116 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



The mite which causes the only trouble is 

 small, about the size. of a pin-head, called 

 the red mite, because after it has sucked 

 the blood of the pigeon it is colored red. 

 We have gone a whole season without see- 

 ing any of these mites in our breeding 

 houses. If lice of this kind, or any kind, 

 are discovered, the insect sprayer which 

 we illustrate here will be found useful. 

 The barrel is filled with kerosene (or 

 water in which squab-fe-nol has been 

 poured) and a fine spray driven against the 

 nest-boxes and nest-bowls, or even against 

 the birds. 



These insect sprayers are well made of 

 heavy tin. We sell them for fifty cents 

 each. They cannot be mailed, but should 



be sent by express, or with other goods 

 by freight. 



Birds which are lousy may be dusted 

 under the feathers, next the skin, with 

 any good lice powder. The best time for 

 such treatment is at night, when the 

 birds may ba readily caught and handled. 

 It is also a good idea to throw a pinch of 

 lice powder in the nest, on and around 

 the squabs, about once a month during 

 the summer. 



Lice are the terror of chicken raisers, 

 but we never knew a squab raiser, if in- 

 telligent, to be troubled very much or 

 very long with lice. Once free of lice, 

 the birds almost invariably keep them- 

 selves clean. It is only the loft where 

 cleaning is badly neglected which is 

 troubled with lice. 



There is a light-colored grub which 

 sometimes forms in the manure on the 

 bottom of the nest-box, but no trouble 

 comes from it and it does not get on the 

 bird. 



RED AND WHITE WHEAT. It is im- 

 possible for us to tell what is the differ- 

 ence between red and white wheat. We do 

 not know the chemical constituents which 

 color ons kernel red and another variety 

 white. This question is asked us by in- 

 quirers who have never heard of red 

 wheat, yet it is a common and staple 

 variety of wheat quoted daily in the 

 Chicago and other grain marksts. If you 

 cannot get red wheat where you live, feed 

 white wheat, which is fed regularly by 

 nine-tenths of our customers. As we say 

 in the Manual, we feed red wheat instead 

 of white wheat because it is not so much 

 of a laxative. When we cannot get red 

 wheat, which happens at some periods of 

 some years, we feed white wheat. 



The effect of wheat is to keep the bow- 

 els of the birds open and regular. There 

 is not much fattening substance in wheat. 



That function is performed by corn, 



Birds fed on wheat and nothing else get 

 so weak that they do no breeding. We 

 have found this out by the experience of 

 customers. Now and then a customer buys 

 birds without thinking that they must eat 

 to live. After he has got them he sud- 

 denly recalls that they must be fed and 

 starts out to find something. We recall 

 vividly one Kansas customer of this kind 

 who was induced by some grain man to 

 buy a lot of wheat and nothing else. After 

 feeding his birds nothing but wheat for 

 two weeks, he wrote us that they were 

 dumpy and showing no inclination to 

 build nests. "They are all the time on 

 the floor," he wrote, "and cannot fly." He 

 had got them so weak by feeding the 

 wheat that they could not fly to their nes j .- 

 boxes, to say nothing of building nests. 



USE OF LEG BAND OUTFIT. The 

 aluminum which we sell with our leg 

 band outfit is seamless tubing and by the 

 use of the outfit you produce a band which 

 is seamless and which can be applied only 

 to a squab, because, of course, the feet 

 of an old pigeon are too large to be 

 squeezed through the band as a squab's 

 can be squeezed. To make an open band 

 (which can be applied to the leg of a full- 

 grown pigeon) out of the closed band, you 

 simply make a saw-cut lengthwise the 

 band, then open the band with your fingers, 

 put it around the leg of the pigeon, then 

 close the band again. If anyone has old 

 pigeons which he wishes to band, he will 

 find this band outfit quite as serviceable 

 as if used only for banding squabs. We 

 have sold thousands of these band out- 

 fits, and customers like them first rate. 

 We can furnish open bands (to be ap- 

 plied to the legs of full grown pigeons) 

 made of aluminum, V-shaped joint, each 

 band numbered, a first-class band in 

 every way, for two cents each, or two dol- 

 lars for one hundred, postage paid. 



MANAGEMENT OF BATH PANS. 

 The sixteen-inch bath pan which we rec- 

 ommend and sell is better than a larger 

 size, no matter what the capacity of your 

 plant. It is easier emptied of water, 

 there is less strain on the arms, and it is 

 kept clean easier. 



There should be one bath pan for every 

 twelve pairs of birds. If you have about 

 48 pairs of birds in each unit, you should 

 have four bath pans in that unit, outside 

 in the flying pen. You can get along very 

 well with one drinking fountain to a unit 

 with that number of birds, or .a less num- 

 ber of birds, but if you do not have bath 

 pans enough the bathing water will get 

 dirtier than it should and the birds should 

 not be given an opportunity to drink this 

 dirty water. 



In the winter, when the birds are shut 

 up in the squab-house frequently for days 

 at a time, it is not necessary to bathe 

 them every day. Bathe them say once a 

 week, taking the bath pans into the 



