THE UNIT HOUSE 39 
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. 
The nest boxes should be perfectly plain, made of simple 
boxing in the manner described. Do not build up a piece of 
boxing at the front part of the nest to prevent the nest bowl 
from being pushed out. Early in our experience we built 
nests in this way, but soon changed them over to the simpler 
form, on account of the difficulty of keeping them clean. The 
droppings bank up at the front of such a nest box. 
Pigeons, especially a new flock in a new home, breed best 
in a house which is somewhat dark, and not too glaring with 
light. If your window is situated so as to let in a flood of 
light, you will get better and quicker results by shading it so 
that the interior will be dim. Some breeders advocate that 
the nest boxes have fronts of wood (removable) so that the 
nest box will be darkened. The same result will be accom- 
plished if the window of the house is shaded so as to temper 
the light and prevent it from streaming into the nest boxes. 
The dimensions of this unit squab house are as follows: 
Length, sixteen feet; width, twelve feet; length of flying pen 
from end of house to end of yard, twenty feet; distance from 
floor of squab house to ridgepole, twelve feet; two windows 
in south wall of squab house, each two feet two inches wide 
and three feet ten inches high. One window in north wall of 
squab house, two feet two inches wide and three feet ten 
inches high. There is a passageway on the north side of the 
squab house three feet wide, separating the north wall from 
the vertical row of nest boxes. The door of the squab house 
opens into, this passageway so that you can enter the house 
without being seen by the birds, and without disturbing them. 
If you. wish, you can set up rows of nest boxes on the 
east and west walls of the squab house and accommodate more 
pairs. You cannot have a passageway behind these nest 
boxes on the east and west walls, but will approach them 
from the front by entering the interior of the squab house 
through a wire door which leads from the passageway. 
