APPENDIX G 



335 



RAISING SQUABS BY 

 HAND, by E. Guenther, M.D. 



My sc^uabhouse recently fin- 

 ished IS I fourteen by twenty 

 feet and cost $150. I put tin 

 pans on top of the posts under 

 the sills to keep rats and mice 

 from working up. On October 

 2, I took out thirteen squabs 

 (Homers) which weighed four- 

 teen pounds. During the sum- 

 mer I lost a pair of Homers 

 which had hatched out a pair 

 of young Cameaux. The young 

 birds were thirteen days old 

 when the old ones flew away. 

 They were yellow Cameaux 

 and I was very anxious to raise 

 them, so I got my boy Harold 

 to look after them. One of the 

 pictures shows Harold feeding 

 one of them by mouth, which 

 was the way they were first 

 nourished. When they were 

 older they were fed with a 

 spoon. They are now in the 

 rearing coop and doing well. 

 The other picture shows Harold 

 and my girl Blanche feeding a young Cameau 

 with a spoon. 



SIX DOLLARS A DOZEN, by George N. 

 Childs. I am having good luck with my 

 Homers. I have quite a few calls for squabs. 

 I can get six dollars a dozen for them. I follow 

 Rice's Manual to the letter and find it to be 

 just the right thing. I would not take $25 for 

 it if I could not get another copy. I sell my 

 squabs to private families. They made the 

 price themselves and are willing to pay six 

 dollars a dozen. This Pennsylvania town is 

 very rich and I can sell all the squabs I can 

 turn out. I cannot say enough or too much 

 for the squab business or niy birds. There 

 was a man here this morning from a New 

 York town and he said he had been to see a 

 squab plant there which had seven hundred 

 birds, but had not any to come up to mine. I 

 am going to have a picture taken of my place 

 and will send you one. 



FLYING PEN ON EAST SIDE OF BUILD- 

 ING, by M. C. Martin. For warm climates, 

 I think the flying pen should face the east 

 instead of the south. In the summer when it 

 is so intensely hot, if the pen faces the south, 

 the sun shines on the flying pen all day long, 

 and except in the early morning and late in the 

 evening the birds must stay in the squabhouse 

 to escape the sim. If the pen faces the east, 

 shortly after noon there is shade in the flying 

 pen, and all the birds off of eggs will be found 

 njoying the shade, and very few suffer during 

 the hot season. In the winter the flying pen 

 should have a windbreak on the north side, 

 then remove this in the spring again. 



My plan for perches in the flying pen is to 

 have six-inch boards all around the sides of the 

 pen. One may have two or three tiers of 



RAISING SQUABS BY HAND. 



boards on a side if needed. This leaves more 

 flying space in the pen than the ladder system. 



Question: I have a good-sized flock of 

 Homers which have been working fine, but 

 recently I bought two pairs of Cameaux. 

 One pair worked all right, but the other pair 

 although they are mated do not work properly, 

 so I have come to the conclusion that the 

 Cameaux are not so good as the Homers and 

 I think I will stick to the Homers. Answer: 

 It has been my experience that a party will 

 buy, say ten pairs of Homers and be well 

 satisfied if eight or nine pairs go to work soon. 

 On account of the expense of Cameaux, they 

 may buy only two pairs. They expect both 

 liairs to be perfect breeders under the change 

 of circumstances, although they do not expect 

 an absolutely perfect percentage with their 

 Homers. It is a well-known law stated by all 

 competent observers, that some pigeons will 

 breed properly only when at their old home 

 or with their old partners. It is also true that 

 birds which breed properly in one pen may 

 not do so if sold and shipped away to a new 

 pen. Therefore, in every flock there may be 

 some pigeons coming under these exceptions. 

 Such birds should be mated up with new birds, 

 or later on with birds of your own raising. 

 It is impossible to do much breeding with 

 Cameaux, or with any pigeons, unless you 

 have from three pairs to twelve pairs, so as to 

 have some material with which to work. 

 Anybody who buys one pair of birds and figures 

 on perfect results is taking a chance. 



From the Extra Plymouth Rock Homers 

 that I bought and received May first this year, I 

 have one hundred pairs, some of which are 

 beginning to mate; will have a big bunch 

 mated up by spring. — A. E. Perkins, Iowa. 



