264' AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



suitable place to build and the difference in squabs produced 

 and time saved in their care ^^•ill more than offset the extra 

 trouble to supply a suitable building place for them. 



The greatest objection to allowing birds to fly out is the ac- 

 cumulation of extra odd males, and unless you have complete 

 control over your flock and have a perfect check on them the 

 males will naturally increase faster than the females. A female 

 is more delicate, is more ape to die, is not as long lived as the 

 male, is less apt to live to mating age and a female egg is 

 less apt to hatch than the male egg, all of which has a tendency 

 to increase the number of males and decrease the females. A 

 good preventative against too many cocks is to kill the largest 

 squabs and save the smaller ones among nest mates. 



When birds are flying out they can be banded and a check 

 kept on the mated pairs with very little trouble if the double 

 nest system is used, as they will stay on the nest much better 

 with this arrangement and can be caught and handled while 

 on the nest. Then when old birds are disposed of those that are 

 not banded can be sold without disturbing working birds. As 

 a rule, the unhanded birds will be more males than females. 



With a little extra work and trouble a trap-door entrance can 

 be made to close up every nest in a row of an outside house with 

 one operation. With such an arrangement you can close nests 

 at night and in a short time band the birds caught on the nests. 

 You will invariably find the female in the nest with small 

 young or eggs and the male in the connecting or adjoining nest. 

 For the method of banding follow the same plan as you would 

 in banding birds that are kept in fly pens. 



The best and most practical sized room is 8 feet wide and 

 10 feet long, with double nests on each side of the room, '.\nd 

 these dimensions are the most practical, even if an old house 

 or barn of any kind is modeled over into a squab house. I think 

 it better to partition off a space 8 feet wide and 10 feet long with 

 wire or boards rather than to utilize a larger room. It is often 

 necessary to catch birds for bandings and other purposes and 

 in a large room it is very hard to catch them, and chasing 

 them makes them wild. Birds are much wilder and harder 

 to handle in a large room, even though you do not try to catch 

 them than they are in a smaller place provided the nesting ar- 

 rangement is properly arranged on both sides of the wall, and 



