Tce Uae BONS BE Us Ee Hl N 
iv) 
An occasional snake takes its toll. Sparrows seldom use the boxes as 
they are placed too low and are seldom placed near human habitation. 
Mice will seldom use the boxes if all nesting material is removed and 
the boxes are painted in the fall. If this detail is overlooked, the majority 
of boxes will act as host to white-footed mice which will build their downy 
nests above the grassy debris left by the bluebirds and thus pass the winter 
in warmth and comfort. 
A local painter sends me a gallon can filled with the season’s leftover 
paint. The color varies from brown to green but that seems to make little 
difference to my renters. I have had bluebirds take over a snow-white box 
painted by a state highway crew, while a joker painted another box brilliant 
red. The birds took possession of that abnormality before the paint was dry. 
I advise a dull color as fewer humans notice the boxes and destruction and 
tampering are thus reduced to a minimum. The destruction by boys, how- 
ever, is remarkably small. 
The actual cost of building and painting my five hundred boxes has been 
very little, probably not in excess of several dollars spent for nails and 
hinges which were supplied me at cost by an interested hardware merchant. 
I have kept no account of the actual cost of gas or of my time. I charge 
those costs to cigarette money and recreation, and feel that I’m far ahead 
at that, as yearly the minimum increase in the Adams County bluebird 
complement is at least 2000 baby birds. 
At my country home eight miles north of Quincy we live from April 
through November: My banding station extends along fences, through brush, 
and into the heavy woods. In my orchard I have a covered wire cage, 10 x 24 
feet. A small glassed-in house covers the northwest corner, thus supplying 
protection to my brood quail during inclement weather. I have eight pairs 
of tame quail which constitute my brood stock. These are carefully fed with 
laying mash, oyster shell and some mashed grain. Laying starts early in 
May. This equipment is supplemented by a brood of leghorn and buff cochin 
bantam hens. These are almost constantly broody during the summer months. 
Daily I remove the surplus eggs from the nests within my laying pens 
and when I have forty eggs, I place twenty under a bantam hen and have 
twenty more incubated by a local hatchery. Even they charge me nothing 
for this service as they say, “It’s for the good of the cause.” 
After twenty-four days of incubation I have approximately forty baby 
quail. The bantam mother and her big flock are placed on wire in a high 
box. At first, they have fresh water and sand only. They learn the mother’s 
call and feed notes and discover that she is snug and warm when they are 
chilled or cold. 
The following day the hungry mother and her flock of quail babies are 
turned onto the closely cut grass protected by a large wire cage 6x 12 feet 
and 15 inches high. A metal chicken box placed at one end acts as cover in 
case of rain or cold. 
The mother soon teaches the babies to eat mash. From then on the 
cage must be moved daily to a new position as young quail must have clean, 
fresh quarters. After a week one end of the cage is elevated sufficiently 
to allow the babies to stray into the grass in search of insects, worms and 
