National Standard Squab Book. 19 



It is the pigeons ami the iutelligence behind them which do the trick, 

 every time. A (ancy pigeon house with fancy trimmings eaanot produce 

 any better squabs than the liome-made affair, provided the Iiirds are the 

 same in both cases. 



You should have a pair 01' nest boxes for a pair of pigeons. By a pair 

 of pigeons we mean two pigeons, a male and a female. By a pair of nest 

 boxes we mean two nest boxes. We find that the word pair has a differ- 

 ent meaning to people in different parts of t'he country, perhaps on the 

 same principle that a pair of scissors or a pair of suspenders is one ob- 

 ject, while a pair of something else, as in this case, means two objects. 

 A pair of pigeons attend to a pair of squabs in one nest box, nevertheless 

 for each pair of pigeons you need two nest boxes, for when the squabs 

 are about two weeks old in one nest, the old birds will go to the adjoining 

 nest box, or to a nist box in a distant part of the squab house, and begin 

 housekeeping again, laying eggs and dividing their attention between the 

 two families. 



Count your nest boxes and you will kaow how many pigeons your house 

 will accommodate. If your count shows 96 nest boxes (in other words, 

 48 pairs of nest boxes), you can accommodate 48 pairs of pigeons. Do 

 not write us and tell us that you have a house of a certain size and ask 

 us to tell you how many pairs of pigeons it will accommodate. Put in 

 your nest boxes as we have described and then count them, and you will 

 know. Or you may figure it out for yourself on paper, allowing two nest 

 boxes, each one cubic foot in size, for each pair of birds. To put it in 

 another way, you should allow one cubic foot of nest box space for each 

 breeding pigeon. Surely we have made this so plain now that you cannot 

 go astray. 



Now suppose you work backwards, sayiag to yourself that you wish to 

 order 96 pairs of 'breeders, and want to know how large a house you will 

 need to accommodate them. From what we have written in the foregoing 

 paragraph, you know that for each pair of pigeons you will need two 

 nest boxes each one cubic foot in size. Therefore for 96 pairs of pigeons 

 you will need 192 nest boxes, or 96 egg crates, or their equivaleut in space. 



Perhaps your start will 'be made with so small a number of birds that 

 you will not have to cover more than one wall of your squab house with 

 nest boxes. Cover one wall, or two walls, or three vt^alls, whichever the 

 occasion demands. Have a lot of spare boxes, if you wish, and let the 

 breeding pairs choose where they will. An extra number of nest boxes 

 may be useful to you to accommodate the young birds raised to breeding 

 age from the old birds which you buy of us, if you intend to raise your 

 squabs to breeding age. 



An expenditure of not over five dollars, and a couple of days' time, 

 will transform the average old building into a ha'bitation for squabs. Put 

 on the finishing touches and add to the expense to suit your fancy. You 

 may cover the outside of the building with tarred paper and shingle or 



