PIGEONS THAT HAVE FREE RANGE 267 



small nails or, better still, drive a couple of small nails clear 

 through the porch at either end near the back of same so that 

 the points of the nails will rest on the cleats. The points of 

 the nails resting on the cleats will give a slight elevation to the 

 running boards and serve to cause the water to drain off. This 

 will cause the front board to lean forward, which can be reme- 

 died by tipping the front board back slightly when you are 

 nailing it on to the running board. 



When you get the nest partitions up, the bottoms in and the 

 nest fronts and running boards in place, your house is complete 

 except the roof. Any kind of a roof will do — roofing paper, 

 shingles or tin. Roofing paper is the cheapest, easiest to put on 

 and looks just as well, if painted. 



A house of this description can be made with 12, 16 or any 

 number of sides and any number of nests high. 



A good plan is to make the house large enough around to 

 allow room in the center for the purpose of getting to the nests 

 from, the rear of same. This can be done by having a little 

 door to let down at the back of each double nest. 



A house built in this manner with 16 sides, 2 feet wide each, 

 would be 9 feet 8 inches across from outside to outside. With 

 such a house I would suggest that a window be put in the north 

 side to furnish light for the center. The north side is not a 

 very good place for nests in the winter time, so a window there 

 would not take up any valuable space. 



A house of the above description can be placed on the top 

 of most any building, but the better plan is to build a 

 framework about 5 feet high to set it on. If desired, this frame- 

 work can be enclosed and used as a storeroom for feed and 

 other purposes. By making the framework considerably smaller 

 at the top than at the bottom and thus allowing the nest house 

 to cxtfnd out a considerable distance from the top of the frame- 

 work, cats and other animals cannot climb up the framework 

 and get to the pigeons. 



A 4-inch strip naiVed around the bottom of the house extending 

 down frrm the bottom will tend to prevent cats from jumping 

 from the framework and catching on to the lower running board. 

 This will also add to the looks of the construction. 



While better results can be obtained by keeping squab breed- 

 ers from flying in houses and fly pens, there is a good argument 



