SUPPLEMENT 
handled. It is also a good idea to throw a 
pinch of tobacco dust in the nest, on and 
around the squabs, about once a month during 
the summer, 
Lice are the terror of chicken raisers, but 
we never knew asquab raiser. if intelligent, to 
be troubled very much or very long with lice. 
Once free of lice, the birds almost in- 
variably keep themselves clean. It is only 
the loft where cleaning is badly neglected 
which is troubled with lice.’ 
There is a light-colored grub which some- 
times forms in the manure on the bottom 
of the nest-box, but no trouble comes from 
it and it does not get on the bird. 
RED AND WHITE WHEAT. It is im- 
possible for us to tell what is the difference 
- between red and white wheat. We do not 
know the chemical constituents which color 
one kernel red and another variety white. 
This question is asked us by inquirers who 
have never heard of red wheat, yet it is a 
common and staple variety of wheat quoted 
daily in the Chicago and other grain markets. 
If you cannot get red wheat where you live, 
feed white wheat, which is fed regularly by 
nine-tenths of our customers. As we say 
in the Manual, we feed red wheat instead 
of white wheat because it is not so much 
of a laxative. When we cannot get red 
wheat, which happens at some periods of 
some years, we feed white wheat. 
The effect of wheat is to keep the bowels 
of the birds open and regular. There is 
not much fattening substance in wheat. 
That function is performed by corn. 
Birds fed on wheat and nothing else get 
so weak that they do no breeding. We 
have found this out by the experience of 
customers. Now and then a customer buys 
birds without thinking that they must eat 
to live. After he has got them he suddenly 
recalls that they must be fed and starts out 
to find something. We recall vividly one 
Kansas customer of this kind who was induced 
by some grain man to buy a lot of wheat 
and nothing else. After feeding his birds 
nothing but wheat for two weeks, he wrote 
us that they were dumpy and showing no 
inclination to build nests. ‘‘They are all 
the time on the floor,”’ he wrote, ‘‘and cannot 
fly.” He had made them so weak by feeding 
the wheat that they could not fly to their 
nest-boxes, to say nothing of building nests. 
USE OF LEG BAND OUTFIT. The 
aluminum which we sell with our leg band 
outfit is seamless tubing and by the use of 
the outfit you produce a band which is 
seamless and which can be ‘applied only 
to a squab, because, of course, the feet of an 
old pigeon are too large to be squeezed through 
the band as a squab’s can be squeezed. To 
make an open band (which can be applied 
to the leg of a full-grown pigeon) out of the 
closed band, you simply make a_saw-cut 
lengthwise the band, then open the band 
117 
with your fingers, put it around the leg of 
the pigeon, then close the band again. If 
any one has old pigeons which he wishes to 
band, he will find this band outfit quite as. 
serviceable as if used only for banding squabs. 
We have sold thousands of these band out- 
fits, and customers like them first-rate. 
We can furnish open bands (to:‘be applied 
to the legs of full-grown pigeons) made of 
aluminum, V-shaped joint, each band 
numbered, a first-class band in every way, 
for two cents each, or two dollars for one 
hundred, postage paid. 
-MANAGEMENT OF BATH PANS. The 
sixteen-inch bath pan which we recommend 
and sell is better than a larger size, no matter 
what the capacity of your plant. It is 
easier emptied of water, there is less: strain 
on the arms, and it is kept clean easier. 
There should be one bath pan for every 
twelve pairs of birds. If you: have about 
48 pairs of birds in each unit, you should 
have four bath pans in that unit, outside 
in the flying pen. You can get along very 
well with one drinking fountain to a unit 
with that number of birds, or a less number 
of birds, but if you do not have bath pans 
enough the bathing water will get dirtier 
than it should and the birds should not be. 
given an opportunity to drink this dirty 
water. i 
In the winter, when the birds are shut 
up in the squab-house frequently for days 
at a time, it is not necessary to bathe them 
every day. Bathe them once each week, 
taking the bath pans into the squab-house 
and letting the pans stand before them for 
about an hour. If you let the water stand 
in the bath pans in the squab-house in the 
winter time all day, they will splash too 
much out onto the floor, and the house will 
get damp. 
If your plant is a small one, the best way 
for you to manage is this: At evening 
(sunset, sometimes before) your birds will 
all leave the flying pen for their nests and 
perches inside. Then fill the bath pans with 
water. When the following day dawns, and 
before you are up, the pigeons will fly out and 
take a bath. hen you get up, go to your 
pigeons and empty the bath pans, turning 
them bottom side up and leaving them that 
way all day. : 
The price of these sixteen-inch bath pans 
is forty cents, crated ready for shipment. 
KILLING WITH A KNIFE. Some dealers 
in squabs wish them to be killed with a knife 
as this gets out the blood and makes the 
flesh somewhat whiter. Find out whether 
or not the man to whom you are going to 
sell the squabs wants them bled. The way 
to kill them with a knife is to insert the 
knife inside the bill and cut the jugular vein. 
Then hang up the squab bill downward and 
let the blood drain out. By using the knife 
on the inside of the throat you do not make 
