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 "Aly hens run at large around the house and barn, 
 which stand inclosed in a two-acre field seeded to Ber- 
 muda grass. The flock consists of sixty-three hens and 
 one male, all White Leghorns, nearly pure. The hen- 
 house is twelve feet long, six feet wide and six feet 
 from floor to peak. It has a cement floor, is swept 
 every Saturday and dusted with sand. The house is 
 made of pine shakes and roofed with hand-made pine 
 shingles. Laying boxes, running the whole length of 
 house, are placed outside on each side, so that I do not 
 have to go inside the house except to sweep it. The 
 morning feeding place is on a board floor resting on 
 sawhorses three feet from the ground, so that pigs 
 cannot get the feed nor disturb the fowls. 
 
 "The henhouse costs about two days' labor in cut- 
 ting down pine trees and splitting up into shakes and 
 shingles. The chickens are hatched under hens and 
 raised in a homemade brooder so the hens can go back 
 to laying as soon as possible. In front of brooder I 
 have a yard about six by eight feet made of wire 
 netting." 
 
 House for One Hundred Fowls The building is 
 made of two by four-inch joists, sheeted, papered and 
 sided. The inside is sheeted, papered and ceiled. The 
 dead air space is not filled as it is much drier. In Fig- 
 ure 28, at a are four perches ; b is an incline hung on 
 hinges with the lower edge over the box c to receive 
 droppings. The end of the box c not under the roosts 
 is used as a dust box. The feed trough is at d. A par- 
 tition is made of two by four studding which is ceiled 
 up with wire netting to allow light from windows 
 across the passage. Nest boxes are at c, one-half of 
 each extending through the wire partition, with a 
 hinged cover. Large windows are placed in the 
 upright eight-foot front. Figure 28 shows the end 
 
50 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 view. This coop has had several years' trial and has 
 proven convenient. 
 
 House with Cloth Run The distinctive feature of 
 this henhouse (Figure 29) is the portion built entirely 
 of oilcloth. The frames are made so that thev can be 
 
 FIG 28: HOUSE FOR ONE HUNDRED FOWLS 
 
 easily taken apart. They are merely tied together and 
 lightly nailed to strong corner posts. This cloth run is 
 excellent for chicks in early spring. When they are a 
 few weeks old, a hole is made under the frame to let 
 them out. Don't make the hole large enough for the 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 5! 
 
 older fowls or for cats. The main henhouse is twelve 
 by six by eight feet high, with slightly sloping roof. 
 The cloth run is twelve by six by six feet high. The 
 floor of the main house is raised two feet, allowing an 
 extra run beneath for the chicks. This oiled cloth was 
 used also for doors and for coverings for hotbeds, and 
 it has lasted several years. 
 
 L-Shaped House A poultryman submits this in- 
 terior plan of a poultry house (Figure 30) which has 
 given him satisfaction. The shed faces toward the 
 south, which is the left-hand side of the drawing. The 
 
 FIG 29 I HOUSE WITH CLOTH RUN 
 
 windows face the east, thus the birds get the morning 
 and midday sun, either in the house or in the shed. 
 The construction makes it convenient to reach all parts 
 of the house and the cost is claimed to be no greater 
 than by the ordinary method by which shed and main 
 house are under a continuous roof. 
 
 Octagon House The octagon form has advan- 
 tages. It is strong, compact and affords a larger area 
 in proportion to the amount of outside wall than a rec- 
 tangle. The timbers, being short, may be light. More- 
 over, it can catch more winter sunshine. 
 
I'O U LTR Y ARCHITECT U RE 
 
 The area of the poultry house represented by the 
 accompanying ground plan, Figure 31, is three hun- 
 dred and three square feet. This is a little more than 
 that of a rectangular house ten by thirty feet. The sides 
 being eight feet each, the total outside lineal measure- 
 ment is sixty-four feet, whereas that of the rectangular 
 house is eighty feet. With three windows, as shown in 
 
 FIG 3D! L-SHAPED HOUSE WITH SHED 
 
 the illustration, direct sunshine is admitted from dawn 
 until sunset. The transverse partition is mainly of wire 
 netting and the door may be wholly removed at the end 
 of the brooding season. 
 
 The dusting box is placed directly beneath the 
 south window. The perches fit into slots at the ends, 
 so as to be movable. It is needless to partition off the 
 
HUMES FOR l-AR.U POULTRY 
 
 53 
 
 roosting place, but a curtain of old burlap hung in 
 front of it in winter will add greatly to the comfort of 
 the fowls and consequently to the contents of the egg 
 basket. 
 
 Good Winter House The building (Figure 32) 
 is thirty by ten feet, frame construction, and is elevated 
 one and one-third feet from the ground. The building 
 
 FIG 31 : OCTAGON HOUSE 
 
 is divided into three rooms ten by ten feet respectively. 
 To the left is the brooder room, where the hens are 
 set and where the chickens are reared. Along the 
 side of this room are rows of nests which are separated 
 from each other by partitions, and have each a door in 
 front. Everything is portable and can easily be taken 
 
54 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 out, cleaned and disinfected. To the right is the roost 
 room. All droppings fall into a trough and the room 
 can easily be kept clean. The roost is also portable. 
 In the middle is the feed and scratch room, and above 
 the same is a pigeon house the width of the building. 
 In the feed and scratch room are also portable 
 nests. The door in the middle room is on rollers and 
 opens the whole length of the room. On the inside, 
 wire netting is placed across windows. The windows 
 can slide and are open for summer use. Construction 
 is as follows : Double floors and between each section a 
 thick layer of paper. Sides are built of boxing, then 
 papered and weather-boarded. Tlie roof is boarded, 
 
 FIG 32 I GOOD WINTER HOUSE 
 
 papered and shingled, thus insuring a warm house for 
 winter layers. The cost of the poultry house is thirty 
 dollars, and is a good investment. 
 
 A Good Poultry House The henhouse here 
 shown (Figure 33) has proved very satisfactory. It 
 is twenty feet long, ten feet wide, seven feet high in 
 front and four feet in rear. The scratching shed is 
 eight feet long and should be on the east side. The 
 window is two by five feet eight inches, using glass 
 twelve by sixteen inches. It is one foot from the floor, 
 which admits sunshine over most of the floor surface 
 and does not give too much light on roosts, which is 
 undesirable. A small door with slide arrangement is 
 cut beneath window for fowls to go in and out. The 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 55 
 
 large door is two by six feet ; another door of like 
 dimensions should be cut in east side of house proper 
 to allow entrance to scratching shed. In severe 
 weather a canvas can be hung inside over the wire 
 front. Nests are arranged in the intervening spaces, 
 eighteen inches above floor, around the front and 
 two ends. 
 
 The roosts are the full length of the rear and 
 extend six feet from back wall toward the front. 
 These should be three feet high and built as in the 
 
 FIG 33 : GOOD HOUSE WITH INTERIOR FIXTURES 
 
 figure. This allows ample room to clean underneath 
 and to lift out the troughs. The roosting poles are on 
 a level and at each end fitted snugly into sawed notches. 
 All can be easily removed for cleaning, as may the 
 bottoms of the nests, which have short movable boards 
 for the floor of the nests. Drinking cans or troughs 
 are arranged just under the window; dust and grit 
 boxes likewise. A house similarly constructed with all 
 needful inside arrangements can be built for twenty- 
 
50 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 five dollars. If lined with light building paper it will 
 be nearly frost proof and easily kept free of vermin. 
 Any kind of a floor can be made, but the builder pre- 
 fers a raised earthen floor. Muck or clay well packed, 
 then wet thoroughly, will after drying make a floor that 
 can be swept. Sand should be thrown over it after 
 cleaning and before litter is put in the house. 
 
 Light Henhouse The building is ten by thirty 
 feet, with cement floor, covered with matched lumber, 
 and the inside is lathed and plastered overhead and on 
 the sides. Beneath the lath is tarred paper. On the 
 south side are plenty of windows, and when the sun is 
 
 FIG 34: INTERIOR CONTRIVANCES 
 
 shining, as the building is practically air-tight the bid- 
 dies think that the coldest day is a summer one. The 
 roosts are of uniform hight and are movable. The out- 
 side of the building is painted and has a ventilator on 
 the roof, which makes it an ornament to the farm. 
 Being somewhat of a carpenter, I did the work myself, 
 which reduced the expense. [F. A. Smart, Oswego 
 County, New York. 
 
 Interior Contrivances This poultry house is a 
 balloon frame of two by four joist. It is eighteen feet 
 wide and sheathed w^ith inch boards tightly fitted to- 
 
HOMES FOR FARM POULTRY 
 
 57 
 
 gether, then papered and sided tightly. The inside is 
 filled to top of sills with fine stone, covered with dirt. 
 The house is divided into twelve-foot pens the length 
 of the building, with wire partitions between. There 
 is one large window, a (Figure 34), each side of every 
 twelve-foot pen, two feet from the sills. The pens are 
 ten feet high. There is a tight floor overhead, thickly 
 covered with sawdust. Through the floor is a ventila- 
 ting trap door, b, one by twelve feet, in each pen, with 
 a rope and pulley attachment permitting the ventilating 
 trap door to be operated from the hallway on one side 
 of the building. The inside building is of sheathing, 
 stuffed solid with sawdust and chaff. There is a self- 
 
 
 Ko 
 
 STS 
 
 
 d 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 HEST5 
 
 ), 
 
 
 fe; 
 
 f ( 
 
 ) 
 
 A 
 
 
 i i 
 
 i 
 
 c 
 
 [. 
 
 _. S _i 1 W i . vtf . u/ . i W ^ 
 
 U 1 Doors I Water. ^ Shutti'.i-*. W Windows. 
 
 shutting screen door, c, in each pen. The roosts, d, 
 are two by four, set in notches and hung by four half- 
 inch round irons. The roosts are all painted with coal 
 tar and are removable. Under the roosts is a large 
 shelf, e, hinged so as to let down to a long, narrow box, 
 /, for holding the droppings. 
 
 Another well-arranged interior is shown at the 
 right of Figure 34. The owner, I. B. Koons, Penn- 
 sylvania, writes : "The upper part, in which the fowls 
 roost, is made as air-tight as possible, the walls being 
 
58 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 covered with tarred paper, so that no air can come in 
 from below or at the sides. 
 
 "The ventilator draws out air from below the hens, 
 while at the top or peak of the room I have made an 
 opening to draw out all the foul air from the compart- 
 ment in which the hens roost. There is no draft 
 around hens and in the morning- their roosting place 
 smells as clean as at night. They are very healthy, lay 
 well and have had no sick fowls in the flock since I 
 used this system. The house is ten by twelve feet, with 
 a dust pen two by seven feet, covered with glass. I 
 keep forty hens in this house, and they have a run of 
 about one-quarter acre." 
 
 A Maine Henhouse It is thirty-six feet long and 
 fourteen feet wide (Figure 35), and will accommodate 
 fifty to sixty hens. The apartments at the ends are 
 called scratching rooms, and have no floor. The shut- 
 ters are four by four feet, hinged at the top, and opened 
 in the daytime to admit sun, light and air; they are 
 also opened on cloudy days, if it is not too cold, 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES 
 
 Every western farmer may have one of these com- 
 fortable houses (Figure 36) with little cost and a 
 comparatively small amount of labor. The sod may be 
 turned at any time in the year when the ground is 
 not frozen. A firm, well-grassed sod is best, but other 
 will do, the only difference being in the length of time 
 the building will last. The walls are laid up with 
 bricks of sod about twelve by twelve inches and laid 
 like bricks with the exception of the cement, nothing 
 of that kind being used. The sod is turned down and 
 the walls are made twenty-four inches thick, two layers 
 of sod being used. 
 
 Timbers are used above openings for doors and 
 windows ; and casings are used as a frame. The roof 
 should slope about two feet and should project on all 
 sides at least two feet to protect walls from moisture. 
 Rafters and three-fourths-inch lumber, covered with 
 dirt or sod, make the roof. Poles and brush may be 
 used instead of lumber, but are not so good. 
 
 It is fourteen by thirty-eight feet, outside dimen- 
 sions, and contains two rooms. The roosting room is 
 ten by eighteen feet, inside measure, and contains two 
 sections of swinging roosts, each six by eight feet, 
 leaving a passage at each end and a three-foot passage 
 the whole length on the south, where the three windows 
 are located. There is a stovepipe ventilator in each 
 room, which can be partially closed in winter. The 
 roosts are about two and one-half feet from the floor 
 
6o 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 and swung on fence wire from the cross sections at 
 the roof. 
 
 Opening from the roosting room is the scratch- 
 ing and nest room, which is ten by fourteen feet, inside 
 measure. In summer it is used only for nests. These 
 nests run the entire length of the room on the north 
 and across the ends, except where the doors interfere. 
 They are two feet deep if fowls are large they could 
 be lower and filled up about one foot with cut straw. 
 
 FIG 36: A PRAIRIE HENHOUSE 
 
 On the south are two full-sized windows, giving plenty 
 of light and sunshine for winter, and easily blinded 
 in summer, when so much light is not desirable. 
 Floors are of dirt, covered with straw for scratching 
 or swept clean when summer comes. Fowls will lay 
 the whole season. They are warm in winter and cool 
 in summer, and they seem to like the dirt walls. 
 
 Henhouse of a Kansas Fanner The sod house 
 shown in the illustration (Figure 37) I have found 
 
15ANK A.\J> SOI) STKL'CTl'KKS 6 1 
 
 healthful, convenient, and large enough to accommo- 
 date seventy-five to one hundred hens. In a bank 
 sloping southwest 1 made an excavation twelve feet 
 east and west by twenty-two feet north and south. At 
 the southwest corner the excavation was on a level 
 with the surface of the ground ; at the north side it 
 was two and one-half feet deep. Around the edges I 
 built a sod wall, making its upper edge five feet above 
 the floor. I roofed the north half with boards and 
 covered with tar paper. A border of sod was placed all 
 around the edge, then the whole overlaid with six 
 inches of gypsum taken from a pit near by. In the 
 south half of the roof I put two hotbed sashes three 
 
 FIG 3/ : HENHOUSE OF KANSAS FARMER 
 
 by nine feet and covered the remainder of the space the 
 same as the north side. In the walls were placed two 
 glass windows and a door with glass in the upper part. 
 In the north wall there is a window level with the 
 roosts eighteen inches high and five feet long. It is 
 used for ventilation in the summer. In winter it is 
 covered with boards and banked with earth. The win- 
 dows are hinged and covered with heavy wire netting. 
 I have an extra lattice door for summer. 
 
 The walls were given two coats of gypsum or 
 poor man's plaster (very abundant in the southwest), 
 and when dry a heavy whitewash was applied to fill 
 all cracks. Roosts occupy the north half. The south 
 
62 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 half under glass is reserved for nests and a feeding 
 goound during stormy weather. The floor under the 
 roosts is made of gypsum, cement and sand. [E. H. 
 H., Kansas. 
 
 Making a Nebraska Sod House Plow the sod 
 one foot wide and four inches deep, and for a three- 
 foot wall cut with spade into two-foot lengths. Build 
 around the four sides (Figure 38), keeping the walls 
 
 FIG 38 I A NEBRASKA SOD HOUSE 
 
 as near the same hight as possible, so they will settle 
 alike. Always lay the grassy side of the sod down. 
 Smooth off with spade, filling cracks with the dirt, 
 making a solid, compact wall. Lay the sod as you 
 would brick, so there will be no running cracks. Leave 
 places for door and windows slightly narrower than 
 the frames, sod up till almost to the top, then fit in the 
 frames tight, and over each put a board, one two by 
 twelve by six inches will do, to support the weight of 
 the sod above. 
 
[BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES 
 
 Have the roof project a foot over the walls, so as 
 to drain the water well off the top of the walls. Grooved 
 boards, battened, make a good roof, although many 
 prefer to cover the boards with tar felt and then a 
 layer of sod. The only objection to this is that after 
 two or three years the tar felt has to be renewed and 
 new sod added. But it makes the warmest roof, and 
 if carefully put on sheds water as well as a shingled 
 roof. The small drawing shows window as it appears 
 within, and indicates supports for roosts. 
 
 'i 
 
 K\JS 
 
 .^ VJ 
 
 &8 
 
 FIG 39 : HOUSE IN A SAND BANK 
 
 House in a Sand Bank A henhouse which com- 
 bines warmth and cheapness can be made as follows, 
 and as shown in the accompanying engraving, Figure 
 39 : Select a well-drained sand bank sloping to the 
 south or southeast. Perhaps such a place is handy, 
 from which quantities of sand or gravel have been 
 taken until there is already dug a place large enough 
 to put up just what is wanted a henhouse entirely in 
 the sand, except the front. The only objectionable 
 feature in a building of this kind is dampness, and from 
 the start this must be provided against carefully by a 
 thorough system of drainage, both above and below. 
 
64 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 I/or this purpose tiles are almost indispensable. If the 
 water can be kept away, the fowls will find the sand 
 agreeable and the situation warm and healthful, while 
 its exposure to the southern sun will give the layers a 
 chance to bask and exercise all day and they will lay 
 as well as during summer, provided their food be of 
 the right kind and varied. On starting, draw from 
 the woods enough seven-foot posts to set one every five 
 feet across the space to be occupied by the front of 
 the building. Or these may be placed in position 
 standing squarely with sawed ends on flat stones im- 
 bedded in the sand. On top of them spike a six-inch 
 pole the length of the front of the building. 
 
 Another row of posts of the seme length or per- 
 haps one foot shorter should be placed further into the 
 sand bank where the back of the building is to come, 
 with a rider on top as mentioned for the plate on the 
 first posts, or if an abundance of stone be handy, this 
 row of posts can be replaced by a wall. Wood, how- 
 ever, is preferable, because it doesn't gather and hold 
 moisture so much, but is more expensive because less 
 durable. Across these horizontal top poles run heavy, 
 rough timbers six to ten inches in diameter. These 
 will not need sawing, and can be rudely spiked or 
 pinned to the poles. The entire structure must be 
 heavily built, because it is to be roofed with sand and 
 sod. Above the rafters, which are as well flat as any 
 other way, should be laid a quantity of slabs or straight 
 poles close together. On these may be thrown a layer 
 of sweet fern or hardback brush, or even a mat of dried 
 leaves, to be followed by two feet or more of sand. 
 Over the sand spread at least six inches of good loam, 
 and sod over this. 
 
 It should be mounded enough to shed rain toler- 
 ably well and will look on top like old-fashioned out- 
 door cellars so common in the Hudson river valley. 
 
BANK AND SOD STRUCTTHES 
 
 0=1 
 
 The sides may be treated in the same manner with 
 slabs and leaves and heavily banked with sand. The 
 entire job can be sodded so that it will be far from ugly 
 in appearance. The front should slope gently from the 
 top of the posts to the ground, the bottom being about 
 two feet from the posts. From this point the earth 
 should rapidly descend so that all water may be car- 
 ried away from the building. Two windows of good 
 
 FIG 40: WINDPROOF STRUCTURE 
 
 size, but not too large, and a door may be placed in 
 front of this building, and roosts and nests within. 
 
 A Wind proof Poultry House It is built of five 
 pairs of two by four-inch scantling set two and one- 
 half feet apart on either side of the ridgepole of the 
 same stuff (Figure 40). These are covered with 
 boards and the ends beveled. The structure is built 
 over a pit two and one-half feet deep and banked over 
 with the earth from the pit to the depth of two feet, 
 
66 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 excepting the south end, which is furnished 
 door made of two sashes of glass. 
 
 The doorway is recessed and fitted with a solid 
 door (outside of the glass door) to be closed in very 
 cold weather at night. Ventilation is provided bv a 
 piece of two-inch tin leader passing through the roof 
 and the earth banking. It should be kept clear of snow. 
 
 FIG 41 : A LOG CHICKEN HOUSE 
 
 A roost runs the length of the building, eighteen 
 inches above the floor, and the nest boxes are placed 
 just above it. The house is nine feet wide, eight feet 
 high and thirteen feet long, and holds twenty fowls. 
 
 A Log Chicken House I cut all logs exactly the 
 required length. The average size was about seven 
 inches in diameter. I did all the work alone. First 
 lay the sill logs and toenail on the corners, making 
 the logs two by four by eight feet and two by six by 
 
BANK AND SOD STRUCTURES 07 
 
 eight feet (Figure 41). Spike these two together and 
 brace from the inside so they will be perfectly plumb. 
 Now start putting up the logs one side at a time, or 
 build all the sides evenly as you go. Drive a spike into 
 
 FIG 42: 
 
 BANK WALL HOUSE 
 
 FIG 43 I INTERIOR OF BANK WALL HOUSE 
 
 your two by four and two by six-inch sills and into your 
 logs as fast as you go, so as to hold them in place. 
 You can put a round log in the corner six inches in 
 diameter and eight feet long. After the house has been 
 built, spike the two by four on this and also the plate 
 logs. Peel the logs. [A. L. Lord, Wisconsin. 
 
68 
 
 I'U U LTR V ARC II ITECT U RE 
 
 A Bank Wall House This building (Figure 42) 
 is ten by twenty feet with seven-foot posts in front, a 
 three-foot wall and four-foot posts in the rear. The 
 doors at the ends should be boarded up and entrance 
 made to the two rooms from the hallway, which may 
 be used as a hatching room. Still better, abolish all 
 doors in front and enter through an end door. Figure 
 43 shows the interior arrangement. The hatching 
 room may be used to store feed when not used for 
 hatching. The hatching nests will be used for laying 
 
 FIG 44 : WARM AND CONVENIENT BUILDING 
 
 until a hen wishes to sit, when they may be closed to 
 the roosting room and opened at the other end. These 
 nests may be raised three inches from the ground. The 
 extra nests are raised fifteen inches. Coops may be 
 built under them to shut up sitters. 
 
 Warm and Convenient The poultry house shown 
 herewith (Figure. 44) is built into a bank and faces 
 south. The wall up to the surface is of rough stone. 
 There is no door at the east end to let in the cold, the 
 door being on the south, where the roof is cut as for a 
 dormer window. One enters and passes through to 
 
BANK AND SOD STRl'tTl'KKS (*) 
 
 the back side of the house, where there is a walk behind 
 the pens. Such a house can be made any length, keep- 
 ing- the pens equal in number on each side of the door- 
 way. This arrangement probably gives the warmest 
 poultry house that can be built. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 
 
 Detailed specifications for a building carefully 
 made according to architect's plans are frequently 
 wanted. The houses of which descriptions are given 
 are in actual use, and are both practical and orna- 
 mental. The plans, in the hands of an intelligent work- 
 man, will give highly satisfactory results. They are 
 all business structures, including none of those miser- 
 able affairs in which show takes the place of utility. 
 
 A Well-Made House The house is made in sec- 
 tions of sixteen-foot length, and in duplication could 
 be extended or shortened, as desired, each section being 
 suitable for flocks of ten to twenty-five fowls. The 
 house comprises seven of these sixteen-foot sections, 
 and by its construction can easily be enlarged or made 
 smaller. Each section being precisely alike, the draw- 
 ings are made on the basis of one section. (See Fig- 
 ures 45 to 49 inclusive.) 
 
 The foundation is of cedar posts planted as indi- 
 cated by the plans, tops of posts being leveled off to 
 receive the frame. The outside lumber is second qual- 
 ity white pine; the inside lumber and framework are 
 hemlock. The girder under center of building and 
 the sills are four by six inches. Floor joists and roof 
 rafters are two by six inches, plates are three by four 
 inches, wall studs two by four inches, and partition 
 studs two by three inches, all the above of hemlock. 
 
 The house being made in sections of sixteen feet, 
 it will be necessary to cut the sills, plates and girders 
 
HIGH-GRADE 1'LANTS /I 
 
 to the length required, and half them together at joints, 
 so that a saw could be worked between the floor joists, 
 studding and rafters, between each section, and the 
 building literally sawed apart at the end of any sec- 
 tion, and removed if desired. Where the sixteen-foot 
 sections join, the floor joists, wall studs and roof rafters 
 are doubled, as indicated on the plans, and in case of 
 the removal of any section, all that will be necessary 
 to do is to stud up the end left open and enclose it. 
 Sills are laid on edge and a one by two-inch furring 
 strip nailed to the lower edge of same, on which the 
 floor joists are notched and also well spiked to the 
 
 FIG 45 : WELL-MADE IEOTSE. FRONT AND REAR 
 ELEVATIONS 
 
 sills. Floor joists, wall studs and roof rafters are 
 placed on centers as figured on the plans, and all to 
 be placed opposite each other. 
 
 The front of the building is sheathed with one by 
 nine and one-half-inch matched hemlock sheathing 
 boards, laid diagonally with the smooth side in, nailed 
 to each bearing. A one by two-inch strip is nailed on 
 the lower edge of sill on which to fit the sheathing 
 down closely to prevent cold air from running up 
 between the cracks. The roof is sheathed with the 
 same kind of boards, laid the smooth side down, with 
 the joints properly broken on the rafters. The front 
 of the building is covered with lieavy resin-sized 
 
72 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 sheathing paper, well lapped and carefully tacked on. 
 The roof is covered with gravel roofing, the roofing 
 material being confined with an edging strip of one 
 by two-inch pine laid fiat on the outer edge of the 
 roof. All the outside walls of the building are cov- 
 ered with one by six-inch "novelty siding" nailed to 
 each bearing, with joints properly broken on bearings. 
 The water table is a one by six-inch board with a 
 beveled drip on top, having a lip worked on same to 
 make the building water-tight. 
 
 The corner boards and the board under the cor- 
 nice molding were planted on, after the building was 
 
 FIG 46: WELL-MADE HOUSE. END ELEVATION AND 
 PEN RUN 
 
 enclosed. The cornice molding is a four-inch crown 
 molding worked to a stock pattern and put up as 
 indicated on the drawings. The window and door 
 openings have no trim, except at each end of the build- 
 ing, where the trim was planted on afterward, same 
 as the corner boards, etc. At the window and door 
 openings, the "novelty siding" is cut on the studs 
 three-fourths of an inch, and a half-inch flat bead 
 is broken around the openings to cover up the end 
 wood, leaving a rebate of three-fourths inch for the 
 doors and sash. Doors are hung with iron T hinges. 
 The floor is of one by six-inch matched hemlock. 
 Windows and doors have beveled sills to match the 
 
HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 7^ 
 
 drip on the water-table outside, and extending back 
 to the line of the inside of the frame where they join 
 the floor flush. The rear windows are of hotbed sash, 
 glazed as shown in the drawings, and attached with 
 screw fastenings to permit being removed in summer 
 and replaced by wire netting. 
 
 FIG 47: INTERIOR OF WELL-MADE HOUSE 
 
 The outside doors are made of one by six-inch 
 matched and center-beaded pine placed vertically and 
 battened three times in their hight. The inside doors 
 are made of unplaned hemlock, with one by six-inch 
 stiles and rails, except bottom rail, which is eight 
 inches wide. The panels are covered with wire net- 
 ting. The small doors under the hotbed sash and 
 between the different sections of the building are each 
 
74 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 made of pine board, eleven inches square, battened 
 twice on the inside with one by two-inch battens, and 
 leaving an opening ten inches square, through which 
 the fowls pass in and out. 
 
 The partition along the alleyway, running the 
 entire length of the house, is studded up as shown on 
 the floor plan and has a six-inch rough hemlock board 
 at the bottom and a two by three-inch scantling about 
 two inches above the nest boxes, and the balance is 
 covered with wire netting, except opposite the pens 
 
 FIG 48: SECTION THROUGH PEN 
 
 below the nest boxes, where masons' laths are placed 
 flat way, about two inches apart, and nailed top and 
 bottom to one by two-inch furring strips as shown on 
 " section through pen." 
 
 The partitions between the pens and the roosts 
 are boarded up two feet high, with one by twelve-inch 
 rough hemlock boards, and above are covered with 
 wire netting. The partitions back of the roosts are 
 boarded up with the same kind of boards to a hight of 
 four feet, leaving a small door opening in center as 
 
HIGH-GRADE PLANTS 
 
 75 
 
 shown, ten inches square, the upper par^ covered with 
 wire netting inside of the studs, to prevent the fowls 
 from escaping when the hotbed sash is removed during 
 the warm weather. 
 
 The nest boxes are pine, one-half inch thick, and 
 arranged to pull out like a drawer. Each box is 
 separate and nailed together in the most inexpensive 
 manner. Over the top of the nest boxes place a slant- 
 ing hood eighteen inches wide, of rough hemlock 
 boards battened on the under side, and put up as shown 
 on "section through pen." The feed boxes are located 
 
 FIG 49 : FLAX SHOWING ROOSTS 
 
 in the alleyway opposite the pens, and are made of 
 pine, one inch thick. Each box is separate. 
 
 The roosts are made of one and one-fourth-inch 
 spruce and are movable. The ends are four inches 
 wide and notched out at top to hook over the scantling 
 at the top of the boarded part of the partition back of 
 the roosts. The bottom of the ends of the roosts is cut 
 to fit the floor and a hole is bored through the same so 
 that the roosts can be pinned to floor with wooden pins 
 which can be easily removed and the roosts taken out 
 and cleaned. The slats of roosts are two inches wide, 
 set on edge and rounded on top with a jack plane and 
 well nailed to the ends of the roosts. A spruce slat 
 
76 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 one and one-fourth inches thick and two inches wide is 
 placed on edge in front of the nest hoxes and a short 
 distance from same, to enable the fowls to reach the 
 nest boxes without' jumping directly into the boxes. 
 The outside of the building is covered with dark green 
 oil stain. 
 
 Business Poultry Plant The houses built by an 
 extensive poultryman, G. H. Pollard of Bristol county, 
 Massachusetts, are simple, substantial and practical, 
 and as cheap as a very good house can be made. 
 
 Probably nothing better for the cost can be found. 
 The photograph, Figure 50, gives a general idea of the 
 
 FIG 50 : BUSINESS POULTRY HOUSE 
 
 outside appearance. The inside is very simple, con- 
 sisting of the roosting place and a scratching shed. 
 The most striking feature of the inside arrangement is 
 the roost, which is built with special attention to se- 
 curing warmth at night. It is Mr Pollard's idea that 
 if a laying hen is kept warm nights, she will not mind 
 cold winter weather, but will keep right on laying, 
 hence he does not pay much attention to glass windows 
 or any other means of producing warmth by day, but 
 the scratching shed is left open in pleasant weather and 
 protected only by a cloth curtain on stormy days. In 
 some of the sidehill houses the roosting house is 
 entirely shut off at night and is banked on one side 
 
HIGll-r.RADE PLANTS 77 
 
 with earth and protected on the other sides by cement 
 walls faced with roofing paper, as is the inside roof 
 also. There is only one small window in front. This 
 roosting place makes a very tight and warm arrange- 
 ment in winter and when the hens leave it they are 
 encouraged to keep themselves warm by scratching 
 for grain thrown among the litter in the outside pen. 
 Apart from the roosting pen, the house is built as 
 cheaply as possible, banked in the rear nearly up to 
 the roof and covered on the outside with roofing paper 
 coated with tar, which is considered the cheapest and 
 most satisfactory roofing material. Mr Pollard sup- 
 plies details as follows : 
 
 The largest house is ninety-six by thirteen and 
 one-half feet and is divided into six pens thirteen and 
 one-half by sixteen feet, which are subdivided into a 
 roosting pen six by thirteen and one-half feet and an 
 open-front scratching shed ten by thirteen and one- 
 half feet. The house is very plainly built and is en- 
 tirely devoid of fancy features in fixtures. The frame 
 is of two by four spruce, on sills of three by four, set 
 on chestnut posts. It is eight feet high in front, using 
 sixteen-foot boards, hemlock, planed on one side and 
 cut in two. The back is five feet four inches, using 
 six-foot boards cut in three pieces to save waste and 
 boarded up and down. The roof is covered with three- 
 ply building felt, tarred, and the front, back and sides 
 of the roosting pens are covered with two-ply felt. 
 The cracks in the back of the scratching pens are 
 battened to stop the drafts, and the front is covered 
 with wire netting. A sash of four to six eight by 
 twelve lights gives the roosting pen light. 
 
 The perch platform is at the back, and twenty 
 inches from the floor, which is of gravel filled in some 
 six: inches higher than the outside level. There are 
 
7 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 no other lurnishings, save a few nests made of soap or 
 spice boxes, which cost three cents each. 
 
 In the scratching sheds are small boxes of oyster 
 shell and the water dishes. The floor is covered with 
 meadow hay or straw and the hens scratch in this for 
 the hard grain. The soft food is fed in troughs and is 
 made up of variations of bran, meal, linseed meal and 
 beef scrap. 
 
 A house of this kind may be built by anyone a 
 little handy with tools, and covers all the necessary 
 features for the comfort and care of the hens. The 
 doors open from the scratching sheds to the roosting 
 rooms, and from one roosting room to the other. 
 There is a scratching shed on each end of house and 
 the roosting rooms adjoin each other, thus taking them 
 away from the outside ends and gaining all the warmth 
 possible from position. Of course this house could 
 be extended to any length desired. The runs are on 
 the back side of the house, as in winter the scratching 
 shed furnishes open-air exercise, and in summer they 
 get some shelter from the hot sun and warm south 
 winds by living on the back side of the house. 
 
 Another advantage gained comes from the possi- 
 bility of walking along in front of the building and 
 throwing the whole grains through the netting into the 
 scratching sheds without the trouble of opening and 
 shutting gates or doors. In this way a house of two 
 hundred feet could be fed a dry feed in five to twenty 
 minutes and the work well done. 
 
 A Model Poultry House The building, shown in 
 Figures 51 to 54 inclusive, is set on posts three feet 
 above the ground, so the chickens can congregate 
 underneath the main floor, giving to each section a 
 ground floor twelve by sixteen feet. This double 
 house is intended for fifty chickens, twenty-five in each 
 section. The nests and feed boxes are accessible 
 
FIG 51 : FRONT ELEVATION OF MODEL IIOl'SK 
 
 !'< V g'-O" 
 
 FIG 52 : GROUND PLAN OF MODEL HOUSE 
 
 CTt*. 
 
 FIG 53 : SIDE VIEW AND FLOOR SYSTEM 
 
 U U Li U 
 
 FIG 54: CROSS SECTION OF MODEL HOUSE 
 
80 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 from the hallway, and the droppings froftitfre perches 
 are easily removed at the rear of the building: The 
 cost of this building, finished in a workmanlike man- 
 ner, is less than fifty dollars, including the purchase of 
 the materials required. The bill of materials for a 
 poultry house twelve by sixteen feet is as follows : 
 
 Inches Feet Feet 
 
 Hemlock, 30 pieces 3x 4 16 480 
 
 8 pieces 3x4 12 96 
 
 3 pieces 3x 8 12 75 
 
 8 pieces 2x 4 12 64 
 
 4 pieces 2x4 16 44 
 
 boards 1x12 16 800 
 
 stripping . . . 1x3 16 80 
 
 stripping 1x2 16 160 
 
 Total 1796 
 
 Siding, flooring and dressed boards 210 
 
 Roofing, three-ply felt (square feet) 275 
 
 Wire netting i, 350 
 
 Netting, staples, hinges, etc 20 Ibs 
 
 Nails, assorted sizes 25 ' 
 
 10 locust posts, 6x6 feet 6 inches long 
 
 The house built had partly second-hand material 
 and so cost not more than twenty-five dollars. The 
 front elevation ( Figure 51) shows the house with the 
 yard on each side, while the ground plan (Figure 52) 
 shows the general interior arrangement. 
 
 A Practical Poultry Home The building shown 
 in the illustration (Figure 55) is on one of the farms 
 owned by Mr I. S. Long of Lebanon county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. The first two houses are twelve by fourteen 
 feet, one of which is used for laying hens. In the 
 middle is a feed box where the hens are fed. The other 
 house is a roosting place and is cleaned every three or 
 four days. After cleaning, the roosts are sprinkled 
 witii lime or coal ashes. The long, low shed is sixty- 
 six feet long by twelve feet wide. During winter, the 
 floor is covered deep with straw and chaff. Grain is 
 thrown on this, and the hens are compelled to work 
 to get out their feed. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 
 
 Poultry could often be kept in the second story of 
 a building if access to the ground could be secured. 
 The cut (Figure 56) shows an easy grade up to an 
 elevated door. The top and bottom boards are shown 
 in place, but the entire front should be covered with 
 slats. These can extend from the top board down to 
 
 FIG 56: RUNWAY TO SECOND STORY AND UPPER ROOM 
 
 the bcttom board. The grade is so easy that fowls will 
 readily pass up or down. By this plan a building can 
 often be made to hold two flocks instead of one. 
 
 In a barn or stable loft one can fit up a warm and 
 sunny room for early chicks, as shown at right of Fig- 
 ure 56. Low windows are put in under the eaves, and 
 light studding is set up as suggested, being nailed to 
 the rafters for the roof of the chicken room. Simply 
 lay boards in place for the top, and fill in the space 
 above with hay. Board up in front, leaving openings 
 for doors. Cover the floor with chaff, and put the hens 
 
ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 
 
 3 
 
 and their chicks in here during February and March, 
 and April, too, in the case of some states. The broods 
 will do much better here than on the cold, wet ground. 
 
 Adding a Scratching Pen The cut (Figure 57) 
 shows the ordinary farm poultry house, to which an 
 addition has been made in the form of a scratching 
 shed, for use not only in the winter season, but also 
 during rain storms at other times of year. 
 
 Such an open shed is also most convenient as a 
 roosting place for growing chickens during the sum- 
 
 FIG 57 : HOUSE WITH SCRATCHING SHED 
 
 mer. The front can have a frame, covered with cotton 
 cloth, fitted to the opening and hinged at the top, to 
 be let down at night in summer if desired, and on 
 stormy days in winter, when snow would be likely to 
 blow in if the front of the shed were left open. The 
 cost of a shed built in this way is very small, as no floor 
 is laid. 
 
 Poultry House Additions The cut at the right of 
 Figure 58 shows a way to utilize buildings already 
 existing when constructing a poultry house. A hay 
 barn or other structure having a long side toward the 
 
84 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 south can be used as in the case shown here, where the 
 high side of the poultry house has its boarding and 
 framing already furnished free of cost. There is 
 another great advantage in building poultry houses in 
 this way ; the added warmth that is thus secured. In 
 cold regions this is a matter of great importance, mak- 
 ing this plan exceedingly useful. 
 
 The open summer shed shown in Figure 58 at the 
 left was recently seen in operation, and answering its 
 purpose admirably. A "shed roof" was placed upon a 
 corner of a board fence, the open side being toward 
 the south. Here was protection for the fowls and cool 
 quarters for the summer. A wire fence met the two 
 
 FIG 58: SHELTER AND LEAN-TO 
 
 sides of the board fence, making house and yard all 
 in one inclosure. Extra summer colonies can thus 
 easily and cheaply be kept. 
 
 It is quite common to appropriate the sunny side of 
 the barn, building out toward the south and eastward, 
 for an aspect, which requires only a pitched roof and 
 low front, with the ends well boarded and seam- 
 battened, to render the inclosure quite comfortable, 
 stormproof, and sufficiently spacious for winter uses. 
 In summer this can be used for laying and roosting pur- 
 poses. If kept clean and free from vermin, it answers 
 very well, costs but a trifle, and may be of any size that 
 the barn side will afford for the back of it. There 
 should be a few sashes inserted in front or at the ends, 
 
ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS 05 
 
 where the sun can shine in, and this will make an eco- 
 nomical house, as well as a useful one, in many cases. 
 
 Preparing House for Winter Many farmers can- 
 not afford to build a suitable house. There is the mate- 
 rial about almost any farm for making the most open 
 house one of the warmest. There is no expense 
 attached to it except the labor. 
 
 At each corner of the house (Figure 59) and about 
 two feet out, set a post that will extend well above the 
 eaves. If the coop is large enough to make it necessary, 
 
 FIG 59: PROTECTED COOP 
 
 other posts of a uniform hight and at the same distance 
 from the walls of the coop can be set in the ground. 
 The posts should not be more than from six to eight 
 feet apart. Then about six inches from the ground 
 staple a smooth wire to .the posts, and another about 
 two feet above, and so on to the top of the posts, requir- 
 ing five or six wires. Then fill in between the posts and 
 wires and the coop with hay or straw. Small poles or 
 pieces of waste boards can be woven in the wires to 
 keep the hay in place. When the eaves are reached, 
 some material that will lead off the water should be put 
 
86 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 on top. Long slough grass has been found good 
 for this. 
 
 By setting a post each side of the door frame, and 
 one to correspond with each in a line with the outside 
 posts, and boarding up each side and fixing the top to 
 be covered with hay, the door of the coop will be 
 guarded from the cold. Of course an outside door of 
 some sort will be necessary. The windows can be pro- 
 vided for in the same way or a box of some rough 
 
 FIG 6ot RUN OF SASH AND STRAW 
 
 lumber be made and set in as the banking up is 
 being done. 
 
 Aside from a place reasonably warm to roost in, 
 chickens, to do well, should have a warm, sunny place 
 in which to exercise on warm days. Such a place can 
 be made each side the coop in the shape of a lean-to 
 facing the south. Set a line of posts the length desired 
 to make the lean-to, and spike two by fours across the 
 top, from one post to another, six to eight feet from the 
 
ADDITIONS AND EXTRAS oj 
 
 ground. Then cut the poles of a length to make the 
 desired pitch to the roof and lay one end over the two 
 by fours (it is well to notch the under sides so there 
 will be no danger of slipping), letting the other end rest 
 on the ground. Lay fine-limbed brush across these, and 
 upon this put the hay or straw- covering. In this place 
 can be put up nests and a dust box fixed and filled for 
 them to wallow in. The chickens, too, can be fed here. 
 Cheap Winter Run Figure 60 shows an easy way 
 to make a sunny winter run for poultry at little expense, 
 either of money, time or labor. Some old window sash 
 is set up for the front, and the top is covered with straw 
 
 FIG 6l I PROTECTED SCRATCHING SHEDS 
 
 or corn stalks. Make the top strong enough to hold the 
 weight of the snow that may fall upon it. If there is no 
 tight board fence at hand, the back can be boarded 
 roughly and then banked right up to and over the top 
 with straw or other material. 
 
 Protected Scratching Sheds The idea of an open 
 scratching shed for poultry has come to stay. Con- 
 tinuous poultry houses, with shed roofs, are now built 
 with two open scratching sheds side by side, then two 
 pens, then two open sheds, and so on. A section show- 
 ing two sheds, one each for the perns on either side, is 
 
88 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 given in .Figure 61. The special point brought out 
 here is the cotton cloth screen, or door, that closes the 
 front of each shed in stormy, very cold or blustering 
 weather. They are hinged at the top and are turned up 
 to the ceiling when the weather is suitable. Drifting 
 snows are kept out by putting down the screens, while 
 the outside air can come in and the light also. An open 
 shed in a snowy latitude without such a protection is 
 almost useless during the greater part of the winter, 
 unless one keeps shoveling snow. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 
 
 The buildings of a large establishment for artificial 
 hatching and rearing should be arranged with especial 
 reference to convenience. A few steps saved by a care- 
 
 BREEDWG HOUS 
 
 KILLING HOU3C. 
 
 \ RESIDENCE. 
 
 GROW/NO HOUSE. 
 
 fttDHOVSE. 
 
 m 
 
 INCUBATO* CELLAR. 
 
 BROODER HOUSE. 
 
 FIG 62: PLAN OF DUCK OR BROODER BUILDINGS 
 
 fill plan of building with due reference to location, be- 
 comes an important factor of success when applied to 
 the numberless dailv errands to and fro, Buildings to 
 
9O POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 be often visited, the incubator room, for instance, 
 should be near the dwelling. All the buildings should 
 be so arranged that the attendant can do the routine 
 work by a systematic plan, with no waste of time or 
 effort. The illustration (Figure 62) shows the actual 
 arrangement of a large plant to which allusion is made 
 in Bulletin 64 of the United States Department of Agri- 
 culture. Its convenience and compactness are seen at 
 a glance. 
 
 Improved Incubator House Figure 63 shows a 
 plan for obviating the inconvenience of rising tem- 
 perature in the incubator house when the sun is shin- 
 
 FIG 63: DOUBLE ROOF INCUBATOR HOUSE 
 
 ing, especially late in the spring or in the summer. 
 Then it is difficult to keep a uniform heat in the ma- 
 chines, as the house becomes overheated from the effect 
 of the sun upon the roof. A simple way out of the 
 difficulty is to put on an additional roof, leaving an air 
 space between the two. The inner roof can be covered 
 with cheap boar.ds and roofing paper, with lath battens. 
 The outer may have shingles over a layer of building 
 paper. 
 
 Banked Incubator Room In Figure 64 is shown 
 an incubator room that is built on the surface of the 
 
FOR ixcrn.vroks AND BROODKRS 91 
 
 ground, and yet is surrounded by earth, banked up 
 against its stone walls. It is banked on three sides, 
 leaving one side unbanked for entrance door and a 
 window. The incubator room need not be large, so the 
 labor of banking it in this way will not be great. Many 
 are not able to secure a suitable place underground for 
 a cellar, and for such the above plan will prove advan- 
 tageous. 
 
 A Successful Incubator House, illustrated in Fig- 
 ure 65, is in use by an extensive woman poultry farmer, 
 Mrs J. Fairbank, Oregon. It is a combination incu- 
 bator cellar, water tank and windmill tower. The two- 
 
 FIG 64: BANKED INCUBATOR ROOM 
 
 story building is fourteen by sixteen feet, with a one 
 thousand-chick capacity hatching cellar, a tank in the 
 second story which holds the water supply for the 
 whole farm, and a windmill on the roof to perform all 
 the pumping. 
 
 A double brooder house is shown in Figure 66, 
 with walk in the center and pens on either side, and 
 with heater at the end. Many prefer this plan to the 
 single brooder house, as the care and attention required 
 for the youngsters is much less and the cost of heating 
 is reduced, one heater being sufficient for both lines of 
 pipes. Then, again, this latter plan shortens the length 
 
92 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 of the building by one-half and makes the work more 
 concentrated. 
 
 Combined Brooder and Growing House Figure 
 67 shows a successful plan for a combination building. 
 The rows of brooder pens are at the right, while the 
 large pens and yards are at the left. In a duck plant 
 the right half of the buildings is used for the ducklings 
 
 FIG 65 I INCUBATOR HOUSE AND TANK 
 
 as soon as they are old enough to endure a lower tem- 
 perature than that of the brooders. In a broiler plant, 
 the use of the buildings may be similar, or the large 
 pens may be used for laying stock. 
 
 The heater and feed room are between the two 
 parts of the building, the heater being in a pit beneath 
 the feed room. Pipes run into both parts of the build- 
 
FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS Q3 
 
 ing 1 , as shown by the dotted lines. The pipes in the 
 right half of the building- are raised two or three feet 
 from the floor, and a lower temperature is maintained 
 as compared with the brooders. 
 
 The brooder box (Figure 68) is next to the pas- 
 sageway, or walk, on each side, and runs the entire 
 length of the building. This box is thirty inches wide 
 and eight inches high; the sides are seven inches high 
 and nailed securely ; the top of the cover is nailed across 
 with cleats to make it substantial, aad the cover has an 
 
 LLLLJdihl'JJ-l I II II m- 
 
 FIG 66 : DOUBLE BROODER HOUSE 
 
 inch strip nailed underneath in front and back to keep it 
 in position. These strips r.est against the seven-inch 
 sides and make the brooder snug" and tight when closed. 
 The heating pipes are directly beneath the cover and are 
 two-inch pipes, flow and return. Some prefer one-inch 
 pipes, using two flows and two returns. When three 
 pipes are used they should be about eight inches apart 
 from center to center. These pip.es rest on the partition 
 boards of the pens. The front of the brooder, leading 
 into the pens, is cut out in the center about four inches 
 
94 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 deep and four feet long, while the ends and the other 
 side are solid, being seven inches high. The construc- 
 tion of the brooder is clearly shown in b with cover 
 removed, while c shows cover. The heater is located at 
 the end of building. 
 
 A pipe brooder house, well liked at one of the 
 eastern experiment stations, is shown in the combina- 
 tion drawing (Figure 69), in which dimensions and 
 interior construction are indicated. The hot water sys- 
 tem is used, but the small lamp brooders may be used 
 
 1 
 
 R 
 
 (J 
 
 N 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 E 
 
 N 
 
 5 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 S \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 5 
 
 
 i * ! 
 
 MXKR, 
 
 .-,!:.- 
 
 =-=-, 
 
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 p 
 
 J- " 
 
 e 
 
 N 
 
 0\ 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 V 
 
 N 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FIG 67: COMBINATION BROODER BUILDING 
 
 if preferred. The heating pipes extend the length of 
 the building under the covers, b b b. Through exit, c, 
 the chicks reach a twenty-foot run inclosed with two- 
 foot board and netting above. One of these houses will 
 accommodate about five hundred chicks while small. 
 
 Houses for Single Brooders These little build- 
 ings, described by C. E. Matteson of Wisconsin, are 
 scattered over his place one hundred and fifty feet 
 apart, so that one colony will not interfere with the 
 other at feeding time, and each flock will go to its own 
 house at night. (See building at left of Figure 70.) 
 
FIG 68 : CONSTRUCTION OF BROODER BOX 
 
90 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 The dimensions are six by six feet, with shed roof 
 rive feet high at front or south side and three feet high 
 on north. Sills are two by six, and the house is 
 studded with two by four, two feet on center, and sided 
 with six-inch drop siding. 
 
 The front has a window nine by twelve feet, set 
 eight inches above the sill, so as to leave place for the 
 chicks to get to the yard, and the window should be 
 arranged to slide wide open, making a kind of shed of 
 it when weather is warm. The door is two and one- 
 half by four feet, placed on east side so you can enter 
 
 FIG 69: PIPE BROODER HOUSE 
 
 the building without first climbing into the yard. The 
 roof is of dressed and matched fencing, then shingled, 
 making it almost windproof. The interior shows a 
 brooder, a, set therein. These brooders are hot air, 
 thirty-six inches square, sunk in the ground floor of 
 these houses about four inches. The dirt that is taken 
 for the excavation is filled in around the brooder, which 
 gives the chicks a nice earth floor to scratch and ruffle in 
 when the weather will not let them go out. As they 
 grow older, say when four weeks old, they are given 
 full liberty in pleasant weather. 
 
FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 
 
 97 
 
 Figure 70, at the right hand, shows a house built, 
 against a bank, that can be twelve feet or more in 
 length. The cross section below shows how the home- 
 made brooder is located with respect to the run for 
 the chicks. Set on legs as it is, the attendant does not 
 have to stoop over his work, and with the raised run 
 for the chicks they are brought on a level with 
 the brooder, so they can easily run in and out. 
 
 This run is coated with gravel and cemented. The 
 brooder is three feet square. Allo\v six feet for each 
 
 FIG 70 : HOUSES FOR SEPARATE BROODERS 
 
 brooder and pen and you have three feet at the end of 
 each brooder sufficient space to give access to each 
 pen, which can be cleaned from the walk with a short- 
 handled hoe or rake. The house is twelve feet wide, 
 the walk or alley six and the run six. The top of the 
 brooder is hinged, to give easy access, and the partition 
 in front of the runs is tight, to keep in the warmth that 
 is produced by the sunshine coming in at the window. 
 If a bank of earth is not at hand, earth can be heaped 
 up to form a bench on which to locate the runs. Such 
 
90 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 a bank of earth makes the interior of the building much 
 warmer. 
 
 Both these houses are adapted for the lamp and 
 drum style brooder shown in the diagram at the left. 
 Later in the season may be substituted the cold brooder 
 shown at the upper left hand corner of Figure 70. 
 Woolen cloth, an old blanket or some sort of heavy 
 material, is tacked loosely at the sides and in a few 
 
 OREGON BROODER HOUSE 
 
 places through the center, in such a way that the loose 
 folds will hang down nearly to the bottom of the 
 brooder. This cloth should be of several thicknesses, 
 or padded if need be. It should hang lower near the 
 sides than at the center. It should also be constructed 
 in such a way that it can be raised as the chicks grow 
 in size. This can be done easily. The cloth can be 
 fastened to a frame made of inch boards and of a size 
 
1'UK INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 99 
 
 that will just fit snugly inside the brooder. At each 
 corner of the box put in pieces of two by four 
 studding, a, eight inches high, in which holes have been 
 bored an inch apart from the top to within four inches 
 of the bottom. Saw out the corners of the frame to 
 fit around these and insert a pin, c, in the hole that will 
 hold it at the desired hight. A strip, b, nailed to the 
 end pieces of the frame and reaching through the mid- 
 dle, will serve as a fastening to tack the cloth to in 
 the center. 
 
 Brooder House A building as shown in Figure 
 71 has been found satisfactory by an Oregon grower. 
 The floors of the warm hovers are covered two inches 
 deep with sand. They are warmed with two one and 
 
 =*^ 
 
 HOUSES EOR WINTER CHICKS 
 
 one-half-inch pipes, a a, overhead. The hovers are 
 thirty inches \vide, four feet long, one foot deep, ar- 
 ranged in two rows running lengthwise with a walk, b, 
 between. Through a small opening chicks enter a four 
 by four-foot runway, e c, and may thence pass outdoors 
 to runways four feet wide and thirty feet long. 
 
 A Brooder Attachment In early spring the 
 brooder chicks can be let out upon the ground and yet 
 be protected from the cold winds by the attachment 
 shown at the left of Figure 72. A box without top or 
 bottom is hooked to the side of the brooder, an opening 
 being cut in the side where the door of the brooder 
 comes. The top of the attachment is covered with 
 coarse cotton cloth, or a sash may be used. The cloth 
 
lOO POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 lets in fresh air and the sun's rays, but protects the 
 chicks from the cold winds. 
 
 Poultry House for Early Chicks This house, as 
 in Figure 72, at the right of the illustration, is used by 
 Mrs J. Wilson of Iowa for raising winter chicks. In 
 it she can put three hens with about forty chicks. Take 
 a box about six feet long, two and one-half feet wide, 
 two and one-half feet high in front, with sloping roof, 
 cover with tarred paper and have a sliding window in 
 front near the top, as shown. Dig a hole in the ground 
 just the size of the box, as for a hotbed. Fill it with 
 horse manure, cover with dry earth and over this put 
 soft straw, chaff and hayseed from the barn floor. 
 Place the box over this and put the hens and chicks 
 in. Throw an old carpet over all and they are easily 
 cared for. In a home like this it is surprising how fast 
 they will grow. A small door near the bottom may be 
 opened on warm days to let them have a little sun, but 
 they will soon scamper back. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS 
 
 Cold Storage of Poultry Products The only 
 really satisfactory means for keeping eggs and poultry 
 meat is cold storage. The system is working a revolu- 
 tion in the trade ; tending to equalize prices and increase 
 demand. In course of time the difference between 
 spring and winter prices will no doubt be far less than 
 at present. Meanwhile there is a good profit in holding 
 
 ICC ROOM 
 
 \ 
 
 FlG 73 : PLAN OF COLD STORAGE HOUSE FOR POULTRY 
 
 stored eggs. A commission man and buyer lately re- 
 marked that farmers could secure this profit themselves 
 by putting up little storage plants on the plan of co- 
 operative creameries, and selling the product at the 
 right season to retail customers. He expressed the 
 opinion that a town of one thousand or more people 
 would furnish ample scope for such an enterprise and 
 
102 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 the plant could be used a part of the time for storage of 
 fruit. The design given herewith (Figure 73) is for 
 storage with ice, is not expensive, and has been success- 
 fully used by a Michigan poultry farmer. 
 
 The ice room is eight by twelve feet in the clear, 
 being started with a six by six-inch sill laid in a trench 
 three inches deep. After the sills are laid in the ground 
 dirt is pressed in solidly, so as to leave no opportunity 
 for air to enter in at the bottom a very important 
 point. The studding of the inner room is two by eight- 
 inch lumber, twelve feet long, set twenty-four inches 
 from center to center, and having a plate of the same 
 size firmly spiked to the top, the inside of the studs 
 being sheathed with rough boards clear to the top of 
 the plate and around the bottom except at a, where one 
 stud has been left out, leaving an opening through 
 which the ice is passed in filling the house. This open- 
 ing is stopped with boards and simply laid in as the 
 house is filled. The top of the ice should be no higher 
 than the plate, and be covered twelve or eighteen inches 
 deep with hay or straw, well trodden down. 
 
 The outer wall is of two by four-inch studding, 
 twelve feet long, the sill set in the ground the same as 
 for the inner room, but carefully sheathed on both sides 
 with good, tight boards, and the space between filled 
 with sawdust clear to the plate. The outside is finished 
 with drop siding, having a thickness of paper between 
 that and the boards. 
 
 At B the inner and outer sheathing boards project 
 one and one-half inches beyond the studs, and other 
 loose boards are cut one and one-half inches shorter 
 than the space between the studs. 
 
 Then, as the ice is fitted in, these shorter boards 
 are laid up and the space between filled with sawdust, 
 this opening being only to fill the ice room. About 
 thirty-five tons of ice can be put in this house, which 
 
SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS 103 
 
 will be sufficient to last until cutting time another year. 
 
 The entrance door is made double ; that is, a sort 
 of vestibule is built out so that the door can be closed 
 behind when going in or coming out, thus avoiding 
 warm currents of air in the cooling room. The four- 
 foot space around the house is floored over six inches 
 above the ground sill, and provides ample room for 
 butter, meat, poultry or eggs, though eggs must not 
 be kept at a lower temperature than forty degrees 
 above zero. 
 
 If desired, another story may be added by placing 
 joists across the space eight feet from the lower floor. 
 This gives a larger amount of room for storing onions, 
 etc. The roof is hipped and provided with a ventilator 
 having lower slats arranged to open or close at will. 
 They should never be tightly closed, as fresh air should 
 always have more or less access to the top of the ice. 
 
 A six by six-inch timber is fastened at one end 
 under the hip rafter, projecting over the outer wall line 
 and provided with a stout eye-bolt to which the pulley 
 is caught in filling the ice room. This timber is braced 
 down to the plate with sticks of the same size. 
 
 The roof is shingled, and the cornice is made with 
 eight eight by eight-inch holes in the soffit, each being 
 provided with a board to close and open, thus perfect- 
 ing the ventilating arrangement. Windows are in both 
 sides, tightly fitted with two double sash for each eight, 
 and are set in the sides, so as to throw light in the end 
 passages. A box drain should be laid in the ground, 
 made of two by eight-inch stuff, and should project 
 three or four feet beyond the outside wall, and at each 
 end a small pit should be dug, filled nearly to the top 
 with small stone, with an armful of straw next, and dirt 
 filled in, well rammed down. No flooring will be re- 
 quired in the inner room, as the ice can be laid on the 
 ground. 
 
104 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 An Ontario Turkey House My turkeys have a 
 large range, and as foxes are numerous in this vicinity 
 a great many of the finest birds were killed last year. 
 In June I had a house built like the accompanying illus- 
 tration (Figure 74, at the upper half of the illustration) 
 
 FIG 74: BUILDINGS FOR TURKEYS 
 
 to secure the flock at night, to provide a feeding place 
 for the young birds during the day and to prevent the 
 old birds from eating with them. 
 
 The building is twelve feet square, ten feet high in 
 front and eight feet at the back. The foundation con- 
 
SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS 105 
 
 sists of tamarack planks spiked solidly together and 
 four posts are set in at the corners. The sides are of 
 fine slats, four inches wide, nailed an inch apart so as 
 to provide light and air within. The roof is made of 
 boards put on to exclude the rain. On one side is a 
 door, a, six by three feet, fastened by hooks on the 
 outside and inside. On the front there is an opening, 
 b, and a door, c. On the ground the opening, b, is 
 four inches high and five feet long and permits the 
 ingress and egress of the young birds only. This is 
 closed by means of a drop board. The hanging door, c, 
 is twelve feet long, two feet wide and two feet from the 
 ground, is formed of boards like the sides, is fastened 
 by hooks and is attached to the front by strong hinges. 
 Inside the house are drinking and feeding troughs for 
 the young birds, clean straw at one side and three tiers 
 of roosts, the first very low, the second midway and 
 the third of strong poles as near the top as possible. 
 
 In the morning I dropped the hanging door to let 
 out the old birds, fed them outside, and closed the 
 door. Went in at the side door, fastened it, fed and 
 watered the young birds and left them until the dew 
 was off the grass. By raising the board the young 
 ones could come out to the old ones. Three times a 
 day they came to be fed, the board being utilized to 
 shut them in until all were fed. At night the young 
 ones remained in and by dropping the hanging door 
 the old hens flew in. When the turkeys grew too large 
 for the opening, b, I fed them just outside the house 
 and they entered by means of both doors, which were 
 fastened before dark. [Mrs Edwin Colquhoun, 
 Ontario. 
 
 Another Turkey House Most people who have 
 had experience with turkeys know that these birds 
 prefer to roost on the ridgepole of a building rather 
 than under it, and that, too, in exceptionally cold 
 
106 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 weather. The turkey does not like close quarters, and 
 thrives best where it is given plenty of air. 
 
 In many sections of the country where the winters 
 are not too severe, the house shown in Figure 74, at the 
 lower part of the illustration, will be found an excel- 
 lent one for turkeys in winter, while in the northern 
 regions, even, such a building will be found most 
 useful as a roosting place for both chickens and poults 
 during the late summer and fall, since they need pro- 
 tection from rain and prowling animals, but plenty 
 of pure air to secure the finest growth. This need of 
 pure air at night is not properly appreciated by most 
 persons who attempt to raise chickens. 
 
 Improved Duck Houses Ducks are easily the 
 most profitable of all poultry, if the flesh product 
 simply is considered, while as a layer of eggs the Pekin 
 duck is exceedingly profitable. There can be no doubt 
 that it would be wise for more farmers to keep a flock 
 of breeding and laying ducks, and for this purpose 
 there is no better breed than the large, white Pekin. 
 
 As ducks roost on the floor, only low quarters are 
 needed. A lo\v, shed-roofed affair can be put onto the 
 side of the barn or other farm building, in the manner 
 shown in Figure 75, three feet of hight being sufficient. 
 Let the pen open into the large building, the partition 
 between being hinged at the top, so that by raising 
 it one can clean out the pen and put in dry bedding. 
 One can thus build duck quarters very inexpensively. 
 
 Figure 76 shows a duckhouse with shed and an 
 inclosed roost room. It is single walled and built in 
 the cheapest manner. 
 
 In Building a Dove Cote in a barn for six pairs, 
 they should have at least twelve feet square of floor 
 and eight feet high. The more space the better, unless 
 the pigeons are to have the freedom of the yard. The 
 boxes should be at least eight in number, each box to 
 
SPECIAL PURPOSE BUILDINGS 
 
 107 
 
 be double, completely divided so a young pigeon cannot 
 go from one to the other without flying. This allows 
 the mother to lay and hatch a second set of eggs before 
 the first are able to look after themselves. These 
 boxes must be set on the top of tinned posts or fixed 
 in some way so that the rats cannot reach the nests, 
 
 FIG 75 : IMPROVED DUCKHOUSE 
 
 FIG 76: DUCKHOUSE AND SHED 
 
 for rats are sure to destroy the eggs or young birds 
 in the nest. [A. H. Streeter, Hampshire County, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Making a Pigeon Loft Every boy on the farm 
 should have a flock of pigeons, be the variety Fan- 
 tails, Homers, Turbits or Jacobins. They are among 
 the most satisfactory pets that one can have, their pretty 
 
loS 
 
 PO U LTk V A KC II 1TECT URE 
 
 ways and beautiful forms and plumage making them 
 most desirable companions. A loft for the accom- 
 modation of pigeons can be made very easily in the 
 roof chamber of a shed or stable. The illustrations 
 (Figure 77) show inside and outside arrangement for 
 such a loft. With most pigeons there must be a wire 
 inclosure outside the window, else cats will make havoc 
 with the birds, many varieties not being very quick 
 upon the wing. A part of the inside partition is cut 
 away in the illustration to show the interior arrange- 
 
 FIG 77 : PIGEON LOFT AND INTERIOR 
 
 merit. Such a loft utilizes waste space and requires no 
 great expense for lumber. A boy should be able to fit 
 it up himself. 
 
 Combined Poultry and Pigeon House A poultry 
 house with a loft especially fitted up for the accommo- 
 dation of pigeons is shown in the accompanying illus- 
 trations (Figures 78, 79), from sketches by Webb 
 Donnell. The poultry quarters have an addition fitted 
 with wire netting in front in summer, as seen in Figure 
 
 78, and windows in winter, which serves as a scratch- 
 ing and dusting room, communication being had with 
 it from the main poultry room. The diagram, Figure 
 
 79, shows the inside arrangement when the building is 
 used for two breeds. Such an arrangement secures 
 exceedingly warm roosting places for both flocks, as 
 
SPECIAL PURPOSE r.UILDIXGS 
 
 IO9 
 
 the recesses occupied by the roosts can be shut off from 
 the main room to some extent by placing partitions in 
 front of the roosts, extending from the ceiling, but not 
 
 HOUSE FOR POULTRY AND PIGEONS 
 
 FIG 79: GROUND PLAN FOR COMBINATION HOUSE 
 
 reaching to the floor. The warm air from the bodies 
 of the fowls is thus kept around and above the birds 
 while on their roosts. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 COOPS,, YARDS AND FENCES 
 
 Compared with the houses, the coops are small 
 and temporary affairs, being" used often only a few 
 months of the year. Present use rather than appear- 
 ance or durability is usually considered. In some cases 
 the. coop item is so far overlooked that it becomes the 
 weak feature of the plant, and serious losses occur 
 from overcrowding the young stock or failing to pro- 
 
 FIG 8OI GLASS-ROOFED COOPS 
 
 tect them against pests ; neglecting to separate fowls 
 ill with contagious diseases ; lack of accommodations 
 for sitters, fattening fowls, extra males or show birds. 
 There is little excuse for such conditions; materials 
 good for coops being plenty and cheap, while on 
 account of the limited size of such structures they may 
 be nailed together any time in the workshop or shed. 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND KKNCES 
 
 III 
 
 A Coop for Early Chicks The two upper draw- 
 ings of Figure 80 show a desirable coop for very early 
 chickens. The coop is long and sloping and has a hot- 
 bed sash hinged to the top. The higher half of the 
 coop has a tight bottom with slats at its outer edge. 
 There is no bottom to the rest of the coop, and the 
 lower end has a hinged door, and, is also covered with 
 one-inch mesh of wire netting. 
 
 When very cold the door can be shut up tight and 
 
 FIG 8l : HOTBED RUN AND COOPS 
 
 the chicks will have a warm run on the ground outside 
 the slats. When it is warmer, the end door can be 
 dropped, giving a protected run, but plenty of fresh 
 air. The hen can be let out into this run when desired. 
 A cloth can be thrown over the glass at night when 
 the \veather is cold. 
 
 The drawing in the lower right-hand corner of 
 Figure 80 shows a house with glass run for winter 
 chicks. 
 
112 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 The lower left-hand drawing in Figure 80 shows 
 a hotbed that is built against the south side of the 
 poultry house, serving all through the winter as a 
 sunny scratching place for the fowls. These are shut 
 out at the approach of spring and the hotbed started. 
 About the time the plants are started the fowls will be 
 getting out upon the ground, while all through the deep 
 snows of winter they will have an exceedingly sunny 
 space to run in. Make the hotbed large enough to give 
 sufficient scratching space. The room can well be 
 utilized with early plants in the spring. 
 
 FIG 82: RAT-PROOF COOPS AND RUX 
 
 Figure 81 shows another coop on the hotbed plan 
 Several brood hens are kept in boxes or A coops con- 
 necting with the sashed runs, and the chickens may run 
 together if desired, although it is better to have them 
 divided at first till they become used to brooding in 
 flocks of even number. 
 
 Rat-Proof Coops mid Run The first has a pro- 
 jecting top, as shown in the upper left of Figure 82, 
 to keep out the heat of the sun and the rain. It has a 
 netting front to give good ventilation, while keeping 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FEXCKS 113 
 
 out enemies at night. It has a small board below that 
 can be removed during the day so the chicks can run 
 out and in, while the hen will be confined. The coop 
 can be cleaned in an instant. All these advantages will 
 commend this coop to those who have had experience 
 with the coops ordinarily seen. 
 
 Cool Run for Chicks They appreciate a bit of 
 shade during midday and should not be forced to find 
 it in the coop, which too often is almost air-tight. Cut 
 a hoop in two equal lengths and to a, b and c, as at the 
 right of the drawing previously described in Figure 
 82, each tack either end of three pieces of lath or other 
 light wood. Over this framework stretch cotton cloth, 
 d, or bagging, and tack firmly in pace. The open ends 
 admit a free current of air, while the cover keeps off 
 direct sun rays. 
 
 The illustration at the lower left of Figure 82 
 gives an idea for the construction of a neat, handy 
 and healthy coop. It can be made of any size. For one 
 or two broods of chickens, about four feet square and 
 two feet high in front and eighteen inches high in the 
 rear is a convenient size. It should be made with a 
 tight floor to prevent the entrance of rats, skunks, etc, 
 and also to aid in keeping clean. The entrance should 
 have two doors, one of them merely a frame over 
 which is stretched wire netting with meshes fine 
 enough to exclude all prowlers of the night. This is 
 to be used in the summer time when it is too hot to 
 shut the coops with the tight doors. The other door 
 can be made to shut over the wire door by hinging at 
 the top. The wire door is made to slide in from the 
 top or end. With the coop tightly closed there will 
 not be sufficient ventilation. A ventilator made of 
 three or four-inch boards nailed into a box about two 
 and one-half feet long, set in the middle of the coop 
 roof and extending down inside to within a couple of 
 
114 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 inches of the bottom, will suffice. At the rear, to aid in 
 cleaning, should be a door about eight inches wide 
 extending the whole length of the coop at the bottom. 
 By lifting this and using a small hoe-like tool, a, made 
 by taking a block four by eight inches and boring a 
 hole in the center and putting in a handle about two 
 feet long, the job of cleaning is a short and easy one. 
 All coops should be painted and the roof made tight 
 enough to prevent leaking. These coops are not too 
 heavy to be carried to any place where it is desirable. 
 The illustration shows the coop with one door raised, 
 showing the wire netting. 
 
 Rat-Proof Coops The plan, Figure 82, at the 
 lower right-hand corner, shows how one is built. The 
 lower space in front is protected with a sliding frame, 
 covered with eighteen-inch galvanized heavy wire net- 
 ting. The dot is a small hole with a large wire nail 
 through the frame. The two dots above are holes for 
 fastening the screen frame so the chicks can run, and 
 confine the hen, or the hen can run, as one wishes. The 
 legs are about three inches high, so there is no chance 
 for rats to work underneath, and the plan also prevents 
 loss by possible drowning in a heavy shower. With 
 the frame down at night, cats, rats or others pests are 
 kept out. 
 
 Hay Shed Coop My chicken coops are made be- 
 neath a western hay shed, which is built by setting 
 posts about ten feet apart, placing stringers on top 
 and laying poles across, upon which the hay is stacked. 
 The entire shed or corral is inclosed by boarding -up 
 and down with slabs, and is divided into five sections, 
 occupying the space of twenty feet square for each 
 coop or pen. All the roosts are in the center coop and 
 are made of small green oak poles reaching up to 
 within two feet of the roof, which is eight feet from 
 the ground. Instead of having a single slant with 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 115 
 
 poles nailed on every two feet, I have the roosts in the 
 shape of a wide hay rack or double feed stall, slanting 
 both ways, with poles every two feet, and some between 
 the top perches. In this way I get all the young chicks 
 to their perches long before the mothers leave them, 
 and give plenty of room for all to roost on the top 
 poles. [J. L. Shoemaker, Utah. 
 
 Ten-Cent Coops A chicken coop that will last 
 for ten years at a cost of ten cents ! The cut ( Figure 
 83) explains itself better than words can do. A soap, 
 starch or canned fruit box of the right size can 
 usually be procured for from five to ten cents (fre- 
 quently at the former price if a quantity are engaged), 
 
 FIG 83 : BOX AND BARREL COOPS 
 
 and this, with a few bits of lath for the door, which is 
 hung on leather hinges, and a board for an awning 
 completes the requisites. Triangular pieces of board 
 must be nailed to the awning, which is also attached 
 by leather hinges. When more light or sun is needed 
 by the brood, simply turn the shed roof over onto the 
 top of the coop. By a little extra work the board can 
 be made to serve the purpose of shutting in the 
 chickens at night by dispensing with' wooden supports 
 and using iron hooks to keep the shed in place. In 
 this case ventilation must be provided. This coop can 
 be made in a few minutes and is better than many more 
 costly ones. It will be improved by covering the top 
 with building paper, which must be painted each year. 
 
n6 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Another coop just as cheap may be made from a 
 barrel sawed in two lengthwise (Figure 83). Before 
 sawing nail staves to hoops. A coop from a whole 
 barrel slatted in front is shown in Figure 84. Also a 
 peach crate used as a coop. 
 
 A cheap coop can be made from an apple barrel 
 with the one end covered with lath and a door to 
 admit of cleaning and placing feed for the brood and 
 the old hen. At night and on wet days a piece of oil- 
 cloth can be arranged to shelter the front and be 
 
 FIG 84 : COOPS FROM BARRELS AND CRATES 
 
 thrown back when not in use. It can be easily re- 
 moved from one place to another, admitting of fresh 
 surroundings as often as deemed necessary. It is 
 raised slightly from the ground by means of blocks on 
 either side to avoid the least dampness. The inside 
 of the barrel should be covered with fresh straw in a 
 moderate quantity. Wire netting in place of lath can 
 also be used and is just as good for the front, possibly 
 better. The entrance board can be made by cutting the 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 
 
 117 
 
 front block under the barrel, slanting" a.nd placing 
 
 cleats on it, to allow the chicks to get in and out easily. 
 
 A-Shapcd Coops Several forms of these very 
 
 simple and cheap coops for young chicks are shown in 
 
 FIG 85 : A-SHAPED COOPS 
 
 Figure 85. Beginning at the upper left corner, 
 the first coop is made by dividing a good-sized box by 
 cutting through two corners, making two coops of one 
 box. The roof should be closely battened or covered 
 with painted sheathing paper. The coop adjoining to 
 
 FIG 86: A-SIIAPED COOI AND FRAME 
 
 the right has its roof lapped clapboard fashion, and a 
 convenient drop door of slats. At the lower left 
 corner is a style common in its main features on many 
 large establishments. It is cheap, warm, dry, and can 
 
Il8 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 easily be made rat-proof. The fourth is good where 
 hen and chickens run together. The house part is 
 quickly made from an old box, and may be fastened to 
 the yard or simply moved close against it. The yard is 
 of inch mesh a foot high, but the top may be of two- 
 inch mesh. 
 
 Another simple A coop appears in Figure 86. At 
 the right of this illustration is shown a frame which 
 may be covered with boards or paper and slatted in 
 front or protected with netting. 
 
 FIG 87 : COOP FROM A SHOE BOX 
 
 Bo.r Coops One style is made out of a wide shoe 
 box, or case, by nailing a board (as shown in Figure 
 87) on each end, which shall extend beyond the sides 
 and above the top of the box ; and across these is nailed 
 another board, forming the roof. The ventilation is 
 perfect, when the roof is constructed in this manner, 
 while at the same time it proves a complete protection 
 against storms. A coop of this sort can be readily 
 made with but little trouble and at slight expense. 
 
 In the side not shown in the cut is a door through 
 which the hen is admitted or let out, and on the front 
 side (see cut) a pane of glass can be inserted, if de- 
 sired, to give ample light. 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES IIlJ 
 
 Another plan is shown in Figure 88. Tip a lar ;e 
 packing box on one side, making the open space or 
 original top the front. Nail boards, a, across this 
 space half way down, letting the top one, b, extend 
 nearly its width above the top edge of the box, and 
 several inches beyond 'the ends. Nail a similar one, c, 
 on the back, leaving this a couple of inches above the 
 top. Two side boards, d, are now added, sawed slant- 
 ing to make a smooth slope between the front and back 
 for the roof. As they are six inches beyond the 
 ends of the box, it makes a protection from the 
 
 FIG 88: A PACKING BOX COOP 
 
 weather, besides leaving space for circulation, while 
 to make this of value to the interior a square must be 
 sawed from the top of the box before the roof is put 
 on, as this top floor has been left whole. This makes 
 the ventilation good without danger of leaks, and the 
 roof is now added. 
 
 Returning to the unbearded space in front, we 
 nail a strip four inches wide down the center and tack- 
 fine wire netting, /, over one side. A second strip is 
 put over the first to cover the edge of the netting, and 
 to leave room for a groove for the sliding door, g, on 
 
12O 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECT URE 
 
 the other side. This may be either of wood or a 
 skeleton frame made and covered with netting. A 
 groove must be made in the box for the other side of 
 the slide. Nearly all the boxes come with well-stayed 
 corners, so this is not difficult. 
 
 FIG 
 
 BROOD COOP WITH RUN 
 
 Paint the outside, roof and all, to prevent the 
 cracks from spreading. Or the roof may be covered 
 with roofing paper or cheaper still with tarred paper, 
 which will last a season or two. These bt>xes vary 
 somewhat in size, but they will hold from fifteen to 
 twenty-five chickens till they are pretty well grown, 
 
 FIG 9<D : LIGHT BOX COOPS 
 
 and as they are strong and well built they will last 
 many years. 
 
 Brood Coop with Run The coop shown herewith 
 (Figure 89) is one that is used extensively on the 
 Kentucky Stock and Poultry Farm of Brandenburg, 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 121 
 
 Kentucky. In it a hen can brood twenty to forty 
 chicks. It is made of one and one-half-inch mesh wire 
 with a board top, and the dimensions are as follows : 
 a to b, four feet ; c to a, two feet ; d to e, two feet ; k k 
 are doors. 
 
 A Light Coop The materials (Figure 90) are 
 twenty-one spruce laths, two boards, a, six by twenty- 
 five inches, two two by two posts, b. four inches high, 
 and a shoe box, c, twenty-five by eighteen by fourteen 
 inches. Nail the four boards to the posts, leaving a 
 space at the bottom ; nail nine laths to the front end of 
 box and the other end to the end made by nailing the 
 boards and posts together. Now nail six 'laths to each 
 
 FIG QI : SHELTER AND PORTABLE COOP 
 
 side of the box and to the end. The second half of 
 the illustration shows another coop built on a like plan 
 with slide between box and yard. 
 
 Summer and Fall Shelter Growing chicks can be 
 kept in a most vigorous condition by having pure air 
 at night. Shut up in close coops they cannot have this. 
 Get them to roosting out of doors as early as possible, 
 but provide a shelter for the roosts. 
 
 This can be made very cheaply by putting up a 
 rough board and stake frame, as shown in Figure 91, 
 and covering it with tarred paper, tacking a lath on the 
 outside, over each rafter. This will protect the chicks 
 from showers in the night, but will not shut out any 
 pure air. 
 
122 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Fowls do well colonized out in small flocks in 
 summer. They need little more shelter than a roosting 
 place that is protected from storms and showers. Fig- 
 ure 92 shows an A shelter boarded with matched 
 lumber to the ground on one side and end, with nests 
 and roosts inside. Put the tight side and end toward 
 the direction of storms. Fowls can thus be colonized 
 in many flocks on pasture and other rough land, obviat- 
 ing the necessity of building many yards, and of 
 
 FIG 92 : COLONY SHELTER COO 
 
 furnishing all the feed Fowls on free range will get 
 half their living themselves. 
 
 A well-ventilated coop is needed for chickens in 
 the fall. They should also have a chance to roost, as 
 crowding together in their own droppings is not 
 healthful. The coop shown in Figure 91, at the right, 
 fulfills both requirements, and is very convenient and 
 easily made. The wire netting at the bottom on each 
 side is six inches wide, this being the narrowest width 
 of the netting that is sold. 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 
 
 123 
 
 An Orchard Chicken Coop A coop is shown 
 herewith (Figure 93) that is made specially for use 
 under trees. Its pie-shaped form fits it to he revolved 
 about a tree trunk, giving a succession of new strips 
 of ground for the chickens to scratch in, and an equal 
 fertilizing of the soil all about the tree. 
 
 To Fatten Quickly For a few fowls a simple 
 portable coop may be used. The pen is kept dark 
 except when the fowls are eating. A'fattening coop 
 used for single birds is shown in Figure 94. 
 
 FIG 93 : ORCHARD COOP 
 
 When Sitters Are to Be Broken up the coops 
 should be cool and airy and supplied with food and 
 water. A coop of the kind shown in Figure 95 is all 
 that is needed. The slats are of old fence pickets, and 
 the structure is stout and durable. 
 
 At the right of Figure 95 is shown a plan for a 
 special coop for sitters with eggs. The house has A- 
 shaped roof with coating of tar. There are two rows 
 of nests inside, with a walk between. Feed, water and 
 
I2 4 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 grit should be kept inside. After the first few days 
 the hens will find their own nests after coming" off, but 
 the safer plan is to remove them all at a regular time 
 
 FIG 94: FATTENING BOXES 
 
 daily, and visit the coop awhile later to see that all 
 is well. 
 
 Shipping and Show Coops Expressmen have 
 found much fault in the wav fowls were occasionally 
 
 FIG 95 I COOPS FOR SITTING HENS 
 
 prepared for shipment and the result was double first- 
 class charges used to be made on poultry. As this 
 seemed an injustice poultrymen and expressmen came 
 together and decided on what should constitute a 
 
COOPS, YARDS AND FENCES 
 
 125 
 
 proper coop in consideration of single nrst-class mer- 
 chandise rates instead of double. This conference 
 resulted in the adoption of a "one rate" price instead 
 of a "double rate." Also that coops must be strong 
 and slatted and not injured by other packages being 
 
 FIG 96: SHIPPING AND EXHIBITION COOPS 
 
 piled on them. If the coop is sufficiently strong, ex- 
 pressmen have no objection to coops being lined inside 
 with cloth to protect birds from a draft. The coop 
 illustrated in Figure 96 is four feet long, two feet wide 
 and twenty inches high, made entirely of laths, except- 
 
 fv 
 
 
 
 FIG 97 : YARDS FOR THREE FLOCKS 
 
 ing the bottom and the boards around the base, which 
 are four inches wide, of bottom box stuff. The laths 
 on the sides are securely nailed to posts which are of 
 inch-square spruce. Such a coop will carry any 
 amount of merchandise piled on top of it, as much so 
 as though it was a box. 
 
T26 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECT U RE 
 
 Before fowls are sent to the show room they 
 should receive a course of training, to accustom them 
 to confinement, handling and a crowd of visitors. 
 Unless this is done they will not show at their best and 
 fail to make the impression on the judge and visitors 
 of more upstanding, bolder birds. Confine them in 
 coops, similar to the one shown in Figure 92, for two 
 weeks prior to the exhibition and handle each one daily. 
 
 Yard for Three or Four Flocks Two good plans 
 are shown in Figure 97. The first calls for a house 
 
 YARD 
 
 YARD 
 
 HOUSf 
 
 YARD 
 
 YARD 
 
 FIG 98 I YARDS FOR TWO OR FOUR FLOCKS 
 
 twenty by thirty feet for one hundred fowls or less. 
 The hallway takes but little room out of the interior, 
 and yet it communicates with all three pens. The 
 inside divisions are of wire netting, allowing the sun- 
 shine that enters at one side of the house to fall into 
 all the pens ; but the house should be so located that 
 three sides may receive morning, noon and afternoon 
 sun. The same plan is followed for dividing the yard 
 outside as for dividing the space inside the house. 
 This gives a large amount of y?rd space, with the 
 yards conveniently located. This building is 
 
COOi'S, YARDS AND FENCES 1 27 
 
 all over the outside, with the heaviest building paper 
 under the shingles, and may either be sheathed or 
 lathed and plastered inside. 
 
 The second plan comprises a three-pen, shed- 
 roofed house with three yards of the usual size and a 
 large yard that can be used for one pen of fowls on one 
 day and for another the next day. This "common" 
 yard may be an old pasture or field that need not be 
 fenced except near the poultry house. With such a 
 run into which to turn the fowls on alternate days, 
 almost the same results may be obtained as when free 
 range can be had and at much less expense for fencing 
 than when very large yards are provided for each pen. 
 
 FIG 99 : MOVABLE POULTRY YARD 
 
 Figure 98 shows a plan for four flocks with house 
 in center, or for two flocks with alternate yards, allow- 
 ing one yard to be plowed and sowed to green crops. 
 The latter is a good plan for breeding flocks kept on 
 limited range. 
 
 Movable Yards The section abed (Figure 
 99), is of light boards, covered with poultry netting. 
 To bottom board, c d, are fastened three heavy planks 
 or supports, e f g, meeting the board at right angles. 
 These hold the structure upright, and four similar 
 pieces hooked together make a convenient poultry yard 
 which may be moved without trouble. 
 
 A handy movable panel, shown in second half of 
 Figure 99, is of two boards below and netting above. 
 
128 
 
 POULTRY ARCHITECTURE 
 
 It is neat and will hold fowls of any size. The hooks 
 shown at the corners fit into rings in the posts. 
 
 Making a Picket Fence Hen-Tight On many 
 farms the hens could be given free range if the garden 
 fence were a sufficient barrier to the fowls. The cut 
 shows a picket fence with a picket extending upward 
 for fifteen inches every twelve feet. To these extended 
 ends of the pickets is stretched a twelve-inch strip of 
 wire netting, as shown in the sketch (Figure 100). 
 In the prominence of the pickets the fowls do not 
 clearly notice the netting until they fly against it. 
 After a few trials they will give up the attempt to fly 
 
 FIG IOO: MAKING A FENCE CHICKEN PROOF 
 
 over. Poultry yard fences can be constructed in this 
 way, using ordinary pickets, and above them any 
 needed width of netting, according as the fowls are 
 Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks or Leghorns. 
 
 The ordinary poultry fencing is all right for 
 fowls, but will not turn chickens until they reach the 
 age of ten or more weeks. A simple device for making 
 poultry netting chicken-tight is shown in Figure 100. 
 Two or three laths are woven into the lower meshes, in 
 the manner shown, making a barrier that small 
 chickens will not pass. This is both easy of construc- 
 tion and effective. 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Additions 83 
 
 Barrel coops 1 16 
 
 Hoarding, crosswise 3 
 
 Box coops 1 1 8 
 
 Brooder attachment 99 
 
 box 93 
 
 cold 9 
 
 house bank 97 
 
 combined 92 
 
 double 91 
 
 Oregon 99 
 
 P>pe 94 
 
 single 94 
 
 Matteson's 97 
 
 Building, low cost 1 1 
 
 Business poultry plant 76 
 
 Colony house 24 
 
 shelter coop 125 
 
 system in Rhode Island 33 
 
 Convenient house 13 
 
 Coop, a light 121 
 
 A-shaped 117 
 
 brood 1 20 
 
 Coops, box 118 
 
 for fattening 123 
 
 for orchard 123 
 
 hay sheds 114 
 
 rat proof 112, 114 
 
 ten-cent 115 
 
 with glass roof no 
 
 Cornstalk shelter 23 
 
 Drainage 3 
 
 Duckhouses 106 
 
 Early chicks, coop for in 
 
 house for 100 
 
 Exhibition coops 124 
 
 Experiments, West Virginia 5 
 
 Farmers' poultry house 37 
 
 Feed house 29 
 
 Fence, hen tight 127 
 
 Fattening coops 123 
 
 Floor, a cement 3 
 
 of clay 56 
 
 Foundation, a post 2 
 
 stone 2 
 
 France, G. R., house of n 
 
 Glass in houses 6 
 
 Heating pipes 93 
 
 Hennery, handy 16 
 
 Home, a practical poultry 80 
 
 PAGE 
 
 House, a business 25 
 
 a Kansas 60 
 
 a Maine 58 
 
 a Nebraska 6_> 
 
 a ten-dollar 19 
 
 cheap and labor-saving 14 
 
 convenient i 
 
 cost of per fowl 8 
 
 economical, small 22 
 
 for cold storage 101 
 
 for ducks 106 
 
 for mild climate 10 
 
 for one hundred fowls 49 
 
 for thirty fowls 20 
 
 for turkeys 1 04 
 
 farmers' poultry 3, 
 
 good winter 53 
 
 in bank wall 68 
 
 in sand bank 63 
 
 light 56 
 
 L-shaped 51 
 
 model 78 
 
 movable 45 
 
 octagon 51 
 
 of sods 59 
 
 poultry and pieeon 108 
 
 prize, Grundy's 35 
 
 protected for winter 9=; 
 
 removable 40 
 
 Rhode Island colony 3-' 
 
 satisfactory 54 
 
 situation of 3 
 
 warm 68 
 
 well made 70 
 
 windproof 65 
 
 with cloth run 50 
 
 with scratching shed 21 
 
 Houses, effect of heating 5 
 
 northern colony 30 
 
 Ice room 102 
 
 Incubator house 90 
 
 Mrs Fairbanks's 91 
 
 room banked 90 
 
 Layers, house for 18 
 
 Lean-to for poultry 84 
 
 Location of poultry plant 2 
 
 Log house 66 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 Material, preserving 
 second hand 
 
 Nest boxes 
 
 Notes for builders 
 
130 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Octagon house 51 
 
 Pigeon lofts 107 
 
 Pollard's poultry house 76 
 
 Poultry plant, plan of 89 
 
 Rhode Island colony house 32 
 
 Roof, hning for 6 
 
 Roosts 7, 75 
 
 movable 55 
 
 warm 5 
 
 Run, cool for chicks 113 
 
 for winter 86 
 
 Runway to second story 82 
 
 Sand house 67 
 
 Sash with double glass 7 
 
 Second story room 82 
 
 Scratching pen 83 
 
 shed 21 
 
 sheds protected 87 
 
 Shelter, cornstalk 23 
 
 summer and fall 121 
 
 sunny 84 
 
 Shipping coops 124 
 
 Site for poultry buildings 2 
 
 Slope for poultry plant 2 
 
 Sod houses 59 
 
 to lay 62 
 
 Soil for poultry plant i 
 
 Stoddard's poultry house 25 
 
 Tank and incubator house 92 
 
 Troughs and fountains . . 8 
 
 Turkey houses 104 
 
 Ventilator 56 
 
 Wall, a warm 4 
 
 Water supply 92 
 
 Windows, double 
 
 removable 6 
 
 Winter protection 85 
 
 Yard for three flocks 125 
 
 Yards, movable 127 
 
 for two or four flocks 126 
 
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'1629 
 
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