While no one style of hen house can meet all the conditions for all localities, almost any good model may be adapted to almost any locality, or at least suggest adaptable features.

The descriptions of houses that have been adapted as here given may easily suggest other modifications.

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.

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 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.

This coop may be modified to suit individual preference; for instance, by giving it a single-pitched roof.

For the framework and inclosure these materials will be required:

For the roof beneath the tarred paper, 128 lineal feet of six-inch boards will be required, or 160 feet of five-inch boards; 400 lineal feet of five-inch weather boards will be required to inclose the building.

For the window and door casings 50 lineal feet of suitable lumber will be required, and 30 lineal feet of five-inch tongue-and-groove boards for the door.

The hinged door in the rear is made of the weather boards and covered with tarred paper on the inside.About 75 square feet of tarred paper will be required.

About 120 sq. ft. of boarding will be required for the inside.

Where circumstances compel one to use a damp location, the building must be constructed so as to meet these conditions. Foundations of concrete, brick, or stone do not meet the conditions for a dry floor where one must use a badly-drained site. In such a case, the building must be set on posts. Short posts, only a foot high, hardly answer, for debris may collect thereunder, and harbor wild animals. Three feet of space, at least, should be given underneath. Cedar posts six feet apart, sunk into the ground to a depth of three and one-half or four feet, a foot of concrete being first poured into the hole, will insure a firm support.

The back and sides of this open space may be inclosed with boards, the open front being protected with heavy, close-meshed galvanized poultry wire, to prevent wild animals or poultry from taking refuge underneath. In a very wet place, however, I would not inclose with boards at all.

The floor of such a building should be: First, wide, rough boards, then rubber roofing laid over them, and secured at all joints to make it moisture-proof, and then narrow boards, tightly fitted together. This upper flooring should be well seasoned and well nailed down.

A house of this character, that will hold from twenty-five to thirty-five fowls, with nesting, scratching, roosting, and sand-bath accommodations, is eight and one-half feet deep, twelve feet long, six feet high in back, and nine feet in front. It has the single-pitched roof, shingled. Its walls are double-boarded, with an interlining of sheathing paper. In the front are two windows, six feet high by three and one-half feet wide. They are fitted with double sash, which can be removed in summer. At night these sash are let down from the top, and a burlap-covered frame placed over the entire window, admitting fresh air and preventing radiation of warmer air within through the exposed glass.

For a house in a damp location the large windows provide an excellent means of insuring dryness in winter if used to transmit sunlight during the day, and covered at night as explained above.

A building that is practically fireproof may be made of cement blocks for foundation and walls, with a concrete floor six inches higher than the outside ground. Wood may be used for the rafters and ceiling, the roof being covered with metal, tile, or asbestos roofing, and the inside ceiling plastered.

Another building which will provide seventy-five or one hundred fowls with roosting, scratching, and nesting-room in the winter, when foul weather makes confinement necessary, is twenty feet long, twelve feet deep, six feet high in the rear, and ten feet high in front. It has a brick foundation and a concrete floor that is ten inches above the level of the ground at the front of the building, in order to bring it well above the surface of the ground in the rear—the site is a sloping one.

In the front are three windows, one foot from the sides of the building, one foot below the top, and one foot apart. They are five feet four inches wide, three and one-half feet high, and fitted with burlap-covered frames, which may be lifted and fastened against the ceiling when so desired. Weather boards, sheathing paper, and narrow boards on the inside form the walls.

Directly in front, and extending the length of the building, is a glass-inclosed sun room four feet high and five feet wide. One end of this has a door to allow for the cleaning of the floor. The concrete floor of the main room extends into the sun room. Three openings, ten inches wide and one foot high, connect this sun room with the main room, and are provided with slides to be closed at night when the sun room is no longer a warm place.

The roosts are in the rear and extend the entire length of the building. There are three, placed four feet above the ground floor. These roosts are removable, being set in grooves cut into the wooden brackets which hold them. A hinged drop-board in sections is hung below the roosts.

The nests are forty in number in two tiers, and are fixed to the front wall of the building, below the windows. They are covered at the top, open at the side, and have a running-board before them one foot wide. Nests and boards are supported by stout wooden brackets about three feet apart. Nests and perches are reached by climbing-boards at one end of the room. The door is placed at the opposite end of the building, and is twenty-six inches wide and six feet high. It can be made wider if desired, as there is room.

The care of the young birds is greatly lightened by houses built for them especially. These need not be large nor elaborate, and, since they are for use in the milder seasons of the year, do not require great precautions against the cold.

While the slant-roofed colony coops, which can be moved about, are best for the care of large flocks of growing poultry, the progeny of the small family flock may be conveniently housed in one long coop divided into compartments, with separate little pens before each division. A coop of this kind, six feet long, thirty inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high, will shelter seventy-five young chicks very comfortably from babyhood to large broiler age. The floor should be made tight and warm, and the coop mounted upon skids or runners, so that it may be moved if desired. The top of this coop slants gently and lifts up like a lid for inspection and cleaning, and this top is hinged to the rear side, and covered with tarred paper.Since young chicks will crowd and smother if the air supply is limited, the entire front of the coop, to seven inches above the bottom, is covered with coarse muslin or sacking during spring, and with galvanized wire netting in the summer.

The size of the lumber necessary for any of these buildings is about the same: Timber for sills, 5 × 6 in.; cross-beams and main supports, 4 × 3 in.; intermediate joists, supports, and rafters, 2 × 4 in.; and for weather boards and floor boards, any convenient width.

Well-seasoned lumber should be used, and should be first-class of its kind. Second-grade material may be used for the wood-house, but faulty building of the poultry house may mean more in losses from drafty floors or walls than the saving in the first outlay will warrant.