Money in Broilers and Squabs. 75 



If not run on a scientific basis, no success can be made of the 

 squab business. It must be made a study, and the beginning must be 

 with mated birds. If mated they will go right to work, provided, of 

 course, they are supplied with good, clean water, good feed, plenty 

 of charcoal, grit, oyster shell, and fine table salt. 



"I think the Spring of the year is the best time to start. 



"What the beginner generally does if he wants to increase 

 his flock, is to buy ten pair of breeders and save all the birds raised 

 the first year. He will have, as a result, fifty to sixty pair of young 

 birds. He will let them all breed. The following year they will be- 

 gin raising squabs, and probably one hundred pair of young will 

 again be saved for breeders. The third year comes trouble — the 

 squabs begin to die at the age of two or three weeks, while others 

 will be weak and puny. 



"Then the beginner rushes to a pigeon dealer and wants to 

 know what ails his squabs. They hatch all right, but die at a tender 

 age. No one seems to know what is the matter. He continues the 

 same breeding and reaps the same results. The trouble lies in the 

 inbreeding from that original flock of ten pair. Sisters, cousins and 

 aunts are all bred together. The offspring have no stamina, and 

 the parent birds do not properly feed and care for their young. 



"That is the cause of most of the failures." 



It was very plain, on our visit to Mr. Rice, that if a beginner 

 will visit a good, practical man he will learn more in two hours talk 

 than he can experience in two years labor. 



Whenever Mr. Rice changes a house and flock, he has the in- 

 terior of the pen heavily whitewashed. One cannot do the work too 

 well. 



Mr. Rice prefers the Homer for the squab business. Some think 

 a Runt crossed on Homer gives good results, but Mr. Rice has ex- 

 perienced that this cross seems to wipe out the nature of the Homer 

 blood. The best cross he knows of is Dragoon on Homer, but noth- 

 ing equals the Homer blood straight. He has also found that the 

 Dragoon is not as hardy a bird as the Homer. 



Mr. Rice was asked what he considered the breeding life of a 

 pigeon, and he replied that he has bred continuously from one pen 

 for six years, and still finds them good for that purpose ; but after 

 seven or eight years breeding, they are of little value. Their prime 

 of breeding life he considers between the age of three and five years. 



He said the first year the parent stock are apt to be more or 

 less neglectful, for want of experience. "They are very much like 

 a young married couple with their 'initial boy.' " 



Then came the subject of feed and feeding, probably the most 

 important part of all the work, and upon this subject the writer 

 secured considerable valuable advice, which we condense as follows : 



In buying g-iin, be careful what you buy. The best is none too 

 good, and great care should be taken in its selection. 



The staple articles are cracked corn, wheat, Kaffir corn and 

 Canada peas. Millet and hemp are given occasionally. 



Never feed the birds in the fly, but always inside of the building. 



