148 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



HOW TO KEEP AN EQUAL NUMBER OF MALES 

 AND FEMALES 



One ot the difficulties of a squab plant is to keep down the 

 percentage of extra cocks, which accumulate in excess of fe- 

 males for various reasons. In this respect nature seems to be 

 at fault, for there is not a single exception in the favor of the 

 life of a female over the life of a male. 



If one egg fails to hatch, invariably it is the female egg. If 

 a young squab gets trampled to death in the nest, it is usually 

 the smallest one, which is generally the female. The male and 

 larger squab crowds the smaller ones away at the feeding time 

 and in such cases the larger squabs continue to grow and get 

 strong and the small ones, the females, stand back and some- 

 times starve to death. 



Females are more delicate and subject to colds and this often- 

 times causes their death. They are often driven so hard by 

 the males that they get poor and finally die. The natural life 

 of a female is shorter than the life of the male. 



With these things taken into consideration there is usually 

 quite a percentage of odd cocks to be disposed of, unless one 

 manipulates and disposes of the male bird as a squab. By a 

 systematic method, one can guard against the over production 

 of male birds, which is necessary in order to make a squab 

 plant as profitable as possible. 



The larger squah in the nest is invariably the male, so in 

 taking them out of the nest for market purposes, one should 

 save a few of the smaller ones for breeding purposes. It is a 

 good plan to ban.d these birds then and there, so that the next 

 time you are around gathering squabs, you will know that the 

 odd squab in the nest is a female. It is hard to tell the sex of 

 young birds, especially at squabbing time, unless you are famil- 

 iar with the flock. 



Different flocks of birds have different characteristic markings 

 that enable one to determine the male from the female the ma- 

 jority of the time. This is especially true 'with color marking. For 

 instance, most of the male birds from a certain pair will be 

 marked in a similar way and most of the females will also have 

 a separate marking. In such cases it is an easy matter to tell 

 the sex of the young birds as soon as they get their feathers. 



