CHAPTER IIL. 
THE UNIT HOUSE, 
Rest Possible Construction for a Squab Plant—The Wind Break Forma- 
tion of Roof—Dimensions of the Unit—Multiplying the Unit to In- 
crease the Capacity of Your Plant—A Pagsageway Behind the Nest 
Boxes—Numbering the Hinged Backs of the Nest Boxes, and the 
Management of a Card Index to Correspond—Cost of the Unit Con- 
struction is from $3 to $5 a Running Foot—Working Drawings—The 
Nappies. 
If you have no building already standing which you can fix over for 
pigeons, you may erect a simple rectangular structure and line it with 
nests as we have described in the-last chapter. We will tell you in this 
chapter how to put up the finest kind of a pigeon structure. It is at the 
saine time the most expensive. It is the best, the most workmanlike. In 
saying that it is expensive, we do not mean that money is thrown away 
on its construction, for that is not so. It is a fit habitation for a money- 
making investment. 
This best method of construction results in what we call the unit house. 
You can multiply this unit as many times as you please and get as large 
a house as you wish, or you may add a unit from time to time, just as 
you add unit book cases to accommodates the growth of the modern library 
shelves. You can erect these units separately, or attach one unit to the 
other, so that you have one long building. 
The nest boxes are ‘built of boxing and set in a vertical row at the back 
of the house, forming a wal! between which and the north side of the 
house is a three-foot' passageway. You can buy this boxing at a saw mill 
all cut, ten by eleven inches, the dimensions of the nest, and if you get it 
in this shape you can put the boxes together with as much ease as a child 
builds a doll’s house. You will have no doubts as to the squareness and 
plumbness of the structure when you have it up. Take long lengths of 
boxing eleven inches wide for the shelving which should form the top and 
bottom of the nest boxes, then set the 10 in. x 11 in. pieces the proper 
distance apart. The finished nest will be eleven inches from front to back, 
ten inches from top to bottom, and about ten inches from one partition to 
the other (or whatever distance the proper distribution of your nests in 
pairs permits). 
We have found five-eighths inch boxing to be the best suited. Build the 
nest boxes up from floor to roof perfectly plain, just as the pigeon holes 
of a desk run. 
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