AN EASY START 29 



You should have a pair of nest boxes for a pair of pigeons. 

 By a pair of pigeons we mean two pigeons, a male and a 

 female. By a pair of nest boxes we mean two nest boxes. 

 We find that the word pair has a different meaning to people 

 in different parts of the country, perhaps on the same principle 

 that a pair of scissors or a pair of suspenders is one object, 

 while a pair of something else, as in this case, means two 

 objects. A pair of pigeons attend to a pair of squabs in one 

 nest box, nevertheless for each pair of pigeons you need two 

 nest boxes, for when the squabs are about two weeks old in 

 one nest, the old birds will go to the adjoining nest box, or to 

 a nest box in a distant part of the squab house, and begin 

 housekeeping again, laying eggs and dividing their attention 

 between the two families. 



Count your nest boxes and you will know how many 

 pigeons your house will accommodate. If your count shows 

 ninety-six nest boxes (in other words, forty-eight pairs of nest 

 boxes), you can accommodate (in theory) forty-eight pairs 

 of pigeons. It is important to remember this: Never fill 

 a house with pigeons to the uttermost limit of its capacity, 

 as shown by count of nest boxes. If you have, for example, 

 forty-eight pairs of nest boxes, do not put into that house 

 more than thirty to forty pairs of pigeons. That will leave 

 plenty of nest boxes for the birds to choose from. We have 

 found by experience that thirty or thirty-five pairs in a 

 ninety-six nest-box house will accomplish more than more 

 pairs in the same space. 



Do not write us and tell us that you have a house of a 

 certain size and ask us to tell you how many pairs of pigeons 

 it will accommodate. Put in your nest boxes as we have 

 described and then cotmt them, and you will know. Or you 

 may figure it out for yourself on paper, allowing two nest 

 boxes, each one cubic foot in size, for each pair of birds. To 

 put it in another .way, you should allow one cubic foot of nest 

 box space for each breeding pigeon. Surely we have made 

 this so plain now that you cannot- go astray. 



Perhaps your start will be made with so small a number of 

 birds that you will not have to cover more than one wall of 

 your squab house with nest boxes. Cover one wall, or two 

 walls, or three walls, whichever the occasion demands. Have 

 ^ lot of spare boxes, and let the breeding pairs choose where 



