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Show HEALTHY YARD FOR POULTRY Essential Features In Keeping Chickens Chick-ens Are Clean Quarters, Grass and Exercise. The essential features In poultry keeping are rlean quarters, grass end exercise; coops that are easy to clean, easy to feed and not expensive to make. After many years of itndv and experiment with all the different kinds of poultry houses I find the following fol-lowing plan Is tie Hlmplt-fit and by far the best, except In the snowy period pe-riod of winter, when the birds and ' mm -Wk e !lS:!.i;:iil!ll!!i:i-!ili I'H'H.'LM1'1! V Cheap Poultry Yard. yards ran pe placed In an open rhed j j facing south. The yards sre b ull In 1 I sections four feed wide, two feet high j aid IG feet long One or I'u sections can be placed J end to end and t lie length of the yard is only limited by your bo.indarv or whatever else there Is to restrict you. A grans and clover field Is the best, but when I started my yards they were on corn stubble und a line grassy yard has grown without needing need-ing in two years, writes H. Thonvts in It'.iral New Yorker. The materials are kept In all lumber yards. Six arbor laths 1x2x16 white pine finished and free from knots and other weak spots, cost about 2.1 cents each, will make the frame. The sides, ends and top ran be made up of plaster laths nailed one Inch apart for small chickens chick-ens and 1 i to 2 Inches for adult fowls. Torch lattice strips lt nearer, better and a little more expensive, but If painted would make a neater appearance and be more lasting. The end section should be closed at the ends with a sliding door to shut all birds In when moving yards; Intermediate Inter-mediate sections are braced on the ends and left oien otherwise. The top of each section should hav four feet closed with light lumber or a sheet of galvanized Iron which will furnish shade for the fowls on warm days. For broder yardB these sections should have the whole top covered with galvanized Iron or light lumber and it will save much loss from sudden sud-den showers, but make them llfcht enough to move easily. The roosting room should be four feet square and two feet high with two roosts and oiM-n at the top like n box. These coops are easy to move by Just dragging drag-ging them along. They will hold 12 or 14 Leghorns and have roosting coops enough to accommodate your flock. Laying houses are the same sle with four no-its on each side opened at the top. These bouses should be closed at the evening feeding feed-ing time to stop birds from roosting In the house or nests. Dry mash hov pers are kept in another house of the same pattern and each house should have one or more sections between the tn. These yards make Ideal Leghorn yards (they are always in their own place and not scratching at your neighbor's garden), which Is their greatest recommendation. I am a trucker nnd my neighbor's chickens do me more harm than all the bugs. Ka h morning a little grain Is thrown In the end section, and when all the birds are In close the side nnd then move each section over sideways till nil are on the clean grass, then move the end section, birds and all. taking care not to pinch their toes, but they are usually too eager for the new grass to get their toes pinched. Hoostlng houses should have no bottom. bot-tom. Laying houses have only wire netting on bottom of the nests to keep in the straw when moving the bouse The dry mash feeding house should have a wood floor. Water, grit, shells and charcoal can be kept In tomato cans or lard pails on the outside of the yards where tho birds can reach them easily by putting their heads through the slatted sides of the yards, and the feeder can see at a glance if each pall is full. The water, grit, etc., will always be fr-e from droppings, which is never the case when these utensils are kept inside a poultry house. The ground will have grown up to grars In about two weeks' time when you can move the yards back to their original 1dac and move over daily, s task that will but take about two minutes per section at tie most. Kvery two years the plot should be plowed and used for a garden and a new piece se (led to blue prass and lite clover the year previous to be Ing used as a poultry plot. There will be no waste of fertilizer in those dro plnga on the living sod In the cut ('ctal)s of this plnn are shown |