:.l PKiKoNS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



TRAINING COOPS. 



A NOT I IK 11 very necessary tiling just now, is a lot of 

 training coops. It is hard to get along without them, 

 for not only is it necessary to train birds for the show 

 pen nowadays, but in the almost constant handling of ones 

 birds in some shape or form, one needs a convenient place into 

 which to slip them for the time being. They can also be 

 used for mating pens, for hospital use, if one has sick birds, 

 and for solitary confinement. For these two latter reasons, 

 if for no other, I keep my training coops in one of the lower 

 lofts away from even the sight of the birds in the loft proper. 



(ict any tinner or wire worker (if you are not in a city 

 where exhibition coops can be bought) to make you a wire 

 front six feet long and eighteen inches high, with top of 

 same dimensions. 



In this he should put three wire partitions eighteen inches 

 square. Make a sliding door, vertical, in each of the four 

 coops, that will drop of its own weight. You will then have 

 the front and top of four coops. 



Next, take light poplar or pine nicely smoothed, and make 

 the base and back. Take boards twenty inches wide and 

 nail them at right angles, with a small cross strip to hold 

 them firm. The boards should be six feet long and the ex- 

 tra width, especially the bottom board, is to give a ledge on 

 which feed and water cups can be placed. 



Ky watching the measurement, the tier of four coops will 

 tit in exactly. They weigh little and handle very easily 



Their utility does not stop in the loft, for they make good 

 show pens. The backs, and in fact the entire wood work, 

 should be nicely painted a dark blue. It is astonishing how 

 much travel they will stand if made properly. All that is 

 needed is to fasten the coops down with double pointed tacks. 



\Vitli these coops in place, the fancier is all ready for the 

 seasons breeding. 



