EQUIPMENT AND LOFT NECESSITIES 233 



be provided convenient to your nest rooms. As it does not re- 

 quire as much space for mating coops as it does for nest boxes, 

 a space four feet wide will furnish enough room for a row of 

 mating coops on one side of the wall. A room six feet wide is 

 sufficient space to have mating coops on two walls, but if you 

 have your squab house constructed on the Eggleston plan, with 

 the aisle in front, the aisle furnishes a practical and convenient 

 place to put mating coops of the collapsible design, as described 

 above. 



If a number of mating coops are made together, a little drink- 

 ing trough can be run along in front of any number of coops, 

 which will save much time, or a can or cup of any kind can 

 be fastened on the outside of each mating coop, and the same 

 kind of an arrangement can be provided for feed, grit and oyster 

 shell, etc. 



Birds that are shut up for a few days in this way should 

 always be provided with grit and oyster shell. A good method 

 is to place a can of feed and a can of oyster shell and grit in 

 front of two mating coops so that the birds in each coop will 

 have access to feed on one side and oyster shell and grit on the 

 other. In this way, one can of shell or grit will supply birds 

 in two separate mating coops, which will not only save room 

 and feeding cans, but time in filling them. 



It is not a good idea to put the feed or grit in where the birds 

 can foul it. The best method is to keep this on the outside, but 

 it is not a bad plan to cover the bottom of your mating coops 

 with coarse sand or fine gravel, or at least throw a handful of 

 fine gravel on the floor of each coop. 



No straw, tobacco stems, or nesting material is necessary lor 

 birds that are just ma,ting. By the time they are mated suf- 

 ficiently to be ready to build their nest, they can be taken out 

 and put into a regular nesting room, with the other birds. It 

 is not a wise idea, however, to put birds back into a pen with 

 their old mates, as they are apt to leave their new mates and 

 go back to their old ones, unless they have been mated long 

 enough to raise a pair of squabs, then they are not liable to 

 separate. 



