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APPENDIX G 



TEN PAIRS OF SQUABS A YEAR. 



■ "What do you think of these Homers? The ones with the crosses on 

 them are the two best breeding Homers in my flock. They raise 

 squabs weighing sixteen ounces apiece at the rate of ten pairs a 

 year. They are 'the largest birds I have. I get twenty-five cents 

 apiece for all my squabs alive and cannot raise one-third enough. — 

 A, F, Ayers, California. 



HOW TO GET AIR INTO SQUAB 



HOUSES, by W. P. Jencks. When you see 

 frost on the nails of your roof inside, make 

 up your mind yoiir house is damp. To venti- 

 late a he use ten by twelve feet make a box 

 about five or six feet long and about one foot 

 wide. Have doors on the north and south side 

 on hinges that swing in from the top. Close 

 the one on the side where the wind is blowing 

 and open the other one. A small ventilator 

 one foot square open all around will let in 

 more fresh air than one six feet long that is 

 open only on the side opposite from the wind. 

 A ventilator that is not over one foot square 

 in a house ten by twelve with seventy-five or 

 one hundred birds in it is not much use. The 

 average squabhouse ventilators are too small. 

 Make them larger. Try one as an experiment 

 and find out as I did. 



I have sold all my squabs to a hotel right in 

 the town. They have taken all I could raise 

 and wanted more. They paid twenty-five cents 

 each and took them alive. I did not have to 

 kill them. I now sell my squabs by the ounce. 

 I get two cents an ounce just killed and three 

 cents an ounce dressed. — W. P. Jencks, Rhode 

 Island. 



We are starting in the squab business on a 

 small scale but with the idea of success and of 

 a large plant. Our enthusiasm is strengthened 

 by the remarkable success of a friend during 

 the past two years. He has fully demonstrated 

 to lur satisfaction at least that the squab 

 business is O. K. — H. C. Voss, Ohio. 



HOW TO IMPROVE A 

 FLOCK BY REMATING, by 

 George F. Lunu. I have about 

 three hundred pairs of Ply- 

 mouth. Rock Homers and Car- 

 neaux. If I find a pair that do 

 not breed well, I remate them. 

 I find that it is better to try 

 that than it is to sell them, i£ 

 they are good birds. If I find 

 two pairs which I do not think 

 are doing what they ought, smd 

 mate them over, then they do 

 as a rule very much better. 



I take them out of the pen 

 and use a mating coop for one 

 week, then I put them in a 

 small pen which I have built for 

 that purpose, and I keep them 

 there until they lay one set of 

 eggs and have hatched them out, 

 then I give the squabs to another 

 pair and put them back into the 

 pen from which I took them. 

 I have not had any trouble of 

 their going back to their old 

 mates if they are kept apart 

 for one or two months. 



I am getting for squabs that 



dress eight pounds to the dozen 



$4 a dozen at this date (May 5, 



1911) and think that is very 



good, January, February and 



March. I recieve five and six dollEurs for thran 



in the market. They sold well last winter and 



the birds have been doing very well. 



My birds averaged six and one-half pairs 

 of squabs for each pair of breeders for the year 

 1909, and I think that they will do better than 

 that this year, as they have worked at a more 

 rapid rate so far. 



RAT TRAPS IN A BOX, by James Y. 



Egbert. When a breeder is troubled with mice 

 in the squabhouse, he can get rid of them by 

 using one or more traps in boxes. I take a box 

 13 X "7 X 3 inches, or a tobacco caddy may be 

 used. With a one-inch auger bore eight holes, 

 four in each side. Bait your traps and set 

 them inside, then put a cover over the top so 

 the pigeons will not spring the traps. Traps 

 in a squabhouse should always be protected as 

 pigeons or squabs may be injured if they are 

 not. In this way I cleaned out aU the mice 

 around my pen. 



I am gohig to buy more Homers soon, and 

 will then have an output of twenty dozen 

 squabs a month. I have standing orders for 

 private trade for squabs. I get seventy cents 

 a pair for the smallest squabs, or $4 a dozen. 

 For the largest squabs I get $1 a i)air, or $5.50 

 a dozen. — ^R. C. Boyd, Pennsylvania. 



I have a printed postal card to keep my cus- 

 tomers informed and jog their memory as to 

 the desirability of a course 'A squabs. They 

 have the habit now and reqmre no reminder. — 

 Frank R. Tucker, Rhode Island. 



