QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 111 



Question. What are the bands for pigeons' legs and how- 

 are they applied? Answer. The seamless band is a ring of 

 aluminum three-eighths of an inch in diameter and from 

 three-sixteenths to one-quarter of an inch in width. You 

 cannot apply it to an old pigeon. It is put on either leg of a 

 squab when the squab is four or five days old, by squeezing 

 the toes of the squab through the band. As the leg of the 

 squab grows, it becomes impossible to remove the band 

 except by cutting it off On the band, before putting it on 

 the leg of the squab, you may stamp year of birth and your 

 initials, or anything you choose. We sell an outfit consisting 

 of aluminum tubing, dies, etc., by which the squab breeder 

 may make his own bands at a cost of two or three for a cent. 



Question. Since I bought twelve pairs of you, I have kept 

 a careful account of the feed, and find as you state that five 

 cents a month for a pair of breeders is right. Grain has been 

 much higher than usual this summer and it strikes me that 

 under normal conditions of the grain market the cost of a 

 pair of squab breeders would be less than five cents a month, 

 or sixty cents a year. Answer. Our figures of cost were 

 ascertained not by " skimping " the birds, but feeding them 

 liberally, and an estimate of five cents a month for a pair is 

 based on a low cost of grain, and on selling the manure. 



Question. What pattern of trowel do you recommend for 

 cleaning the nest bowls and nest boxes? Answer. The 

 common trowel such as bricklayers use is too pointed. The 

 best pattern has a square point and a stout blade with strong 

 handle. With such a trowel you can clean out the nest 

 bowls and nest boxes very efEectively. 



Question. Can pigeons be raised on the sea-coast* as well 

 as inland? Answer. Yes; the Homer pigeon is descended 

 from a variety of pigeon which first bred among the cliffs 

 bordering the sea-shore. 



Question. Do the squabs fly out of the nest before they are 

 four weeks old? Answer. No; they look old enough to fly 

 at four weeks, and their wings seem all ready for use, but they 

 stay in the nest and are fed by the parent birds, and when you 

 wish to kill them you find both in the nest ready for you. 



Question. Your book states that pigeons sometimes lay 

 their eggs on the floor. But- it does not say anything about 

 taking the eggs and putting them in a nest bowl. Would the 



