196 



AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



When both liont walls are wire the light comes in below the 

 chute and the birds can naturally see right through the wire 

 nito the fly pen. The exit chute being higii up and not so easy to 

 see, 1 questioned the birds finding tliein very easy, liut the 

 second day they were all out in the fly pens and all readily 

 found their way back to the nest rooms. By this experience I 

 learned tiiat the aisle in front and the overhead chute will work 

 as well with an open front house as a closed one. 



The California and southern breeders have developed a good 

 idea in fly pen running boards. They build them on either side 

 which is far better than the old ladder-like arrangement that is 

 so commonly used in the east and central states. The differ- 



FLT PEN AND SQUAB HOUSE READY P'OR THE BIRDS 



ence in these Iwo systems of fly pen perches is all in favor of 

 the southern idea. The objection to the ladder plan is that it is 

 hard to catch birds in a fiy pen with one of these constructions 

 in it. If the birds light on the top round it cannot be reached, 

 or if they get back of the ladder on the ground they are hard to 

 get to. 



I was once visiting a squab plant and the owner had asked 

 me to make any suggestion Ihat I saw flt, and in reply to my 

 suggestion that I liked the single running boards along the 

 sides better than the kind he had as it made it easier to catch 

 birds, he asked "^■\'hy shoidd a person he catching his bh'ds 

 so much?" In less than three minutes he was in his fly pen 

 trying to catch a bird to remove a tight band and was chasing 

 it all over the pen and scaring all the other birds. 



