fastened by hinges to the walls and raised to clean the dropping board. Roost spacing will depend upon the size of the fowls, but a 10" space to each fowl is usually sufficient. They must be put 15" apart.
Nests made 14" square are built under the dropping boards around the walls of the house as shown in cut. A 4" piece of wood is placed on the side, which drops as a door in front of the nests.
Windows as shown in the cut are more expensive and not as good as a front made of wood extending about 2' from the bottom. Wire screening, admitting better ventilation and more sunlight, is tacked over the rest of the opening in the front. A curtain may be made of unbleached muslin and fastened on a pole at the top of the open front, which may be lowered as a protection in bad weather.
Make the roof of some water tight material and cover the walls on the inside to protect the fowls from draughts.
Nests.—Comfortable and convenient quarters must be furnished
the sitting hen. The location of the nest must be in a
quiet, dark place to keep the hen from becoming restless. A box
fifteen inches square and twelve inches high, with a narrow strip
four to five inches wide at the bottom of the open front of the box,
makes a comfortable nest. Barrels or half-barrels or nests made
of a piece of sod will also be comfortable quarters for the sitting
hen. The nests must be well lined with hay, straw, or excelsior.
Both the nests and the hen must be thoroughly dusted with insect
powder before the sitting time comes.
Hatching and Rearing.—There are two methods used in the hatching and rearing of chickens—the natural, when the chicks are hatched and reared by a hen, and the artificial, when they are hatched in incubators and brooded in houses indoors or out-of-doors. The natural method will be found to be more satisfactory when dealing with a small number of chickens. A small number of hens, if managed with system and care, will produce a large number of chickens at a very small cost.
Care must be taken in the selection of the eggs to be used for hatching purposes. Select well-formed eggs which are regular in shape and size and which are neither too large nor too small. They should come from healthy hens of one breed and should be smooth and of one color. Eggs must be kept in a dry, cool place and at a temperature of from fifty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit. The fertility of an egg weakens with age; so they must be kept
