94 The Business Hen. 



PIGEONS AND SQUABS.— J. E. Stevenson says: Almost any dry 

 and fairly warm room may be fixed to answer nicely for pigeons. Es- 

 sentials are convenience of attendant, a good roof, no holes or cracks in 

 sides, and above all strictly rat-proof, as if rats get a taste of your squabs, 

 they will do more damage than any one thing I can think of. Allow about 

 250 square feet of floor space for each 50 pairs of breeders. 



Nest boxes should be arranged convenient for the attendant. Suitable 

 boxes may usually be obtained cheaply at your grocer's ; select boxes 

 from eight to 12 inches square. Nail a board three or four inches wide 

 across the front to keep eggs or small squabs from falling out. Bore a 

 hole in back near top and hang on nails driven in the walls. These may 

 be quickly taken down, cleaned and hung up again. There should be two 

 nest boxes for each pair of breeders, as often a good pair of breeders 

 will have a new nest and eggs in one box before their squabs are ready 

 to leave the other. It is best to hang the boxes in pairs close together, and 

 each pair of boxes far enough from the next, so that the occupants can't 

 stand in their doorway, or on their house top and fight with their neighbor. 



Put in windows enough for light and ventilation in warm weather, but 

 don't worry about ventilation in cold weather; the problem then is how 

 to shut it out, as it is almost impossible to get a building closed too 

 closely in cold weather, unless overcrowded with stock. 



The fly should contain about twice the amount of ground space as 

 the building, and may be made from two-inch poultry mesh netting, but 

 when sparrows are numerous it will pay to use one-inch mesh netting, so 

 as to exclude them from the fly. I use netting four feet wide and wire 

 together with pig rings. If the soil is not sandy or gravelly, the ground 

 in fly should be covered with three or four inches of sand and this renewed 

 occasionally, so that it will always be in good shape to feed the birds on. 



Homers are unquestionably the best all-round breeders, and if they have 

 good food and care will produce first-class squabs, and lots of them. 

 Unless you can get good mated breeders, not over three or four years old, 

 I think it better to get youngsters from the nests when about four or five 

 weeks old, or ready for market, and raise your own breeders. It will be 

 six months before you begin to see any profit, but you have the advantage 

 of knowing the age of your birds, and that they are good for eight or 10 

 years' service. 



It is best to start with no more than you can familiarize yourself with 

 and be able to tell which are mates, keeping the unmated birds separate 

 from those that are mated. You can mate almost any cock and hen you 

 wish mated together by placing them in a coop by themselves a few days, 

 and when once mated they are usually there for life unless forcibly sepa- 

 rated. When it is convenient to do so it is best to get the young birds 



