Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1918 — MODEL HOUSE FOR SMALL HEN FLOCK [ARTICLE]

MODEL HOUSE FOR SMALL HEN FLOCK

Here is a house that can be built quickly and feasily and inexpensively to house a flock of 20 to 25 hens. The accompanying plan shows how to build it. It is 8 feet square and can be made of 2 by 4-inch pieces and 12-lnch boards. The 2 by 4 pieces are used for sills, plates, corner posts, and three rafters. No studding is required except that necessary to frame the door and window, space. The boards are run up and down and give the house sufficient strength. They are used also for the roof, which is covered with roofing paper. The back and sides of the house also can be covered with roofing paper or the cracks can be covered with wood battens or scrips 1% to 3 inches wide. In front of the house there should be left a window or opening which can be closed, when desired, by a muslin screen or curtain which serves as a protection against bad weather but allows ventilation. In the side a door should be provided. A shed or singleslope roof is best because easiest to build. A height of 6 feet in front and 4 feet in the rear is ample. If desired the house may be built higher so that it Is more convenient to work in; the Increase in cost will be slight. The ventilator in the rear is not needed in the northern part of "the country, but is desirable in the South where summers are very warm. The complete bill of materials needed to build this house is listed piece by piece tn Farmers’ Bulletin 889, “Back-Yard Poultry Keeping,” of the United States department of agriculture. The bulletin also tells how to build dropping boards, roosts, nests, and the other equipment needed in a poultry house and makes suggestions about the location of tfie house and yard.