13 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES. 



Pigeon House Plans — Nests — Water Fountains — Bathing 

 Dishes — Keeping the House in Sanitary Condition. 



No doubt many a one has been deterred from making a 

 start in the business of raising squabs on account of the 

 fancied expense of building suitable hpuses. No one should 

 make the mistake of thinking that a costly house is necessary. 

 To be sure a well built, nicely painted house is ornamental 

 and adds to the appearance of a squab-breeding plant; but 

 this will come before long if the beginner has the proper 

 qualifications and the ability to increase the size of his flock 

 as rapidly as he may with good care and attention to his busi- 

 ness. 



The writer has traveled all over the great squab-breeding 

 sections of the east and has seen about every kind of a pigeon 

 house that the ingenuity of man has ever been able to build. 

 We have seen houses which cost thousands of dollars and 

 those which were built of the odd boards that were picked up 

 about a farm. We have seen as fine birds and as large squabs 

 in a house improvised from piano boxes as we ever saw in 

 any of the great squab-breeding plants. 



It is not so much a question of looks in a house as it is of 

 comfort and good care. One of the finest squab-breeding 

 plants in this country has grown up from a few birds which 

 were housed at first in a corner of the barn. The owner 

 persevered and kept adding to his flock as he made money 

 from it, and now he has fine buildings and thousands of 

 birds, all earned from an initial investment of something like 

 $25. Not a cent was ever added to the original investment, 



