A house eight by seventeen feet should give ample roosting and nesting room for a flock of thirty or forty hens. One used by the author is seven feet wide, fifteen feet long, and ten feet high from peak to floor, and is satisfactory during spring, summer, and fall. In winter, however, a scratching-shed of equal area is desirable. It need not be higher than three feet. It should adjoin the hennery, and a section of its roof should be movable to allow a change of litter. The sunlight should be freely admitted to this through glass.
The front of a house that will shelter satisfactorily a dozen fowls
A small coop that will house a dozen fowls, and may be used where one has little space, or is just getting into poultry keeping, is eight feet long and six feet deep. It has a double-pitched roof, is five and one-half feet high from the lower edges of the roof to the foundation, and seven from the peak to the foundation. The eaves project four inches, but in front a board eight inches wide is hinged to the lower edge of the eaves. This is swung back and hooked against the side of the building on sunny days, but in rainy weather it is swung outward, thus extending the roof eight inches to prevent the rain from beating into the muslin-covered windows below. It is held in this position by brackets at either end, which are hinged to the building, and may be turned back against it when not in use.
Two windows, two feet high and three feet wide, are placed in the front, six inches from either side, thirty-four inches from the ground, and eight inches below the eaves. Burlap-covered frames are fitted to the windows, and these swing inward when necessary, and may be fastened by hooks suspended from the roof of the building.
The door may be at either end of the building and it must be made draft-proof
The building has a brick foundation and a concrete floor six inches higher than the surrounding surface of the ground, and on a level with the top of the foundation. At the rear are nests beneath the roosts. These are 14 in. long, 12 in. high, and 11 in. wide. There are seven on the bottom row placed alternately in a lengthwise and crosswise manner, and six above. The lower nests are improvised from boxes bought from a grocer's at five cents each, and are set upon a skeleton shelf raised 4 in. above the floor. The upper nests are likewise set upon a skeleton shelf 3 in. above the first tier. The sides of boxes are cut away to 5 in. height to allow the hens room to enter the nests. These nests are accessible to the hens from the front and are reached for egg collection by lifting a hinged door at the back; this door is 7 ft. long, 18 in. wide, and is 12 in. above the foundation in the rear.
The roosts are thirty-four inches above the floor, and run lengthwise of the house. Two will accommodate the small flock of twelve or fifteen fowls. Three inches below is the drop-board supported upon horizontal braces. It is in two sections, and slides out when desired. It is twenty inches wide, its outer edge being even with the first roost.
The walls are covered with sheathing paper laid inside over the studs, and tongue-and-groove boards are nailed over this. The outside is weather-boarded, and the roof covered with tarred paper over boards laid closely together. A door at one end, 26 in. wide and 5 ft. 6 in. high, gives access to the building, and a small door, 12 × 12 in., sliding in grooves, is placed in the front near the floor, for the use of the fowls.