20 
week. I take out the movable bottoms of the nest boxes, and with a 
large butcher knife or steel scraper remove all excrement, letting it fall 
to the floor of the pen. If a nest box contains young squabs or eggs or 
a freshly made nest it is not disturbed, but is left to take its turn at a 
subsequent cleaning. After all nest boxes are well cleaned a spade 
is used to loosen the droppings on the floor, and all are shoveled into 
a wheelbarrow in the passageway and the floor is swept clean. 
The flies are cleaned out from four to six times a year. I use about 
4 inches of clean sand in the flies, the sand being sifted and furnishing 
a soft floor on which the birds alight. With this there is no danger of 
the birds laming themselves or breaking their legs, and the sand is 
always free from mud. A pinch of air-slacked sifted lime (carbolated 
by the addition of a scant teacup of crude carbolic acid to a peck of 
lime) is scattered in each nest, a peck of dry sand is scattered on the 
floor, and the coop is ready for another week’s run. 
Objection is made by some breeders that the weekly cleaning out 
unnecessarily disturbs the birds, compelling the timid ones to leave 
their nests, causing eggs to get chilled, etc. It certainly is possible 
to make a great uproar in the coop during the cleaning, but this I 
never permit. The cleaner should enter the pen quietly, making no 
violent or sudden motions, and dispatch the work as quickly as possi¬ 
ble. The birds should be so treated that, when it is necessary to 
enter their quarters, they know that no harm is intended. In this 
weekly cleaning the supply of salt, oyster shells, and charcoal should 
be renewed and a fresh supply of tobacco stems, cut into 6-inch 
lengths, put into each pen. 
Light-weight squabs.—If squabs at the proper age for market are 
of light weight—6£ or 7 pounds to the dozen—they are not profitable, 
for they will always bring lower prices when sent to market. Such 
squabs indicate either that the parent birds are poor feeders or that 
the breeder has fed improperly. If a record has been carefully kept, 
as suggested, an inspection of it will show whether a particular pair of 
birds regularly produce poor squabs. If so, and the food given has 
been suitable in quantity and variety, this pair of birds should be dis¬ 
posed of at once. During the moulting season the squabs may be 
expected to be less plump than when the birds have less strain on 
them. These light-weight squabs cut down the profits more than 
some think. I have frequently seen a lot of nearly 100 sold for $4.25 
per dozen straight, while another lot sent at the same time and to the 
same buyer has brought $4.25 for some, $4 for others, and $3.50, and 
even as low as $1.75 for others. Frequently this difference is directly 
traceable to the kind of feed given. 
Transferring a squab.—Sometimes, even with right feeding, a squab 
will be observed to be of light weight, being much smaller than its 
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