The gentlemans recreation in two parts : the first being an encyclopedy of the arts and sciences ... the second part treats of horsmanship, hawking, hunting, fowling, fishing, and agriculture : with a short treatise of cock-fighting ... : all which are collected from the most authentick authors, and the many gross errors therein corrected, with great enlargements ... : and for the better explanation thereof, great variety of useful sculptures, as nets, traps, engines, &c. are added for the taking of beasts, fowl and fish : not hitherto published by any : the whole illustrated with about an hundred ornamental and useful sculptures engraven in copper, relating to the several subjects.

Of the Hen-house, and it Situation.

THe Hen-house should be large, but with consi∣deration to the quantity of Fowl you [ 30] keep; let it be high rooft, and withal strong and secure built for preserving them from Thieves; and with Shuts to the Windows to keep out Vermine; let there be dispersed about it Pens or Coops for the Fowl to be put in that are with Egg; and those for Geese, and Turkeys must be larger and higher then for Hens; and on the sides of the Walls, and thwart the House in convenient pla∣ces should be long Perches for Cocks, Hens and Turkeys to Roost upon. As for the Geese and [ 40] Ducks they sit on the Ground, or in the Pens; and to the end the Fowl may the better get up to the Roosts, let there be Pins (that is short pie∣ces of Wood) drove into the Walls, with Steps, in imitation of Ladders, for them to hop up to the said Roosts, which are very commodious, es∣pecially for the young ones. Let not the Floor be paved, or boarded, but of Earth made smooth, and even like a Barn Floor. And it were conve∣nient to have a Hole made in the Groundsel for the Chickens, and young Fowl to come in and our [ 50] at, with a Shutter at night for the keeping out Vermin. The Coops, or Pens as very convenient to put in those Fowl, that by the Servant that tends them are found with Egg at night, to the end their Eggs may be preserved; for if they should be suffered to make Nests, and to lay a∣broad, not one in Ten would be found good, for they will be subject to Wesels, or the like Vermin; or if found, may be stale and useless. [ 60] And to keep all the Poultry in the House until all have laid, will be a great prejudice to the rest, as being deprived of their early morning feeding for Worms; But for Geese when they have once chosen their Nests, they will always lay there, so that they need not be pen'd up.

But according to the opinion of the experien∣ced Housewife, Fowl that sit, be they Hens, Tur∣keys, Geese or Ducks, should have places apart, where other Fowl cannot come to distrub them, which oft-times occasions them to forsake their Eggs. Tis not material to direct what places, most Houses having that convenience; if not, such places must be made; especially if great store are kept.

The best way to keep Eggs long and good, is in a Heap of old Malt, close covered over.