On the other side of the central room should be the compartment devoted to laying and sitting hens (_d_) and this should be fitted up with boxes (fig. 15.) which are made moveable, and placed not quite close to each other, as it disturbs sitting hens to hear other hens close to them. The front part of each box should be made to slide up and down, so that it may be taken out, and the box thoroughly cleansed with a brush and soap and water, when not in use. This sliding front, when closed, has an arched opening in front for the hens to go in and out; and this opening is made so as not to reach quite to the ground, in order not only to keep the nest warm and in its proper place, but to prevent any danger of the eggs being sucked by rats, or other similar depredators. The hen-room should be frequently whitewashed, say twice a year, care being taken to do it with as little disturbance to the fowls as practicable; and the floor, which should be either of stone, or laid with bricks, should be swept out every day, and washed occasionally when the weather is warm and dry. It is a very good plan to have the boxes raised with two pieces of wood below each, so as to leave a hollow space in the middle below the box, as this plan allows the house to be cleaned with greater facility. [Illustration: Fig. 16. _Hen-roost._] The other room (_e_ in fig. 14.) should be supplied with rails and perches to serve as roosting-places (fig. 16.), and these rails are best of rough wood, as they afford a more secure resting-place for the fowls than if they were round and smooth. Fowls are very apt to crowd together in their roosting-places; and, when the rails are smooth so that the claws of the fowls cannot take a firm hold of them, the youngest and weakest of the fowls are very often pushed off. The roosting-places should be furnished with a sloping board with sticks nailed across, to enable the fowls to ascend to them. All the rooms of the hen-house should have windows filled in with wire lattice; and they should have shutters to close in cold weather. In some cases they have ceilings like those of a house, and in others they are left open to the beams of the roof. The principal thing to attend to is to keep them scrupulously clean, and the walls frequently whitewashed. The roosting-place should have the dung removed every morning, and in warm weather it should be washed out every day; even in winter, unless the weather is frosty, the floor should be washed once a week. Sometimes, instead of fixed rails for the fowls to rest upon, hanging bars are suspended from the roof; and sometimes the nests for laying in and for sitting are fixed, and in two rows one above the other. Where danger is apprehended from thieves, the door of the roosting-house is kept locked, it being provided with an opening for the fowls to pass through.