CHAPTER VIL 
INCREASE OF FLOCK. 
It Is Possible to Breed One Pair of Squabs Each Month, but in Actual 
Practice This Is Seldom Attained—The Squab Raiser with Pure 
Thoroughbred Homers Should Count on Hight or Nine Pairs of 
Squabs a Year—The Common Pigeon Breeds Only Four or Five 
Pairs of Squabs a Year, But Eats as Much or More Than the 
Homer—Differences Between the Homer and the Common Pigeon— 
Good Homers Scarce and the Market for Them Firm and Steady. 
It is theoretically possible for a pair of pigeons to brecd twelve pairs 
of squabs a year, for it takes only 17 days for the eggs to hatch, and 
ithe hen goes to luying again when the hatch is only two weeks old. 
So, if you.start with 12 pairs of Homer pigeons, and they should breed 
one ‘pair of squabs a month, at the end of the first month you would 
have 24 squabs; at the end of the second munth, 48 squabs; at the end 
of the third mouth, 72 squabs; at the end of the fourth month, 96 
squabs; at the end of the fifth month, 120 squabs. Now the first lot of 
squabs which your birds hatched will be ready to mate and lay eggs, 
so at the end of the sixth month you should have 168 squabs; at the 
end of the seventh month, 240 squabs; at the end of the eighth month, 
336 squabs; at the end of the ninth month, 456 squabs; at the end of the 
tenth month, 600 squabs; at the end of the eleventh month, 768 squabs, 
and at the end of the twelfth month, 960 squabs. Such figures are purely 
theoretical and are seldom attained in actual practice. It may be called 
the standard, the ideal, to which we are all working. You will have 
some pairs in your flock which will raise ten and eleven pairs of squabs 
a year, but the average will be eight or nine pairs. of squabs a year. 
If you get only six or seven pairs, your flock is not pure thoroughbred 
Homers, or your feeding and nesting arrangements are wrong. In our 
visit to the New Jersey squab country, in the summer of 1902, we asked 
every squab breeder with whom we talked how many pairs a year he 
was getting from his birds, and about all of them said seven to nine. 
This experience corresponds with ours. We remember particularly an old 
gentleman, Preacher Hubbell, in Vineland, who had been in the squab 
business for years but was, just going out of it, having sold his place, 
pigeons and all, to a Swede farmer. He told us he had always made 
squabs pay him and that his birds, of which he kept a eareful record, 
raised him nine pairs to the year right along. 
It is a well-known fact that the common pigeon will breed only four 
(53) 
ra 
