Coop

“ 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. ”

“ When they are about to hatch, shut the door of the box so as to keep the tiny pets in. When they are from twenty to thirty-six hours old, move all hands to a dry coop near the garden, or in the back yard near shrubbery. The coop should be from eighteen to twenty-four inches square inside, built with a shed roof ten to twelve inches high in the rear and eighteen to twenty inches high in the front, with a board floor so that the old hen cannot scratch and be on damp ground. ”

“ The coop should be like that used for common fowls, but two feet broad, and higher, being about three feet high in front and one foot at the back; this greater slant of the roof being made in order to confine her movements, as otherwise she would move about too much, and trample upon her brood. When they have grown larger they must have a larger coop, made of open bars wide enough apart for them to go in and out, but too close to let in fowls to eat their delicate food, and the hen must be placed under it with them. ”

“ It is inexpensive, and protects the chicks from all their ordinary enemies, both day and night. It weighs but 75 pounds, and can be moved easily by a child by means of a strap attached to one end. When used on the lawn, the coop should be moved and cleaned at least once daily, as fresh pasture for the chicks is thereby provided, injury to the grass prevented, the lawn being benefited by the excrements. The coop shown is 4 × 8 feet and 20 inches high, unfloored except the covered [310] section, which has a tight floor, and roosts and suitable wooden and screen doors. ”

“ Gratz. "Such poultry don't have no hoofs."
"Runnin' around," explained the visitor. "Runnin' around in the coop. I can tell if a chicken has got any disease that my trade wouldn't like, if I see it runnin' around in the coop. There's a lot in the way a chicken runs. In the way it h'ists up its leg, for instance. That's what the trade calls 'on the hoof.' [17] So I'll just go out and have a look around the coop—"
"For twenty cents a pound anybody could let buyers see their chickens on the hoof, I guess," said Mrs. Gratz. ”

“ It only lacked the traditional well in the centre, with the iron-bound bucket resting [Pg 781] on the edge, and the iron rods for pulley, wrought into the form of a cross, to make it a perfect little cloister. ‘Tis true that the resemblance might be impaired by the large chicken-coop in the corner, which emitted a chorus of cackling suggestive of a prosperous barnyard. But a flourishing coop is no contemptible accessory to the effects of a religious community; and as for its encumbering the cloister, that is very easily explained. ”

“ I peeped through the fence. And in that yard there is a row of chicken-coops, all with chickens in."
"Oh!" said the others. They began to feel hungry already.
"Yes, all with chickens in, and I heard a little girl say that the row of coops was called Pullet Row, Chicken Avenue, and that all the houses were taken. The first coop had an old hen and eleven little puffy chickens in it, and the second one held a whole lot of small chickens who were big enough to take care of themselves; and the next coop had in it an old rooster who had hurt his foot, and who had to be shut up. ”

“ College had just closed (we were having our 17th of June peas) and the joy of the farm was upon me. I had a cow and a heifer, eighty-six hens, three kinds of bantams, ten hives of bees, and two ducks. I was planning to build a pigeon coop, and had long talked of turning the nine-acre ridge of sprout land joining my farm into a milch goat pasture, selling the milk at one dollar a quart to Boston babies; I had thought somewhat of Belgian hares and black foxes as a side-line; and in addition to these my heart was set on a pair of pigs.
"Why won't one pig do?" she would ask. ”

“ The common open circular wicker coop I regard as an exceedingly useful article in a poultry-yard, but not for the purpose to which it is generally applied, of keeping the hens in, but, on the contrary, for keeping them out. I have found it very convenient for feeding chicken under; the oatmeal, grits, and other expensive food used for the young birds is apt to be devoured by those of advanced growth, an evil which is readily prevented by placing it under a large coop which admits the younger chicken, and enables them to feed undisturbed by the others. ”

“ Once I went home from church with a girl, and on the way back home the father of the girl came out with a ghost sheet over him, with phosphorus eyes, and scared me into a hen coop, and as I was praying to die, a negro with a dark lantern came to steal the chickens, and when he saw me in the coop he gave me some chickens he had stolen from another coop, and he run one way and I run the other, and I guess he went around the world one way and I the other, and we met last night at the barbecue, sure, and he started back around the world the other way when my fireworks went off. ”

“ He said a cold coop meant that the chickens got chilly and exhausted their vitality growing thick feathers when all their strength should have been used in egg-laying, and that a hot coop meant that the chickens felt lax and indolent. A hot coop enervated a chicken and made it too lazy to lay eggs, Millington said, but this regulator he was having made would keep the heat at an even temperature, summer and winter, and render the hens bright and cheerful and inclined to do their best. ”

“ Directly it is ascertained that the brood is dry enough, the old bird should be caught and the little ones put in a warm basket, and the lot transferred to a coop and run, after which they are treated in exactly the same manner as those under a hen. ”

“ If these instructions are carefully followed, you will hardly recognize in the smart, clean-looking bird that graces the exhibition coop, the soiled and dull appearing fowl you began fitting three weeks before. It may require a certain amount of time to attend to these details properly, but will you not feel amply repaid by beholding the prize card on your coop, and having your brother fanciers comment upon the fine condition of your birds? ”

“ A roomy, boarded coop, in a dry, sunny spot, is the best position for them during the first month; after which it may be left open during the day, for the hen to retire to when she pleases. In quiet grassy places, it is scarcely necessary to coop the hen at all. As to food, they may have every thing which is not absolutely poisonous ”

“ The hen is cooped to prevent her from wearying the brood by leading them about until they are over-tired, besides being exposed to danger from cats, hawks, and vermin, tumbling into ditches, or getting wet in the high grass. They can pass in and out between the bars of the coop, and will come when she calls, or they wish to shelter under her wings. It is a good plan to place the coop for the first day out upon some dry sand, so that the hen can cleanse herself comfortably. ”

“ The reason I recommend this method is that, the birds being so valuable, the owners do not permit them to roost around promiscuously, they put them in a coop as strong as a fireproof safe and keep it in the kitchen at night. The method I speak of is not always a bright and satisfying success, and yet there are so many little articles of vertu about a kitchen, that if you fail on the coop you can generally bring away something else. ”

“ If caught and placed in a hen coop till morning, they will, on being released, stagger awkwardly about over the slippery deck; for they are unable to take to the wing unless they can have some good starting point, as the edge of a ship's railing or the crest of a heaving wave. ”

“ If the weather is fine, the coop is placed out of doors in an exposed spot, with a sheltering canopy of canvas, foliage, or straw, when the sun is too hot.”
“There the young chickens are safe,” said Emile, “out of danger of any accident amongst the boisterous population of the poultry-yard. If some danger arises, the hen gives her warning call, and those that are outside immediately scamper through the narrow passage and take refuge with their mother. Now about their food.”
“Food is not forgotten: under the coop is a plate containing water, and another with pap. ”

“ The dining room and kitchen are back, one of the cows in the barn, and some chickens in the coop. I understand that none of the other girls' mothers milk a cow, so a neighbour boy will tend to ours for a third of the milk. ”

“ Through the mist he could see two cows 'coming home' on the haugh below slowly and sedately to their milking.
Now three figures emerged from the inn; a tall, thin man came first—a collie at his heels—that was at once sent off to round up a hirsel of ewes on the hill.
A woman followed, calling 'guss-guss' to the pig routing on the bank; finally a third figure—short, misshapen—a hunchback, as the watcher noted, who called 'coop-coop' to a rough pony cropping grass in the intake beyond the inn. ”

“ Everybody came on deck then, perfectly willing and even anxious to be contented. But not all could succeed. There were some who did not think any better of chickens than the steward did.
The chicken coop, which stood on the quarter-deck, contained over thirty chickens, and it was provided with a slat bottom. People who object to having chickens roaming about over the lawn of a farm-house will sympathize with the passengers on the Ushuaia who did not like to have a chicken coop in the centre of the quarter-deck. ”

“ A coop of chickens is placed near the master of ceremonies, and two or three assistants surround the barrel. The head dresser grasps a chicken by the head, gives it a swing from the coop to the barrel, bringing the chicken's neck on to the iron rim of the barrel. The body goes 128 into hot water and the head goes overboard. ”

“ The pheasant coop is another article of furniture the preserver cannot get on without. It is quite a light, simple, and handy contrivance, with a backwards slanting roof, three boarded sides, no bottom, and a sparred front, the centre bar being movable—that is, sliding upwards through the roof. These pens are set out in the rearing-field before the eggs hatch. That ensures the birds being brought from the nests to dry ground. For a few days the chicks have to be protected from themselves, and prevented from running away from their foster-parents. ”

“ It is a large square hen-coop, placed on a low hand-cart which a man draws about from one street to another, and gets a few pennys a day from those who stop to look at the domestic happiness of his family. ”

“ In less than a jiffy or two, I was with her up to where Mom and I were going to coop her up in the coop. I stooped down first and looked into the dark inside of the coop and there was the prettiest, nicest most beautiful fifteen eggs you ever saw all side by each. The coop had a roof on it but no floor, the floor being the ground with the straw nest in it. I pushed Bentcomb very gently and in a friendly way up to the hole in the front of the coop, and let her look in at the32 nest full of eggs. ”

“ The easiest coop to make is shown in the illustration of the young chicken shelter (Fig. 18) . It consists of a pitched roof mounted on three boards six inches high. This shelter may be three feet wide and two feet deep, and from the ground to the peak the distance is twenty-four inches. Slats are nailed across the front to prevent the hen from getting out, although not so close as to prevent the chicks from squeezing through. A coat or two of paint will improve the appearance of this shelter, and each mother-hen should be provided with a separate coop for her family. ”

“ I penned them in front of her for two or three days, the same as with the quail.
When raising pheasants, I never let hens out of the coops. When birds are from six to eight weeks old I take the hen away but leave the coop there. Coops may be set around like bee-hives, two or three rods apart. I painted my coops, some white and some red; the little fellows will know their own coops and will not forget them. ”

“ It is much better to let the hen free with her chickens, but if she must be cooped, the best method is to put a coop with an open front to it, and the back against the wall of some building, and then tether the hen. ”

“ On the other hand, a Cochin, being of a lazier nature, forages slowly, and wanders quietly over her yard, takes things easy in the winter coop, and stands the confinement of the exhibition coop excellently. ”

“ Ready placed the logboard on the hen-coop, and then wrote on it with the chalk:— “Three dogs, two goats, and Billy the kid (I think there’s five pigs) ; fowls (quite enough) ; three or four pigeons (I’m sure) ; the cow (she has lain down and won’t get up again, I’m afraid, so we must kill her) ; and there’s the merino ram and sheep belonging to Mr Seagrave—plenty of live stock. ”

“ The hens must be placed in coops, where all the sun can reach them; and there should be a little run of a few feet, enclosed by laths, wire-work or netting, for the hen and chicken to exercise in. The common triangular wooden coop is a very useful one for early chicken; but it should have a false bottom, to keep them off the cold ground, and this should be made to slide in and out, so as to be readily removed and cleaned. The coops, at night, should be warmly covered up with sacking or matting, and plenty of short hay or soft straw placed in the interior. ”