APPENDIX G 



323 



FLOCK OF GOOD 

 HOMERS, by Leroy 



Wiles. The two squabs 

 in the picture are Homer 

 squabs. The father is a 

 large red checker and the 

 mother is a black Homer. 

 These squabs weighed one 

 pound apiece, when four 

 weeks old. They are 

 black checkers. Both of 

 them turned out to be 

 males. One is now mated 

 and has a nest with two 

 eggs. I banded the one that 

 is mated with one of the 

 bands of the usual size 

 and it would just go 

 around his leg, so you can 

 see what a leg he has. 

 The little boy holding the 

 nestbowl is my brother 

 He is nine years old. I 

 am nineteen. I think that 

 he is going to be just like 

 me in regard to pigeons, as 

 he likes to go out with me 

 and watch them eat and 

 feed their young ones. I 

 have some more squabs 

 growing up and I think 

 they will be fully as large 

 as the two in the picture. 



I SELL SQUABS FOR 

 FIVE CENTS AW OUNCE, 

 by W. E. Blakslee. I have 

 a way for keeping young 

 squabs in the nests made 

 around on the ground. I 

 nail four pieces of board a 

 foot long into box shape and set it over the 

 nest. This keeps the squabs quiet and the 

 old birds have free access to them all the 

 time. The young birds cannot get over the 

 top of it, and the old ones can easily get into 

 it for feeding them any time. 



I find it a simple matter to work up more 

 trade than one wants if you go at it in the 

 right way. _ I adopt the plan of selling my 

 birds by weight — five cents per ounce. When 

 asked what my price is, and I tell them this 

 they exclaim that they can buy all the squabs 

 they want for forty-five cents apiece. There 

 are many flocks of common pigeons in this 

 surrounding country. I don't run down the 

 birds that they are buying, nor do I stand 

 and argue the question with them. I ask 

 them to weigh the birds they buy and see 

 what my price would make them cost. They 

 find they are getting more six and seven- 

 ounce birds than anything else and at my 

 price they would cost only thirty and thirty- 

 five cents instead of forty-five cents. They 

 come back to me and want to see my squabs 

 and are astonished at the size of them. They 

 find I have squabs instead of jack-knives to 

 sell. Most of my squabs are eleven and 

 twelve ounces. I have some eight and nine 



MY BROTHER AND MY BIG HOMER SQUABS. 



and I have a good many twelve to fourteen. 

 I have no trouble in making customers under- 

 stand that they are getting meat for their 

 money — for they have proved the fact to 

 their own satisfaction. When you have the 

 right squabs, your biggest trouble is t oo 

 many wanting them. 



Question: Do you know of any way to 

 dispose of pigeon wings? It seems to me 

 that there must be some concern which buys 

 them. Answer: The wings of the colored 

 Homers are not used to any extent on women's 

 hats, but the wings of white Homers or white 

 pigeons of any kind are in active demand by 

 milliners. Wholesale milliners try to buy 

 these for ten cents apiece. They sell them 

 to the retailers for thirty cents to fifty cents 

 apiece, and when the milliner makes up the 

 hat for her customer she gets from $1 to $2 

 for the white wing. I would advise you to 

 sell your white wings for at least twenty-five 

 cents each. 



Question: One young Homer that hatched 

 had a great deal of white in it, although the 

 old ones were blue. Is this liable to hap- 

 pen any time? Answer: Yes. The colored 

 Homers do not breed true to color. 



