ENEMIES OF THE SQUAB PLANT 111 



Wire or other traps can be used successfully for catching rats 

 or even poison can be resorted to if there are no cats and dogs 

 to eat it or the poisoned rats. 



While mice do not eat squabs or bother the eggs, they are very 

 annoying around a squab plant, are great consumers of feed, 

 and bother the pigeons more or less by getting into their nests. 



The feed supply should be kept in a mouse-proof bin or re- 

 ceptacle; old boxes, buckets, barrels or other articles should be 

 kept off the floor in a manner that will not permit mice hiding 

 under or behind them. 



One of the best mouse traps I know of is a small box, partly 

 filled with cotton, feathers, shavings, or paper, and placed on 

 the floor of the squab room with a small hole in the bottom 

 corner, big enough to allow mice to pass in and out. If there 

 are any mice around, they will soon adopt the box for their 

 home; the box can be carried out every few days and opened 

 over a half tub of water; the mice will jump out into the tub 

 and drown. Then the box can be put back into the nesting room 

 for another catch. The longer such boxes and their contents 

 are used, the more readily will the mice occupy them. 



Every time a rat or mouse hole is found in your squab house, 

 you should nail a piece of tin or a thick block over it, vvhich 

 will prevent them from getting a start in your plant. 



THIEVES AND BAD BOYS 



The element of danger from thieves or bad boys botnering 

 pigeons can in many ways be guarded against. A high fence 

 along the exposed sides of the plant, an electric lighting system 

 that can be turned on from the residence and expose the pres- 

 ence of any one in the plant at night, or the presence of a good 

 watch dog, are good precautions. The possibility ol being 

 bothered by boys or thieves is not great, for the reason that 

 there is no ready local market or immediate demand for grown 

 pigeons and they cannot therefore dispose of them promptly 

 like chickens. The percentage of saleable squabs in the nests 

 is so small that the danger of their being stolen is remote. 



SPARROWS, HAWKS AND OWLS 



Sparrows have become so numerous throughout the country 

 that is necessary to guard against them, otherwise they will 



