National Standard Squab Book. 79 
. so will the igi interfere in the flying pen with the hens? Answer. 
: ee cee hen upper part of your hen house and the pigeons will not 
e harmed by the hens, nor the hens by the pigeons. It is best to build 
the flying pen in two stories so that the pigeons cannot fly into the hen 
house to try to nest. 
Question. To gaat room, I would like to build my pigeon house in two 
stories. Answer. That is all right. Build the top flying pen out over 
and extending beyond the bottom flying pen if you wish to separate the 
flocks on the ground floor from thé flocks upstairs. 
Question. What are the bands for pigeous’ legs and how are they 
applied? Answer. The seamless band is a ring of aluminum three- 
eighths of an inch in diameter and from three-sixteenths to one-quarter 
of an inch in width. You cannot apply it to an old pigeon. It is put on 
either leg of a squab when the squab is four or five days old, by squeezing 
the toes of the squab through the band. As the leg of the squab grows, 
it becomes impossible to remove the baad except by cutting it off. On 
the band, before putting it on the leg of the squab, yor may stamp year 
of birth and your initials, or anything you choose. We do not sell the 
bands, which are quite expensive, costing from three to four. cents apiece 
as they are furnished by poultry and pigeon supply houses, and this cost 
makes them impracticable for the average squab breeder. We sell an 
outfit consisting of aluminum tubing, dies, ete., by which the squab 
breeder may make his own bands at a cost of two or three for a cent. 
Question. Since I bought twelve pairs of you, I have kept a careful 
account of the feed and find as you state that five cents a month for a 
pair of breeders is right. Grain has been much higher than usual this 
summer (1902) and it strikes me that under normal conditions of the grain 
market the cost-of a pair of squab breeders would be less than five cents 
a mouth, or sixty cents a year. Answer. Our figures of cost were ascer- 
tained not by “skimping” the birds, but feeding them liberally, and our 
estimate of five cents a month for a pair is based on a lower cost of graip 
than prevailed in the spring and summer of 1902. It is possible by close 
purchase of grain and careful feeding'to get the cost under sixty cents per 
year per pair. 
Question. What pattern of trowel do you recommend for cleaning the 
nappies and nest boxes? Answer. The common trowel such as brick- 
layers use is too pointed. The best pattern has a square point and a stout 
blade with strong handle. With such a trowel you can clean out the nap- 
pies and nest boxes very effectively. 
Question. Can pigeons be raised on the sea coast as well as inland? 
Answer. Yes; the Homer pigeon is descended from a variety of pigeon 
which first bred among the cliffs bordering the sea shore. 
Question. Do the squabs fly out of the nest before they are four weeks 
old? Answer. No; they look old enough to fly at four weeks, and their 
wings seem all ready for use, but they stay in the nest and are fed by 
