CHAPTER VIII. 

 KILLING AND COOLING. 



Kill the Squabs in the Morning When Their Crops Are Empty— Not 

 Necessary to Use a Knife, Their Necks May Be Tweaked— Drive 

 the Animal Heat Out of Their Bodies 'by Hanging Them from Nails 

 —The Ideal Squab When Shipped Has an Empty Crop, Its Pef.c 

 Have Been Washed Clean, and No Blood Shows— Soi-ting Squabs 

 So as to Get the Highest Price from the Dealer. 



The time to kill the squabs is in the morning, when the crops are empty .i 

 In killing them it is not necessary to use a knife. Hold each squab in 

 the manner shown in the illustration and break the neck with a sudden 

 pull and push. Do not pull too hard or you will sever the neck from the 

 body. Some of our customers have hard work to get this knack of tweak- 

 ing the necks and prefer to wring the necks, or to use a knife. To wring 

 the neck, hold the squab by the head in the right hand and throw the 

 body around m a complete circle, this act twisting and 'breaking the neck. 



After the squabs are killed they must be cooled. In other words the 

 animal heat must be driven out of their bodies. Provide a piece of board 

 or studding eight or ten feet long and every four inches along this stud- 

 ding drive a couple of nine-peimy wire iinish nails close together, but not 

 so close that you cannot squeeze in the legs of the squabs. A finish wire 

 nail has no large head like an ordinary wire nail. Suspend the studding 

 from the ceiling by means of wire adjusted at both ends of the studding. 

 This method of hanging it up is to prevent rats and cats from climbing 

 up onto the studding and walking along it and eating the squabs. Place 

 the feet of the squabs between the wire nails and let them hang down- 

 wards over night. In the morning the heat will be all out of their bodies 

 and you can pack and ship them. If you are delivering plucked squabs 

 to market, you do not need such an arrangement, but will throw the 

 bodies into a tub of ice water (or cold spring water) after you have 

 nlucked them. 



Ignorance of how to cool the killed squabs properly has discouraged 

 many a squab raiser. If you throw the squabs in a pile on the floor 

 after yon have tweaked their necks, you will have a fermenting mass 

 and the following morning, when you are ready to ship, many of the 

 bodies will be dark-colored at the place of contact with the floor, or with 

 other squabs, and decay will start from such discolored places. Hang 

 the bodies from the studding, as we have described, and you will cool 



(S7) 



