60 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 
Some squab breeders feed twice a day, as much as the birds 
will eat up clean, but we do not believe in that system of 
feeding. Our own success, and the success of our customers 
in squab raising, is based largely on the fact that we insist on 
a continuous supply of food for the pigeons, when they are 
breeding. Use the self-feeder only with birds that are pro- 
ducing squabs. A new flock should be fed by hand twice 
daily what they will eat up clean in ten minutes.’ Keep them 
eager, active and racy. Do not let them get too fat, for if 
you do they will not start laying. Some beginners will use 
up weeks trying to get their birds started, others get all their 
pairs going in a few days. It is a matter of skillful feeding, 
exactly as in the case of hens. The best of mated pairs will 
_ not produce eggs unless nourished, because the act of copula- 
tion, as in the case of hens and roosters, has nothing to do 
with the volume of egg production, but only with the fertility 
of eggs. 
Food should be at hand in the self-feeder for birds which 
are breeding. They do not gorge, as a-horse will if an un- 
limited supply of food is set before him. They are not 
gluttons,.like pigs. They do not lose their racy shape. A 
squab when hungry will squeak loudly to inform its parents 
of that fact and if you observe a squab house where the two 
meals a day are in vogue, you will note quite a chorus of 
squeaks. In a house where there is feed always at hand, 
you will not hear many hungry squeaks. It is greatly to 
your interest that the crops of your young birds be filled with 
food. The more their crops are stuffed with food, the quicker 
they will fatten and the fatter they will get. The parent 
birds should at all times be able to fill up their crops with feed 
and water and then fly to the nest to disgorge for the benefit 
of the squabs. 
Squab breeders differ concerning self-feeders, same as 
mothers differ about ways of bringing up babies. Each squab 
breeder thinks his method of feeding is the best. We speak 
not wholly from our own experience, but the experiences of 
thousands of customers extending over many years. There 
was formerly the same prejudice against self-feeders for 
poultry, until a man in Ohio, raising poultry with striking 
success by the aid of self-feeders, made his brethren sit up and 
take notice. In our stories of success printed at the back of 
