Houses, as we believed in constructing them, were expensive, unless it was possible to carry a very large number of layers successfully in them. In studying the two hundred and twenty-five pullets as they worked contentedly in the No. 1 Laying House, which was but twelve feet wide, we became convinced that it was perfectly possible in a house sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet in length to carry fifteen hundred layers. This, to be sure, allowed the hen only a little over two square feet of floor space, with the dropping boards included. But, as we figured it, the hen also had the entire house for floor space, and, while it is true that fourteen hundred and ninety-nine sisters were her near neighbors, they all enjoyed the same large space to roam in. A house, then, of this size, accommodating fifteen hundred layers, was not an expensive house per bird, and, when you consider that the construction was such that the up-keep was practically nothing, it became not only not an expensive house, but really a very cheap one. The success of the fifteen hundred layers in one house proved itself at once, and we never have seen the slightest necessity for altering the plan of the Laying House, as we first laid it out. 2,000 Birds to a House The large flock system works economies, then, in housing, in the amount of labor necessary to care for the birds, and in gathering the eggs. And there is no doubt but that a house of considerably greater length, with a flock ranging as high as two thousand birds, could successfully be handled. In fact, on one farm which has been in existence over twenty-five years, a Corning Method Laying House of two hundred feet in length has been in operation now for twelve months, and the owners write us that it is the most successful house on their entire farm, and that as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their Laying Houses, and making them of this type. CHAPTER VII What is the Winter Layer?--The Properly Hatched and Reared Pullet Many people have a very erroneous idea with regard to getting Winter eggs. They seem to think any hen should produce eggs in Winter. The hen generally moults in the early Fall, and Nature has provided this time of rest for her. The egg organs cease to produce, for the hen finds she has all she can do to supply the necessary material for her new dress, and this is a very serious drain on her system. The natural time, however, for a pullet to begin to lay is when she reaches maturity, and, as the pullet hatched in the early Spring, properly cared for, should come into eggs in the early Fall, the pullet, then, is the Winter layer.