The Corning Egg Farm book, by Corning himself

The Breeding and Laying Houses, on The Corning Egg Farm, are all built in the manner described in the remainder of this chapter, and are each 160 feet long. The Breeding Cockerel House is 60 feet in length. These Houses are all fifteen feet, nine inches, in width, the drawing in of them being three inches for the purpose of making the roof rafters, which are sixteen feet in length, readily reach out to the end of the plates, on the slant which they carry. The height of the buildings from the ground, over all, is twelve feet, two inches at the back and fourteen feet, two inches in front.

The interior of these buildings is divided into 20 foot sections, by partitions extending out from the north wall of the buildings, seven feet, and forming the roosting closets. These partitions run from the floor clear to the ceiling, breaking the draughts, which but for them, would make the long Laying Houses utterly impracticable.

The north wall of the Laying House is five feet high in the clear, the south wall being seven feet. This makes a sufficient height for walking through the building without stooping, and, as the bottom of the windows is carried up three feet from the floor, the window itself going up to the plate under the roof, the Sun reaches every part of the House of practically sixteen feet wide.

Nearly Six Feet from Ground

The buildings are all set on posts, three feet in the ground and five feet above. The floor joists are ten inches in width and two inches thick, and, instead of the usual sill, two by ten planks are spiked at both ends of these floor joists resting on the posts which support the building. This construction is much simpler than the ordinary sills, and is also less expensive.

The posts are eight feet apart and well braced. They are cross tied at the corners, and about every fifty feet throughout the building; they are also braced at the ends.

The floor joists are placed three feet apart, and the uprights are made of two by four joists, placed three feet apart. At the corners of the House the upright supports are doubled, making the corner posts equivalent to four by four.

The construction of these buildings without any projections over the top of the roof has two advantages. First, there is a saving in the quantity of lumber used and in labor expended; second, all the joints of the roof and walls are made tighter, and the lapping of the roofing over the edges of the building and cementing it make all joints absolutely air and water tight.

Double Floors

The floors are all built double. The under floor may be of any kind of rough boards, and carefully covered over with one ply roofing of any good quality, the laps, as elsewhere in the building, being carefully cemented and nailed down with large, flat headed, galvanized nails made for the purpose. The upper floor should be of a cheap quality of tongued and grooved boards, well driven up and securely nailed. Preferably this upper flooring is laid crosswise of the building.

The outside of these buildings is covered with any cheap, rough boards obtainable. These should be securely nailed over the studding of the building, and then covered with a good grade of two ply roofing paper. On the sides and ends of the building the roofing should be put on upright, but on the roof it is better to lay it lengthwise of the building and lapped, on the plan of laying shingles, the joints all being securely cemented and nailed down, and then the joints and nails painted over with cement, to make sure against any possible leaks.

The inside walls of the building are lined with one ply roofing, with the joints carefully nailed and cemented, and then both walls and ceiling are covered with matched flooring. This gives four inches of dead air space to all the walls of the building, making them cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter than any other known construction. Owing to the roof rafters being ten inches in width, the dead air space under the roof is of course ten inches.

The three outsides of the building, north, east and west, are covered with roofing down to the ground, there being, of course, no inner lining below the floor under the House. To the south the House is entirely open from the floor to the ground. Each House, raised five feet from the ground and open to the south, gets the sunlight underneath clear to the back of the building, which eliminates all dampness, and, being so open prevents rats and other vermin making any attempt to get into the House.

The window openings are nine feet long by three and a half feet in width. As the studding is three feet apart this permits the making of the openings without cutting the studding, and so weakening any of the supports under the roof. These openings are spaced off so that their total length comes as near as may be to one-half the length of the south front of the House.

Canvas Windows

Ventilators, one foot in width and occupying the space between the window openings, have recently been constructed in these Houses, which permit the closing of all canvas windows tight at night, when the weather is very cold, letting the air come in through these ventilators, at the top, without bringing any draughts down upon the birds. Detailed plans of these ventilators will be found at the end of this Book.

The frames of the curtained windows are made of one by four inch boards, with two center supports dividing the window frame into three foot sections. These frames are covered with medium weight cotton duck, from which the dust must be brushed at regular intervals to permit the air to circulate through them freely.

Outside of the Office, Brooder House, Work Shop, Stable and the Resident Quarters, no glass is used in any of the buildings, with the exception of one small pane in the door of each Laying House, through which a view of the interior may be had.

A hood, extending out eight inches, is built over the windows and ventilators, the whole length of the buildings. This prevents the rain from southerly storms beating into the Houses.

The windows are hung on hinges, and open inward from the top, and are fastened to the ceiling with wooden buttons.

The front of all of the window openings, on the outside, is covered with one inch mesh wire netting, to prevent the birds from flying out, and also to prevent sparrows and other birds from flying in to consume the grain provided for the fowls.

Double Doors

There are double doors at both ends of each House, swinging inward, the opening being six feet in width. These doors are made of two thicknesses of matched boards, one side being vertical, and the other diagonal, with a lining of roofing paper between. These are kept closed only in cold and stormy weather.

A board, twelve inches wide, is fastened to the floor a little over three feet back from the door opening. This board runs across the width of the House for six feet, and at that point a board of the same width, three feet long, is fastened to it and carried down to the end wall of the House. This makes a clear space in which the doors can be swung open without being blocked by the litter, which the hens would otherwise be sure to bank up against the doors. A vestibule of wire netting, on sectional frames, is fastened to the ceiling and baseboard, with wire hooks and eyes. See details shown in drawing, at the back of the Book.

The second pair of doors, which open outward, are covered with inch mesh wire down to within three feet of the floor, and are used during the Summer months and in mild weather in Winter.

A small glass window, about eight by ten, is placed in one of the solid doors at a convenient height. This enables one to observe the conditions in the Laying Houses without being obliged to open the door.

At the west end of all the Laying Houses there is a flight of stairs with a platform at the top, five feet square and with a hand rail around it, giving easy access to the House through the end from which the least number of violent storms comes. The east ends of the Laying Houses do not have steps and platforms.

The dropping boards are placed three feet above the floor in all the Houses, except in the Cockerel House, where they are thirty inches from the floor, as we found the growing cockerels needed additional space overhead to prevent injury to their combs. This leaves abundance of room in the Laying Houses for the birds to work in the litter, and is also of sufficient height to allow a man to get under the dropping boards to search for the eggs which the hens often deposit in the litter.

This height also gives the Sun an opportunity to reach every nook and corner of the House at some time during the day.

Draught-Proof Roosting Closets

The partitions dividing the twenty foot sections of the roosting closets, as previously explained, are seven feet in width, extending out one foot beyond the dropping boards, which are six feet wide, and thus giving absolute protection to the hen, sitting on the roost, from any draughts which may be blowing through the House.

Two sets of roosts are placed in each roosting closet, each consisting of five perches, of two by two spruce, nine feet, ten inches long, rounded at the top and nailed to a cross piece of the same material. The first perch stands nine inches from the back wall; the others are thirteen inches from center to center. Birds larger than the Leghorns require more space between perches than here specified. The two sets of roosts are placed side by side, and are fastened at the back with a bolt, as shown in the plans. When the dropping boards are being cleaned, the roosts are raised up and fastened to hooks suspended in the ceiling. They are supported in front by a piece of joist one foot high securely nailed to the cross pieces of the roosts.

There are openings under the dropping boards in all the Houses for the egress and ingress of the fowls, with a runway leading to the ground underneath. These openings are securely boxed and are covered at top and bottom to prevent any draughts. The detail of these openings is shown in the plans at the back of the Book.

The nests are all made of boxes bought from grocers and other dealers in the neighborhood, and are much cheaper and better than any nests laid out and built by mechanics. They are put up in three tiers, and fill up the spaces between the windows, as shown in the detailed drawing.

The boxes are cut down to twelve by fourteen inches, which makes the best sized nest.

In the floor of each Laying House there are three hatchways dividing the length of the building into four equal parts. These hatchways are for convenience in removing the litter, and greatly facilitate the operation and reduce the necessary amount of labor, because a wagon can be backed directly underneath. If the wagon should be too high, shovel out a runway for the wheels.

These hatchways are made of two thicknesses of boards with roofing between and are rabbited and securely fastened.

The nesting material used is fine excelsior. This is better than straw or shavings as it does not offer a convenient home for lice, and, if the nests be thoroughly disinfected with Crude Carbolic and Kerosene, there is no danger of having any.