4& SQUABS FOR PROFIT 



poorer squabs. Other breeders are afraid the cost of 

 feeding will be too large, so they follow the plan 

 of feeding a limited quantity at first, and in the course 

 of a half hour make a second visit to the pen and give 

 more feed, evidently trying by this means to feed just 

 the exact quantity the birds will consume. Still other 

 breeders make even a third visit, thus feeding in in- 

 stallments. 



Birds fed in this manner will never care for their 

 squabs as well as those not interrupted ; for even when 

 accustomed to the owner, it is seldom he can go into 

 a pen of 50 pairs of birds without disturbing the timid 

 ones. If these have flown away from the feeding 

 trough to their nests, hearing the approaching foot- 

 steps, the owner may think the birds are satisfied 

 and need no more grain. As a consequence either 

 parent birds or squabs go hungry till the next meal. 

 A parsimonious feeder will raise skinny squabs. 



The temptation to substitute lower priced grain 



for that costing more is one that appeals to the pocket- 

 book, especially of the inexperienced breeder. He 

 needs to keep a record, both of the cost of his feed and 

 the prices obtained for his squabs, not for one week 

 alone, but continuously. When he keeps such a record 

 he will always find that his greater profits are when he 

 is feeding at the greater cost. By this we mean, of 

 course, that he is feeding according to the ration ad- 

 vised and not by giving higher priced grains and leav- 

 ing out one ingredient of this ration. 



When one considers that squabs are marketed at four 

 weeks of age, at which time they are nearly as large 

 as their parents and almost fully fledged, as shown in 

 Fig. 17, he must realize that nature is doing excellent 



