ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY NEw YorkK STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND HoME ECONOMICS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE GIFT OF PauL PoMEROY IvEs 2D IN MEMORY OF PAUL POMEROY IvEs erican squab culture; a practical work Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000099964 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE A PRACTICAL WORK ON SQUAB CULTURE COVERING EVERY PHASE OF THE RAISING, HOUS- ING AND MARKETING OF SQUABS e 3 ray ah E \ BY H. EGGLESTON iy SECOND EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR PUBLISHED BY AMERICAN PIGEON JOURNAL COMPANY WARRENTON, MO., U. S. A. 1921 He E 6491 Copyright, 1916 By E. H. Eggleston. Copyright, 1921 By Frank H. Hollmann. Publishers’ Note cb many years there has been a great need, in fact an urgent demand, for a standard work on pigeon and squab raising, whlich could be used not only as a textbook by the schools and colleges but also as a manual and guide for the beginner and a reference book for the experienced breeder. This need and ‘demand have been fully met by the publication of American Sqhab Culture. : The first edition was strongly endorsed by the State Agricul- ‘inne Colleges of the United States, the Agricultural Department of ‘the Canadian’ Government, American Library Association, U.'S. Government Library War Service, American Squab Breeders Association, National Pigeon Association, American Pigeon J ournal, Pigeon News, American Pigeon Keeper, National Squab Magazine, and the recognized pigeon authorities. Ameri- can squab breeders eagerly welcomed the first edition., It also begame very popular among the breeders in England, Australia, South America, South Africa, China, East Indies; and many other countries. . In this second edition Mr. Eggleston, the author, has entirely revised and rewritten the book thus bringing it down to date, and making it highly valuable for the great variety of service- able information which it holds. Important material on the construction of squab houses has been added, also a large num- ber of new illustrations. The book now thoroughly covers over a hundred different subjects and includes every known branch of the squab industry. AMERICAN PIGEON JOURNAL COMPANY. E. H. EGGLESTON PREFACE The purpose of this book is to furnish complete and ready information on all subjects pertaining to the raising of pigeons for profit and pleasure. For the benefit of those who desire to become familiar with squab breeding, for those who desire to go into the squab or pigeon business and for those who are in the business in any form or for any purpose. The rapid growth of the squab industry in America, coupled with the fact that there is considerable to learn about the care and breeding of pigeons, has created a demand for a book which will furnish complete and specific information, and intelligent explanation of the possibilities of the squab industry. While there are many things to be learned on the subject of keeping pigeons both for pleasure and profit, much more than one would naturally believe, the knowledge is of such a nature that it can be readily grasped, provided it is sought for in a careful and systematic manner. To read this book through as you would a novel, or story book, will give only a slight general knowledge of ‘the subject, but if a thorough knowledge is desired, the book must be read and studied as a school textbook. In order to get the most out of the various subjects treated herein, the reader should have had some practical experience previously or be engaged in pigeon raising at the time the “book is read. In writing on the various topics in this book, I have deemed it necessary to explain certain facts and details more than once in order to cover closely connected subjects in a general yet 5 6 PREFACE compact way. Then, for the benefit of those who desire to study each specific subject, I have treated them separately under their respective heads. By this method, each article is more complete and if read separately from other articles, the most necessary information on that and kindred subjects will be obtained. The reader will find kindred subjects grouped in the Table of Contents under sub-heads which will furnish a ready reference to all subjects contained herein. E. H. EGGLESTON. Chicago, Illinois. June 1, 1921. y f TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Page WHY RAISE SQUABS?.............. Bessy wt susasainan utsecemnnactvee andgaweares 13 The Squab Industry of America. sccccccacsasvcenaucvnasd iingadsaonaee 13 Raising Squabs for Profit... ...... 0.0.00 c cece eee w eee e en eae 14 Squabs Can Be Raised by Almost Anyone..............e eee eeee 16 Squabs Can Be Raised Almost Anywhere............000ceeuceee 18 When to Start in the Squab Business............ 00.02. e eee aee 19 The Increasing Demand for SquabS..........-.c: cee eeeeee renee 20 Pigeon Habits and CREPE CCETISLICS 5 scot seed esos qi dearaynier a losedeaveen 21 CHAPTER II GETTING STARTED FIGHT on icneswawi sucks bs Sens eee taees ewaa wee 25 THE. “Waly: £0 (Starts sc ditsteun anes ap die eeeseteiscaorerene a drs loca rend araneaanng se igh 25 Raising Squabs for Home Consumption...... 44 QUE SSS eee oss ox 29 Raising Pigeons with Chickens............... cece cence ee eee 30 Raising Pigeons for Pleasure............0.ceeeaeeeee sdincuotencnte 33 Ornamental Squab House for Side or Front Yard..........-.... 34 CHAPTER III CARNBAUNM 2620054408. .0084.00 4) PROCES RRRTE CONES ERS E ~. «635 Origin and Development of the Carneau........... a earalets sateaudve 38D) The Proper Weight for Carina were alee gidiges avis visterenedidwecaoeniis ye tO. Carneaux with Slate Colored Feathers. ............ cee eee eeeeee 39 Yellow Carneaux .....ccc ccc ccc e cece eee n eens en see teen eneeees 40 White Carneaux ........... baruhisindsdavevonctanbexenece bcc ks atti te aces 41 Black, ‘Carnéaux, .sscncouewerss Same tween de ned LS Se ewes a RR RUE 45 Utility Rather Than Fancy..............ccc eee ueee Sulvavenasene wiiioine AT Solid Colored Carneaux............ cece cece eee fetenichats os Soysenouse - 5) 7 8 ‘ TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER IV : Page OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGHONS......... 0s cece een eennee 53 HOMES sees cage capac Oewees Pewee ee ee HMA ETE SS SH HBOS S 53 Giant RuntS 2... ccc ccc cece ere ere te ce eee tener eens eeeneeee eee 55 HUNBAaTIANS acces FR aa 6 FSG MO ew KOE Ee eee alana ee ee ae ae seve 60 Malt6Se. 24004 2catwawlnweiwnes bie p24 BONAR R ESSE SSA Sle ceriENe ee: 61 Swiss Mondaines 24.054 cca caine cin www eens bebe pe biteea ae es OER 64 Polish, LYNX: cswoce cus career ny wie aigesalista nce AVE TCHR. beeen teevaetd viens ie eaves 67 White Kings cosve ses gcds eee ee Hanae ae ed Fase hee Meas Ee OR 68 Gross “Breeds sasceaeg cote Seka Weeewow SHR ass ee wel sere Yelle e sere 71 CHAPTER V FEEDS AND FEEDING ......... eee eee ee eens decd ditesie te Save aurea teres 74 When and How to Feed........ ccc cece eee eee eee e eens 74 What to Feed ....0...-..eees Mamieaine be agiale Se Gasiocrne si IESE SES 17 Composition of Pigeon Feed........... cece eee eee eee 80 Table of Food AnalySiS..... ccc ce ee eee nee eee eee 85 Grains and Seeds ......... cc. eee e eee Disieie an WhtdeGga hin, ok teenaseitcons 86 Feeding Bread to PigeOnS ...... eee ee ee tenes 89 What Pigeon Milk Is8..... 0... ccc cece cc eee terete cece - 90 The High Cost of Feed-....... cee eee eee eee ee ee a 91 CHAPTER VI GRIT), CHARCOAL, SAUT AND WATER .. cccavscaneveseercaed cee 92 Grit; Sand and Gravel): icc cssciwe wee cence Sere ees haa eee Ge 92 CharcOal. s.4i i239 4305 6 ese a MOM EA Et AWS SES TGR RES GS ee oa Ge mies 93 Oyster Shell scacsce ons s sactisewee se SS 465644 ORS dae ye wed ees 94 SUMS a eli. ig cies, arb oe. d aed oe Syeda la dase aca, nh dud, b epeineni dane sommunauavenaaenar Oana em-Syorn mismo ee 94 Sulphate of fon. cascccicscneees vor perv eee eetawismnageaeenv anne 95 Drinking Water ror Pigeons............ cece eee eee eens 96 Bathing sa ae ses dav ea nd eee. € SES Aw il OES NOR RER I es ha ay OS 98 CHAPTER VII CARE OF PENS, BANDING, NESTING MATERIAL............ 101 Care Of SQUAD Platits......cachseet ened aed awe g RATES Ea RODE GES es 101 Care: Of GRY Pen Siwiins nadine nao ta pa avedaigmalncy nia aw 9 Lu@albane Gee 102 How to Band ......... Seg 6 ein gg a Rigg a ae i wg ign 9, Gl Beenie aE a 102 Nesting Material ...,-.¢eqeecteeeeee tees er steers TABLE Of CONTENTS 9 CHAPTER VII Page ENEMIES OF THE SQUAB PLANT...........ccccceeeeeeeeeeee 107 Lice, Mites and Other Vermin................0 cesses eee ceuues 107 Cats, Rats: and Mice. siiadisedavieeecccugunewe cate we eeaeauane 110 Thieves and Bad BOYyS........... ccc ccc ee eee ee eee cee e teens 111 Sparrows, Hawks and Owls........... ccc eceee ete e cece eee nnes 111 CHAPTER IX MOULTING AND COLOR BREEDING i444 ce0eau cicvasuisa dias 113 IVT OME 25-5 nm che escape 9 BSc irs cattle cecal by So sested ob pbbasteyence- Seer ae wR ue aueuonnce 113 Explanation of Feather Coloring........... 0.0.0. cece ene eens 114 How to Breed Yellow, Dun or Silver Colored Pigeons.......... 116 Inbreeding’ ess 09 otis ooo e420 Katee ¥ aoe Sw vee! Bees sraaie sears 119 CHAPTER X PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES........-... cece cece eevee 121 General “Remarks: ssciiscnc cccied aeinreiw oi oinewid Sartinnene’s gars ecera we Shatiatte 121 ROuUp' ‘And COldS) wax ocacsay guiciewins's de neulmeperee Bence eaten 122 “Going? Tight) 62 wsceiee yoo as o eiteteaw eats: bane siete @ aera: a eve auaaroue 123 SONG: TDYV ES. esis oe 8 tpi nid 8 Roecaue aeiteeny sue reg a ees BER eevee 124 TAMDS) OM. WANES > ie inspaiere dil occas Gaia eed ole deed, hive uae ae aaa eee 126 Sore. Féét seni g sens amene eddie es aed ssa Sekt ba eeea ese 126 MEU GE BETTS aa aus sh es reverie 4 davottoncan Sl Qudeyerle & ayore corals Oe ind feaecannonceriicde aye a lle oe ah 127 Simple: Remedies: i. psuiagank Oi eps ses Va ews Pee Oa 127 Feeding Weak or Sick PigeonsS............ cc ccc ee cece ene cace 130 Feeding Squabs by Hand.......... 0... cee eee eee tee eeee 130 Helpful Remedies: ...2 cae ssiececwewea eer tnwain es soe 28% baa Sale ee 132 CHAPTER XI MATING AND SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK............ 135 How PigeonS Mate .... ccc cree nee ccc c eee en een n eee nesesetcree 135 How to Tell Male from Female........... ccc ees ee cece cree eens 139 The Growth of w SquaDicowes sec ssa daewiee eed saa HE ota a 141 Anatomy of the Pigeon ........ cee cee cence ee eee tree eee eenaeee 144 How to Keep an Equal Number of Males and Females.......... 148 What to Da with Odd CoChSis 0505s nseeee Ox b18 a EY PRERR OS bee eee 149 10 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Best Method to Improve the Quality of a Flock.............. 149 Selection of Youngsters for Breeding Purposes eae Re rr 150 CHAPTER XII PROPER CARE OF SQUABS AND YOUNGSTERS..........-.. 154 Soft Shelled Eggs .......... eer errr ere ree sh oan Beets 154 Barren Females .............. Ricken yale aeunene yeh accused 154 When But One Egg Hatches, Or, When One Squab Dies....... «. 155 How to Tell the Period of Incubation...............+. eee eeee 156 When Both Squabs Die Before Three Days Old........-..-... 158 One Squab Smaller Than the Other........ 0.0... 0c cece eee nee 159 Old Birds That Abandon Their Eggs........ 0... 0. cc eee eee 159 Squabs That Leave the Nest Too Soon............ ccc eee eee 130 When to Remove Squabs From Nest Room.............++--005 161 How to Care for Squabs After They Leave the Nest .......... 162 When Pigeons Gét: OIG: esis savduntigle 14 go nap ace aig qialateplio as Wwe orate deg 164 Enfertie THEES: 5650008 22044%4 SARS EE OIS OES ORES eee se 166 CHAPTER XIII RAISING PIGEONS FOR EXHIBITION PURPOSES............ 167 Value of Raising Show Birds ........ 0... ccc ccc cece eee eens 167 How, When and Where to Exhibit ........... 0.0... 0c. cece eee 168 Raising and Selling Squab Breeding Stock.................46. 169 Raising Pigeons to a Standard......... 0 cece eee ee ee 172 CHAPTER XIV PREPARING SQUABS FOR MARKET ........... 0.000. e eee 179 General Appearance of Product ......... 0... 0 ccc eee eee ee 179 How to Kill and Pick SquabS.......... ce eee cee 180 Picking Squabs by Use of Paraffin.............0 0... c cee eee 181 Shipping Dressed Squabs ......... 0... ccc cece cee eee eee eee etnas 182 Shipping Squabs to Market ........... 00.0 ccccececceeceeeeees 183 Shipping Squabs a Long Distance....................0..0000. 184 How to Ship Live Pigeons......... 0.00. cc cece eee eee 185 How to Cook and Serve SquabS......... 0... 0.0. cece eee eens 186 Educating the Customer to Good Squabs and Prices............ 188 TABLE OF CONTENTS 11 CHAPTER XV Page CONSTRUCTION OF SQUAB HOUSES 4 .cc4s4nesaen ere darenens 391 Squab Houses'I have Seen........ 2... cee eee ee cere ere een eernnee 191 Speed and Economy Vs. Old Fashioned Methods............... 200 The Kind of a Squab House to Build.............. eee eee ee 200 How to Build a One or Many Unit Squab House.............. 205 Squab Houses: for Small Plants ......... iss! sulshintiede o!-of a5) eis vel a Vesta deters a 210 Squab Houses for Large PlantS.............. cece eee nee 210 Preparing Ground for Squab Plant .............. cc eee eee nee 212 How to Build a Squab House.........-.... eee eee eee eee eee eee 215 Aisle-In-Front Plan: 6. i000 a0 wswaws da eegs Meme RS 4 Lee RRR ES 215 Iiow to Construct Overhead Exit Leading from ................ “ Nest Room to Fly Pen.............. Sativa teste, ait Mice aye aeceit ee 217 How to Bild) a. Bly PeMeiiscciwies oie pHeKe eee ae ews cada a ga 218 How to Make Wire Door Frame and Gate.............00.00005 222 ‘ CHAPTER XVI EQUIPMENT AND LOFT NECESSITIES ............00 5 ceueee 224 Eggleston Double Nest System ......... 0.0 cece eee teens 224 How to Build Eggleston Double Nests........... 00.0. s cece eee 227 Light and Air for Squab HouseS .......... 0c cece eee eae 231 Collapsible Mating Coops ...........-5- Meg eid ace Rend weatate Se 232 How to Build a Bath Trough ........ ccc eee eee eee eee 234 How to Supply Drinking Water for Nest Rooms in.............. Southern or Warm Climate ...........0.cee eee eaee Ss Ae aoe 237 Feed. BOXGS:. s.c.h% 4 ayiewialelacd Sate scares soaret tuys QusnisieverD bO Bieta aw Snarivens 238 How to Make a Feed Box ......... tir dt ace git abso anak SG ah aang aera les 239 Double Deck Feed BoxeS 2... ccc cece ee eee cece ee eee eee ennes 242 How to Build Feed HopperS........ ccc eee e eee erent eet eee 242 How to Make Grit Hoppers .......... cece ee eee eee ees 244 ‘The Eggleston Nest Material Rack ........ cc cece eee cette eens 245 CHAPTER XVII MANAGEMENT AND BOOKKEEPING ..... ec cece cece eee eee 247 Methods of Management ...........00-e eee eee LQ GeMa saan aioe 247 How to Dream the Maximum Squab Yield................ bisa et 248 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Book Keepin 6 occa cia ct eisnsncmsdiwiees 08) dea ee Ge ear ecearenes ence eS 249 Causes of Failure 21... 0... cece ce ete tee tenet tenes 250 Do’s and Don'ts for Squab BreederS........ ee eee cence treeeees 252 CHAPTER XVIII WANG Y: IPI GHON GS: ce: aa. giaciesisatseneaten aie a ai shed ard nanele eadrny ore reeds daeateiants 255 Characteristics of Different Varieties ............ sce e rete eee 255 Raising Fancy Pigeons ssscmsascnceccsasteanaaeeerewsre ra coe 256 Mating’ Fancy PigeOns: iiencGeicindcase o> SOR RERGDE SSI Es eS 257 Developing Fancy Pigeons ........ cece cee eee 257 CHAPTER XIX PIGEONS THAT HAVE FREE RANGE........ 0c eee cece 259 Care of Common Pigeons) 1s ssuessewis ang ses e4 eeaeaae eee ees xe 259 How and When to Feed and Water Pigeons That Fly Out...... 260 How to Construct Nesting Places for Pigeons That Fly Out...... 261 Outdoor House for Pigeons That Fly at Liberty.............. 265 How to Keep Pigeons That Fly Out From Leaving Home...... 268 Roosting Places For Young Pigeons That Fly Out............ 269 CHAPTER XX FLOW “DOs SUC CEES in, eck assaubied gerdpaca envy sede d, euebehussdinduae i euteuisasciean ved a avason anenbv lou 271 Learn. Your BusineSs::-i605 qoncseearnd eae 6G RK omueas ddave Bas CGH 271 Start Right: way cess ods or aecaaiedanged aod asain ae ane cee 272 Close: Attention. (icc iceicay Rasmeeih ai dGar-d 200 Ceol ewe Re ae 272 Details. Are Important: oi. csoiwasiewawcmee s v4 acmariwareeare anes eae 272 Make “Work EaSy weirs sscnseewsinn geaag ne een wie eens eae deaare 273 Love Your Work: 12025505 acewer hen ey eehe eed eee se ae cae ae enw 273 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE CHAPTER I WHY RAISE SQUABS? THE SQUAB INDUSTRY OF AMERICA From time immemorial pigeons have been kept in a domesti- cated state during which time many of them have served the purpose of furnishing the tables of mankind with wholesome and nutritious food but, it has been ieft for American ingenuity to put the rearing of squabs in large numbers upon a com- mercial basis. Different persons have claimed the honor of this achievement and your author will not attempt to say who is the real founder of the industry. Squab raising is only in its infancy and as the requirements of meat production in America is an ever present one, this work is written in the hope that some new light may be shed upon this subject. : Everybody engaged in pigeon raising, whether they keep a pair of common pigeons in the back yard, or breed pigeons for pleasure or for racing, or own a squab plant, large or small, are more or less interested and come under the head of pigeon raisers or squab breeders. In dealing with this question, I shall try to treat it along the line of economy in time and cxpense, and to make it as instruc- tive as possible. While the various subjects of interest to squab breeders will be my chief topic, pigeons are pigeons, and consequently there are many methods which apply equally to the fancier and the squab breeder, so I will give these common points due con- sideration as I go along. 13 14 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE RAISING SQUABS FOR PROFIT Is there money in squabs? This is usually the first question that flashes across our mind when we first learn of the industry, and again the question is first asked when we contemplate enter- ing the business. Even those actually engaged in a small or irregular way often ask of themselves: Is there money in squabs? For the benefit of all interested, I will give a synopsis of the possibilities of the squab business, and some facts and figures which should convince every “doubting Thomas” that money can be made raising squabs. Almost any industry can be GROUP, OF BELGIAN CARNEAUX figured out with pencil and a piece of paper to meet the require- ments of a skeptical mind, and for that reason I will not under- take to figure the profits of the business from an assumed basis. I will give the cost of breeders; the cost of equipment; how much it takes to feed and care for squab producers; the number of squabs an average pair will produce annually under normal conditions; and the average market value of squabs in the various sections of the United States. With these facts one can make his own calculations, taking into consideration his locality, market facilities, the number of birds he expects to handle, and the amount of time he expects to devote to the business. While there are thousands of people throughout the WHY RAISE SQUABS? 15 United States making money raising squabs, there are many who are not succeeding, and some who have no knowledge of whether they are making or losing money. Belgian Carneaux are conceded to be good, average all-around squab producers. Therefore, I will take this breed as a standard from which to figure profit and loss. The first item of expense to be reckoned in squab raising is ground space. If a squab plant is built in the country, naturally the ground space is worth but little. If it is built on the back end of a lot, it is also a small item, but if built on a lot purchased tor that purpose, a fair interest on the value of the portion of the lot used must be added annually to expense. Good Carneaux from a reliable breeder can be purchased for about $5 a pair. House room, fly pen, nest boxes and other equipment, suitable for the average American climate, will cost for lumber and labor about $1.70 a pair, provided a house is planned sufficient for as many as 160 pairs; less than that number the building would cost more, proportionately up to $3.00 a pair. This is based upon the loft, fly pen, and nest box system described in this book, and it is firmly believed that the houses and buildings described herein will be as cheap as any. Forty pairs of squab breeders will do well in one room, 8 by 10, feet, with fly pen 8 by 12 feet, making a total space of 8 by 26 feet, counting a 4-foot aisle. It will cost to feed a pair of Carneaux for one year, including their squabs, until killing age, $1.80 or less. One man can, with good equipment and convenient arrange- ments care for 2,000 pairs of birds, with the services of one extra man or two extra boys or girls to help pick on killing days, so the proportionate annual expense of caring for squab breeders will be about 25 cents per pair, in excess of feed and housing. The breeding life of a pair of Carneaux is easily six years, so one-sixth of the purchase price of the breeders should be charged off annually, and it is also a good plan to charge off 10% of the cost price of buildings and equipment annually, although buildings used for squab purposes will last a long time if painted regularly and properly cared for. Taking all the above into consideration, and allowing an extra percentage for waste and other leakages, the expense will run less than $2.50 a year per pair. With ordinary care and treat- 16 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE ment, a pair of Carneaux will easily average 16 squabs a year, which will bring on any market, the year around, $5.00 a dozen. An economical person will be enabled to reduce the above expense. With careful and systematic attention, a pair can be made to produce a larger number annually; with a little good judgment and effort used in the selling end, squabs can be sold for more than $5.00 a dozen. These are facts that have been demonstrated over and over again, by actual experience and by tests, and can be depended upon to be correct. With this information it will be an easy matter for one to calculate how much he can count on making from each pair of birds, provided he has good breeders, properly housed and cared for, and a market. If squabs are sold to a private trade, hotels, clubs, or shipped to some commission merchant in New York or the large cities, they will bring more than $5.00 a dozen, but I have used this figure as a minimum amount that good squabs will bring in almost any market. Does it pay to raise squabs, can be answered in fewer words than the above. There is an unlimited demand for squabs at a fair price in America. Good squab breeders can be purchased at a fair price. The right kind of breeders are very prolific, healthy and easy to handle, and the expense of feed, care and interest on investment for any number of squab breeders will not equal the amount received from the sale of their squabs. This is being proved by the hundreds of breeders daily, all over the country, but as the price of feed, method of handling and price of squabs vary, there cannot be a fixed percentage of profit determined upon. SQUABS CAN BE RAISED BY ALMOST ANYONE Lawyers, bankers, doctors, merchants, farmers, laboring men, in fact men of all walks of life, and women and children can raise squahs in large or small quantities if the proper interest is taken. Contrary to the average opinion, squabs can be raised profita- bly in the towns and cities of America, as well as in the villages and country, but not on as large a scale unless a place is pro- vided in the suburbs. A small backyard is sufficient space to accommodate quite a number of squab breeders. It only takes a ground space of 8x24 feet to comfortably house and care for 30 to 40 pairs of squab breeders. This much space WHY RAISE SQUABS? 17 can easily be squeezed out of almost any city lot without interfer- ing with the ordinary use of the lot. Any housewife or a boy of the family can, with an hour or two of time each day, devoted to the industry, care for 40 to 80 pairs of breeders, with- out neglecting other duties and, in fact, most people will be greatly benefited by the outdoor exercise and diversity that would come through such a pursuit. There is always a local market that can be supplied with a few squabs, including hotels, restaurants, hospitals, or a private trade which will more than consume the squab output of a small plant without much effort on the part of the owner. At FOUR UNIT SQUAB HOUSE AND FLY PEN FRAME COMPLETE READY FOR COVERING WITH WIRE the present high cost of all meats, it would be profitable for al- most any family to raise as many squabs as they could consume; in all cases in addition thereto, enough squabs can be sold to more than buy the feed and defray other expenses, so that it is easily possible for a family to reduce their meat bill materially by keeping a few squabs in their own back yard. Almost any mechanic or laborer, clerk, business or professional man, can spare enough time daily to personally take care of 50 to 100 pairs of squab breeders, which will not only prove profitable, but furnish recreation as well. 18 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE In the winter, when the days are short, a trustworthy neighbor boy can generally be found who can be employed for a small sum to feed and water the breeders provided the owner leaves home before or after dark, and a neighbor boy can be secured for a nominal sum to come once or twice a week the year round for the purpose of cleaning, whitewashing or doing similar work. Squab raising or caring for a squab plant is really a pleasant occupation, especially for those who like to “keep busy.” There is always something to do and the work is not unpleasant. SQUABS CAN BE RAISED ALMOST ANYWHERE Whether one lives in the north, south, east or west—in a city, a village or in the country, squabs can be raised profitably with the proper care and attention. There are no offensive odors from a squab plant, and the birds do not make enough noise to bother the nearest neighbors. Therefore, there can be no serious objection on the part of the neighbors to squabs being raised near them. It is true that pigeons do a lot of cooing, and while it sounds loud at close range, the noise does not carry very far, a cannot be heard to any extent, 50 feet from a-squal plant. A large plant can be easily maintained in the suburbs in any town or city about as profitably as in the country. There are some advantages gained by having a squab plant in the country, that is, on a farm, but there are other advantages in a town or city squab plant, and in some respects one offsets the other. As an example, ground space in the country is no item. Some special feeds can be raised to an advantage and other foods can often be purchased in the country cheaper than in town, but on the other hand, the conveniences of city water, the advantage of a close market and shipping facilities will offset many of the farm advantages and conveniences, I have often heard people make the remark that if they lived in the country, where they could raise their own feed, they would go into the squab business extensively. They did not stop to figure that there was very little advantage to be gained by such a method, for the reason that all kinds of grain and pigeon feed can be sold or purchased at the market price, and if one raises his own feed it has only a market value. That WHY RAISE SQUABS? 19 is to say, if one raises squabs and grain, the amount of grain that he feeds his birds should be charged up against his birds, and credited to grain, for he could have sold his grain on the market, and taken the same money and bought grain from a neighbor with which to feed his squabs. The two businesses, therefore, are separate industries. Of course, if grain is used on a farm where it is raised, the expense of delivery is eliminated, and it is possible to raise a particular kind especially for pig- eons to an advantage over purchasing it, on account of freight charges and middleman’s profit. ; One of the greatest assets of a squab plant located on a farm is the fact that a farmer could in many cases use an extra hand if he was raising squabs as a part of his business; while without the squab plant he would not have sufficient work to justify an extra hand, and the man with just a squab plant would also not have sufficient work to justify an extra hand. As an example, chickens require careful attention in the morning and night, especially during the hatching and brooding season. Pigeons can be cared for any time during the day, so a chicken raiser could breed squabs to an advantage. ’ Probably the best way for one to calculate the most suitable place to raise squabs is to reckon from his present position, and then change his location and vocation the smallest degree pos- sible to enable him to embark in the squab industry on a scale his experience and convenience will permit, and then change his location and vocation as the growth of the squab industry demanded. WHEN TO START IN THE SQUAB BUSINESS Josh Billings wrote that “the time to set a hen was when the hen was ready.” Pigeons breed the year round. There is noth- ing therefore to be gained in waiting for a certain time of the year to start. It seems to be natural for every person to want to undertake some outdoor work in the spring of the year. All nature seems to be awake at that period, and the human body and mind is no exception, and for that resson more people start raising squabs in the spring than any other season. J know no other reason for so doing, and there is no advantage to be gained by starting one month over angther. Squabs 20 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE bring more money in the winter than during the summer months, so if it is going to be a question of raising birds for market, the fall would be as good a time as any, but if the start is made at any other time, the advantages of the winter market would be enjoyed just the same. I would say therefore that the time to enter the squab business is NOW, and the place, with a few exceptions, is your present location. THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR SQUABS More and more the general public is learning to appreciate the true value of squabs as a food. FANCY DRESSED SQUABS READY FOR MARKET The rapid decrease of the supply of meat in the United States, coupled with the rapid increase of the price of meat, the former being the principal cause of the latter, is a problem that wiil have to be met sooner or later, or the people of America will, like Europeans, be forced to go without meat except on Sunday or rare occasions. Our population is increasing about two million a year and the annual decrease in beef cattle, caused by the settling of the WHY RAISE SQUABS? 7 21 western grazing land, goes into the millions. The game in America once so plentiful is about extinct, and as time goes on these conditions will increase more rapidly and will be more noticeable each year. Viewing the meat question and squab raising from a broader standpoint, the time is rapidly coming when large squab plants are going to be found in every section of this country, as the public learn more of the value of squab meat, its delicious flavor and its cost when comparing its nutritiousness with that of other meats, squab meat will become more and more in demand, while the squab industry has made rapid strides in America in the past few years and grown to a volume beyond the comprehension of its most enthusiastic supporters. Even during war times when the price of grain was high the squab industry continued to grow. It is in fact only in its infancy and in a few years people will wonder why squabs were not eaten in larger numbers before. Pound for pound, there are few meats, if any, that are more palatable, nutritious and helpful to the human system than squab meat. The leading physicians of the country are prescribing and recommending squab meat. It is strengthening and easy to digest. The old birds eat nothing but grain, the meat is rich with carbohydrates and_ protein. The rapid growth of a squab from an egg to a pound of meat in four weeks makes its meat tender’and void of the tough indigestible cells found in other meats. The taste for squabs is not a developed one, once eaten always liked. PIGEON HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS There are over 200 different varieties of pigeons, ranging in size from one-half to two pounds each. There are four general classes of pigeons: Racing, farcy, utility and common. Pigeons mate or pair off one female to each male. Pigeons mate when about five to eight months old and stay mated for life unless separated. Any male pigeon will mate with any female pigeon if shut up together or put by themselves. Pigeons lay two eggs and then go to setting; the second egg being laid the second day after the first is laid. 22 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE It takes seventeen days’ incubation for pigecn’s etgs to hatch. Pigeons build their own nesis, like birds, carrying the straws to the nest one by one, and placing them in order with their bills. The male pigeon carries the nesting material to the female and she sets on the nest and arranges the straws in place. The male, as well as the female pigeon, sets on the eggs. The male relieves the female on the nest from about 10 to 4 each day, and the female sets on the eggs the-balance of the time. PAIR OF SQUAB BREEDING HOMERS Pigeons continue to set on the nest for several days after the young hatch out, to keep them from chilling. This is necessary even in: warm weather. Most pigeons Jay and raise young the year around, laying again each time when their young are about two and one-half weeks old. Pigeons feed their young by first eating grain and drinking water, then they fly to the nest and by a pumping or belching motion the feed is transferred to the crop of the young. Until a squab is several days old, it is too young to swallow regular food, so the old birds feed them pigeon milk, a peculiar mixture that accumulates in the crops of the old birds after they have set on eggs 16 days. WHY RAISE SQUABS? Pas} Pigeon milk develops in the crop of the male bird as well as the female, although he serves less hours on the nest. — Squabs (young pigeons) do not leave the nest until they can fly, which is from four to five weeks after hatching, when they are fully feathered and about as large as their parents. Squabs cannot eat, and do not learn to feed themselves until after they leave the nest. : Pigeons do not roost on perches or anything round. Their feet are flat and they prefer a flat surface to sit or stand on. CARNEAUX AT NIGHT 24 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Pigeons do not eat meat, they live on grain principally, but eat a little grass, Swiss chard, clover or lettuce leaves in the spring and summer. Pigeons do not drink like a chicken, but more like a horse. They require a great deal of clean, fresh water. Pigeons do not scratch in the dirt like chickens, but depend on what they can find to eat on top of the ground in plain sight. Pigeons do not dust themselves as chickens do, but take a water bath instead, like canary birds. Pigeons shed their baby feathers when about three months old, then, like all other fowls, molt in the fall of each year, when they get an entire new coat of feathers. Pigeons live to be 12 or 15 years old or older, but are not active producers of squabs after 8 or 10 years of age. In fact, they slow up after 6 years of age. CHAPTER II GETTING STARTED RIGHT THE WAY TO START Whether one starts in the squab business on a large or small scale depends upon the capital he has to invest, the conveniences at hand and the time he can devote to it. There are two ways to start in the pigeon business. With a few pairs in a back yard or an immediate start with several hundred pairs, with substantial houses and ground room to run a good sized plant. If you-go into the business with a few pairs, you should, as near as practical, follow the same methods, adopt the same equipment, and pay as much attention proportionately as you would if you had a large plant with several thousand birds. In this way you will establish yourself so that when your plant grows you will know just how to expand and successfully operate it. In outlining, therefore, the way to start and the essential things to do, I will vary only where it will be necessary to explain the difference between the buildings and -ground re- quirements for a large plant and a small one. If you are going to start with a few pairs you should first prepare a suitable place for your birds. Carefully survey the premises to determine the most practical place available, always remembering that there is a right and a wrong as well as a best way to do every- thing, and that this applies to the squab business whether con- ducted on a large or a small scale. A section of almost any building will do for a nest room. A chicken house, barn loft, a garage or an attic will do to start with. A south or east exposure is the best. The place should be thoroughly cleaned, made rat and cat proof. A floor space 4x6 feet is about as small as can be used with any degree of satisfaction, and if convenient a larger space should be provided, 25 26 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE An 8x10 room, however, is about as large as can be used to advantage, as a larger room than that will tend toward making the birds wild, and especially so if the ceiling is high enough to permit the birds to fly over your head. The space allotted off for the birds should be enclosed in solid walls, unless by so doing it will make it too hot or dark. A wire partition in part or in whole will do, but the better plan is to put a small window in for light and air. If a wire partition is used, 1-inch mesh chicken wire will keep rats out, where a 2-inch mesh will not. You may figure that any old box will do for nests, but you might just as well start right and the way to do that is to put in a few double nests and do everything else properly. More people fail in the squab business because they give it too little thought and attention than from all other causes combined. You should have a double nest for each pair to start with and a few extra nests will do no harm. Next you should make a feed and grit box and a nesting material rack. (See article on these subjects in this book.) Drinking water and a place to bathe should also be provided. (See article on same.) This will complete the inside of the house, after which you should construct a fly pen. A small wire enclosure a few feet square with wire overhead as well as on the sides will do for the birds to air and sun themselves. The fly pen need not be built on the ground; if not, the bottom of the pen should be covered with sand or fine gravel. (See article “Care of Fly Pen.”) If this is not practicable, a good sized, low, flat box should be provided and kept full of fresh gravel. This box can be kept in the nest room or fly pen. One or more running boards should be put up so the birds will have a place to light and sit while in fly pen. The proper construction of fly pens is explained elsewhere herein. In the meantime you should begin to look around for some birds. The kind to buy depends somewhat on the amount of money you have for that purpose, but you should bear in mind that if you start with inferior birds you will raise that kind, and the little extra paid for good birds over poor ones will come back many times over in both number of birds and quality. For full information read article on squab producing breeds. About the surest way is to pay a fair price to some reliable breeder. It does not make much difference if the birds you get are not GETTING STARTED RIGHT 27 mated, just so they are old enough to mate and you get an equal number of males and females, as they will mate up and go to work promptly if you have favorable conditions. If you wish to start on a large scale, you should first find a suitable place for a squab plant. : If you conclude to enter the squab business on a large scale from the start, I would suggest that you proceed about as fol- lows: First decide on a location. Of course the distance from the market has something to do with the profits of the business, but as freight rates on feed is as high as express rates on squabs, in proportion to the amount consumed and sold, it is about as well to be near the supply of feed as the squab market. As a rule, the best section to enter the business is where you happen to be located. For each 40 pairs of squab breeders it requires a ground space 8 feet wide and 26 feet long, 208 square feet, or about 24% square feet to the bird. This allows for the Eggleston regulation squab house, making each nest room 8x10 feet square, and a 4x8 feet aisle in front, and an 8x12 feet fly pen. A 3-foot aisle and an 8x10 foot fly pen. will do, if you are short of ground space. Each 10-unit plant will require a ground space 26x80, which will house and care for 400 pairs of birds. To this should be added enough space for a feed and killing house. With a small plant one can store feed in the aisle or pas- sageway, or can even provide a small bin in the aisle for feed purposes, but with a large plant it is necessary to have a feed room, and also a killing room, either separate or together. These rooms can be built in connection with the squab house, or a separate building can be constructed for that purpose. I think the best plan is to build the feed room in connection with the squab house, so that it will not be necessary to go out doors in order to carry feed to the birds. A good plan is to leave one or two units vacant in the center of a squab house for this purpose, with a door entering from the rear, and doors leading into the aisle or passageway to the birds on either side. Regular grain bins should be built around the walls of the feed room, and they should be mice and rat proof. A large convenient bin should be arranged for mixing the grain. The mixing place should be large enough to permit the use of a hoe or a scoop shovel for stirring or mixing purposes. 88 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE For the general plan and how to construct squab houses and arrange a squab plant complete, see article in this book on The Construction of Squab Houses and Fly Pens, Nest Boxes, Mating Coops, Feed Boxes, Grit Boxes, Tobacco Stem Crates, Bathing Troughs and Water System, which articles are accompanied by illustrative drawings that can be followed by a carpenter. In the meantime, you should arrange for the purchase of your breeding stock. There are a number of reliable breeders throughout the country that can furnish good birds at a fair A FANCY FLY PEN WITH SQUAB HOUSE IN CORNER OF BARN The above picture shows a fiy pen built on to a barn in the fashionable section of a small town. The lattice work makes it unnecessary to have wire for that portion of the section. Any ordinary fly pen can be constructed along the same lines. If painted and trimmed neatly they look very ornamental. price. I Would advise against starting in with anything but first class breeders, regardless of the number of birds that you would start with. I would also advise that you determine on the best breed in advance and stick to that breed, and not be trying out several different kinds, until you are sure that some other breed is better than the one that you have, which would be time enough to change. GETTING STARTED RIGHT 29 it will not be necessary for you to buy enough pairs to fill your plant, for you can allow young birds to accumulate until you have a full supply of breeders. You will not save as much, however, on this method as you might anticipate, for the reason that if you start to selling squabs immediately you can make enough money from the sale of squabs in six months’ time to buy additional breeding stock, and the birds that you raise will not go to work much before eight or ten months depending upon the time of the year they are hatched. So from a financial standpoint, it is practically just as well, or it might be better to buy all your breeders outright, and not depend upon raising breeding stock, as this is a branch of the business that requires special knowledge to handle successfully. All birds that you might raise would not be good breeders. You would undoubtedly have more males than females, and the expense of feeding the youngsters from the time they left the nest until they mate and go to work, added to the extra expense of care, and the loss due to an excess of males, will be about as much as new stock would cost, taking in consideration what you could have received for the birds had you sold them as squahs, Some of the largest squab breeders in the country buy enough brecding stock annually to replace the birds that have outlived their usefulness, rather than to go to the trouble and expense of rising their own breeding stock. Such men figure that they are in the squab business solely and make the most out of that branch of the industry. RAISING SQUABS FOR HOME CONSUMPTION More and more each year, as people become more familiar with raising squabs and the value of squab meat becomes better known, small squab plants are being established by many who do not enter the business from the money making standpoint, but merely for supplying squabs for their own use. There are many people who are situated so they can not raise chickens and so have never given thought to the idea that they might have a few pigeons, as they require no yard or range as chickens do. They are not offensive or objectionable, and a few pairs can be kept by almost anyone living in a city, even in a flat where the ground space and back yard is limited. 30 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE A squab dinner is considered a luxury, yet it can be had once or twice a week at a small weekly expense, and the work of caring for them be made so interesting that it is a recreation and a pleasure. The average standard bred squab will make a meal for a grown person. A pair of standard squab producers will produce two squabs every six weeks. Six pairs, therefore, will average two squabs every week. By the size of your family and how frequently you desire them, you can determine the number of pairs it will be necessary for you to keep in order to supply your demand. Those who are fortunate enough to live in small towns or in the country, where they have ample room for such things, can easily keep a few producing pigeons, raise enough squabs for their own use and supply a few neighbors, if they so desire, and use the proceeds to pay their feed bills and take care of: other expenses. Lawyers, merchants, bankers, clerks, doctors and, in fact, anyone whose time is occupied indoors, can secure a lot of recreation in caring for'a few pigeons at home and at the same time make it profitable and secure a food product that cannot well be secured otherwise. An elaborate or expensive place is not necessary for a small plant. The corner of a barn or portion of a chicken house, or even a space in a garage, can be utilized for this purpose. If a person desires, he can build a fancy and artistic place for pigeons in the side yard. RAISING PIGEONS WITH CHICKENS Pigeons can be raised in conjuction with chickens with little or no disadvantage to either, provided nests and other necessary arrangements are properly taken care of. Chickens are so much larger and stronger and faster eaters that the two cannot be fed together, for if they do the pigeons will not get all that is coming to them in the way of feed. Therefore, if they are kept in the same enclosure, the feed for the pigeons will have to be provided in a place that the chickens cannot get to. This can be arranged by either having the feed on a platform up out of the range of the chickens or in a small GETTING STARTED RIGHT 31 , he <\ 7 /-) uz 4 t NY i N Z 4 ~™ ‘a a \ - Z sy On af ay y S i ISS fe : tt ee. FINS ————- LL . SNIF= —Ir y “i ISS ai Res a aes NeNE= = UH = 1% o, Mm a ee LL, ’ ORNAMENTAL SQUAB HOUSE AND FLY PEN A fly pen for a side yard pigeon house can be extended clear around the house if desired but if so constructed there should be a division partition in the center of the back to prevent birds from flying around if one should desire to catch them. wire or slat enclosure with the entrance large enough only to admit pigeons. The best plan is to have the nesting rooms separate and the fly pens and run-way together. Then have the entrance to the pigeons’ nest room so small or high up that the chickens cannot 32 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE ) get to it. Chickens can with this arrangement be fed so that they can scratch for their feed and pigeons can be fed in their nest room, which is the best place to feed on account of keeping the feed where it will not be exposed to the weather, and where young birds will have access to it. The nesting for pigeons kept in connection with chickens should be so arranged that the hens cannot get into the pigeons’ nests, for if they do they will trample and break the eggs and do other damage. we an x GROUND FLOOR PLAN FOR ORNAMENTAL SQUAB HOUSE GET STARTED RIGHT 33 ‘An old hen with little chickens is especially apt to fight a pigeon if she is not used to them being around. The old hen seemingly taks the pigeon to be a hawk and will pounce on it with murder in her heart, often catching and killing or crip- pling the pigeon without its even having an opportunity to fly out of the way. anna i AT uy | Ua rege e =e nae INTERIOR VIEW OF OCTAGON SHAPED SQUAB HOUSE Note aisle in front feed boxes and double nest construction the same in this small house as in the regulation Eggleston plan. RAISING PIGEONS FOR PLEASURE Aside from the money to be made from breeding squabs, the employment it will furnish and the outdoor recreation, there is so much about pigeons and their habits, men and women, also boys and girls, can become so intcnsely interested in pigeons and the work of brecding them that it will become a pleasure. This is especially true when there is a fixed purpose to accomplish along the line of breeding; the Carneaux, for instance, will re- 34 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE quire some study according to the adopted standard, and it can only be made more perfect by careful mating and selection, together with the skill which comes from a scientific study of the birds. You will note by experience that certain colors and types, in- cluding shape of head, neck, eyes, etc., together with a certain carriage, is necessary. Carneaux collectively have all these qualities, and to get the largest number of them in one bird is a very interesting work and furnishes a certain amount of pleas- ure and satisfaction. ORNAMENTAL SQUAB HOUSE FOR SIDE OR FRONT YARD An ornamental squab house can be constructed and placed in a side yard or front yard in a way that will be very attractive and ornamental to the premises. There are several ways that such houses can be built, but about the most practical and easiest to construct is as follows: Made in octagon shape, five or six feet across, six feet high to the eaves, with a pointed roof and wide bungalow eaves, sur- rounded with a wide octagon shape fly pen, a part of which can be made of lattice work. The fly pen should be 12 or 14 feet across, which will leave a space of three or four feet around the building. The fly pen can almost entirely encircle the building or run on three sides only. The door of the building can have a sash in it which will furnish sufficient light or it is a good idea to have two or three small windows of ornamental design. The inside of the house can be equipped with four sections ot double nests and will accommodate anywhere from 12 to. 30 pairs of birds. Such a house can be painted and trimmed to correspond with ‘the other buildings on the premises. Dark bungalow green with a red roof and trimmed with white makes an attractive color combination. CHAPTER I CARNEAUX ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARNEAU Nobody seems to know the origin of the Carneau. By some it is claimed to be a made or created breed, others maintain that it is a separate and distinct breed that has been in existence for centuries. Until the last fifteen or twenty years, however, the Carneau was little known in America. The first birds of this breed came from Belgium and France, and some claim that there are two branches of the breed, namely: the Belgian Car- neau and the French Carneau, but I am strongly of the opinion ihat a Carneau is a Carneau, whether it comes from France or Belgium, at least birds coming from both of these countries appear to be just about the same. Neither of them, however, are developed to the present American standard, which has been greatly improved in the last decade, both from the standpoint of beauty in color and type, and its squab producing ability. The Amcrican Carneau is more uniform in size and color, and is a better squab producer. I attribute this-to the fact that we have specialized on these qualities here in America, and by the process of selection and elimination have gradually built our birds to a higher standard. ; The Carneau in America is popular, because it possesses rare quality in the production of extra large, fat, plump, well fla- vored, white meated squabs. Coupled with this is its rare beauty and color, shape and size, its domestic and general disposition. The Carneau will do well in any climate, from frigid Alaska io the torrid Panama. It will adapt itself to almost any condi- tion, and immediately start on its perpetuous work of squab raising, which seems to be its only aim in life. The natural color of a Carneau is rich dark red with white feathers irregu- larly scattered over its body, or a rich buff or golden yellow with the same assortment of irregular white feathers, rare ex- ceptions, all red or all yellow. The desire of some breeders to 35 36 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE eliminate the white feathers in a Carneau and produce the solid colors has resulted in developing off colored birds; therefore, we frequently find Carneaux with more or less slate or bluish colored feathers on them, this off color generally appearing on the bird’s rump or under its tail. Sometimes, however, the entire feathers will show more or less of a muddy or bluish cast. There is little or no advantage to be derived from the color scheme of the Carneau. Its main points of quality being its size, which should not be too large or too small, its type and squab producing qualities. SPLASHED CARNBEAUX Those that desire to breed Carneaux for utility and squab producing purposes, strive to maintain the original colors of red and white or yellow and white, and leave the production of the all red or all yellow to those who desire to raise the Car- neau for fancy rather than breeding purposes. Carneaux pro- perly handled become very gentle and tame; they will seldom fly off the nest when the nest room is entered and, as a rule, you can put your hand under the bird without causing them to leave the nest. They are good close, attentive setters, splendid mothers, and will care for and feed extra squabs that are put in their nests along with their young. CARNEAUX 37 By a little management and care the nest can be changed about from one part of the room to another without causing them to leave it, if such a thing is desired. They can be sepa- rated from their mates and re-mated with other birds quickly, and will immediately go to work. They will mate and go to work at an early age and will produce squabs the year round, including the molting season, if they receive the proper care and food at that time. THE PROPER WEIGHT FOR CARNEAUX It is natural that people should want the largest specimens when selecting stock from which to raise squabs for the market. Therefore, we cannot criticize them for having natural ideas even though they might be wrong which is the case as applied to Carneaux. The largest Carneaux are not the fastest breeders, and do not produce the largest squabs. There is a limit to the size of a pigeon and overgrown or undersized pigeons, like every- thing else. are not fast breeders and will not reproduce them- selves in size. This is especially true with Carneaux. The well shaped, full breasted, blocky, medium-sized Carneau is by far the best squab producer. . The iarger and over sized Carneau breeders will have a ten- deney 19 produce large “all bone and feather” squabs. and few in number. Mr. Jas. P. Kinnard covered the question of the proper weight of Carneaux when he wrote: “While Carneaux are larger than Homers, they are not an extra large breed. A pair of typical Carneaux will, however, raise more pounds of squabs in a given time than any other breed. The French standard of perfection, adopted in 1891, shows the ideal Carneau in France at that time to vary in weight from 500 to 525 grammes (161-4 to 165-6 ounces) for cocks, and 425 to 450 grammes (142-5 to 15 ounces) for hens. By a careful system of selection, mating and breeding these weights have been con- siderably increased in America since that time, and the type consequently enlarged. The weights preferred by the standard of perfection adopted by the International Carneau Club of America are as follows: 38 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Old cocks 24 ounces; young cocks 23 ounces; old hens 23 ounces; young hens 22 ounces.. However, nearly all the leading Ameri- can breeders agree that the medium sized Carneaux are the best, most typical and prolific of the breed. The Carneau is a bird of medium weight, and those of medium weight are more prolific than those of extra large size. Many breeders are, however, spoiling their Carneaux trying to get big birds. Some have them crossed with Runts and Mondaines, because of the seeming present demand for extra large ‘birds, which is often the result of ignorance as to what size Carneau it takes to produce twelve-pound squabs. This is all wrong, for it is useless to produce a giant pigeon to the detriment of its RED AND WHITE SPLASHED CARNEAUX breeding qualities. This demand for extra large pigeons grew out of the misunderstanding of the constant urging of the pro- duction of larger squabs, for until recent years the squab market was being supplied with six, and eight-pound squabs. A pair of Carneaux that weigh thirty-two to forty ounces will produce squabs averaging twelve pounds to the dozen, while those weighing forty-two to forty-six ounces to the pair will produce squabs averaging fourteen pounds to the dozen, and even those weighing thirty-two to thirty-eight ounces to the pair will produce squabs averaging ten pounds to the dozen; the weight of the squabs, however, depending on the feeding quality of the parents, as well as their size and the quality and variety of the feed. CARNEAUX 39 It is generally conceded by the leading Carneau breeders of America that the eighteen to twenty-two ounce Carneau is the best, most typical and most productive of the breed. CARNEAUX WITH SLATE COLORED FEATHERS The common objection to slate or blue feathers on the Car- neau is no doubt due to the fact that most Carneau crosses have such feathers and while the presence of slate or blue feathers on a bird does not prove that it is not a full-blooded Carneau, this test acts as a safeguard to the inexperienced. The natural color of a Carneau is red and white. Rare specimens are red, and sometimes yellow. Sometimes they have slate or blue on their breasts, rumps or on their tails. This slate is generally due, however, to the effort to breed extra dark, solid red Car- neaux. When there is no pigment in the feather coloring the feathers are white, and with too much pigment they are darker than red and take on a bluish cast, commonly called slate. Another objection to slate feathers is ithe tendency toward darker meated squabs. The presence of considerable slate in the feathers always means dark meated squabs. If one would discard all Carneaux with slate feathers and retain those without slate feathers they would be reasonably ,sure of having the pure bred stock, but this is really not the best test. A Carneau has other marks of distinction besides its color which are just as much or more important. There are pigeons of the Carneau shade of red to be found among lots of other varieties, and if the color test only applied one might have red birds with no Carneau blood in them and think they were Carneaux. For those who are not familiar with the Carneau, I will fur- nish a few of the most important and pronounced characteristics of the bird. The average hen will weigh from 18 to 22 ounces, and the cock from 19 to 23 ounces. If fat they will run a little more and if poor a little less than that. Both sexes are of blocky type—the cock having a little longer body and the hen a little deeper keel and fuller breast with a smaller throat and head. The beak is light in color, of medium size with a medium V-shaped wattle; the eye rather large and bright set in the middle of the head; the top of the head round and high in front, 40 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE coming almost straight down to the beak, forming an obtuse angle between the forehead and the beak or bill. There are other marks of special note but these mentioned are the most prominent. YELLOW CARNEAUX As previously stated, the natural color of a Carneau pigeon is red with white spots irregularly scattered over the body, with | now and then a solid red bird and rare exceptions a yellow and a) YELLOW CARNEAU white or solid yellow. There is but very little difference in reality in the color of a red Carneau and a yellow Carneau. (This is true of all breeds of pigeons.) The yellow is apparently just a little bit more negative in coloring matter, which by the way is more frequent with females than with males; that is to say, with all red breeds of pigeons now and then there is apt to appear a yellow female and so far as that goes, this same color characteristic appears in birds of any solid color, as the female will on exceptional occasions show lighter in color than males of the same variety. Dun females, for instance, will sometimes appear among black feathered birds. CARNEAUX 4f It is argued by some that it was necessary to cross with the yellow females of this breed, yellow males of some other breed, such as the yellow Homer, and then mate the offspring, which will be a yellow bird and one-half Carneau, with a female yel- low Carneau, then remating the yellow male offspring from this combination again with.a full blood yellow female and so on until the Homer blood was eliminated. If this was true, where does the yellow male Homer come from, as the same rule applies to yellow Homers as applies to Carneaux, viz: that the yellow birds were originally females? See article on “How to Breed Yellow, Dun and Silver Colored Pigeons.” The yellow Carneau exists now as a special variety of which there are both male and female and reproduce their kind without throwing any red or red and white youngsters. They will, however, produce yellow youngsters with white splashes the same as red Carneaux will produce youngsters with white splashes. The yellow or yellow and white Carneau is equal to the red and red and white variety in every particular, with possibly a little in its favor in the way of production of whiter meated squabs and a little in the favor of the looks of the squab, as a yellow feathered squab will dress up a little nicer and cleaner looking on account of its pin feathers being lighter in color. The pin feathers on a red squab are much darker than those on a yellow feathered squab. The yellow Carneau as a rule is freer from dark beaks and slate or bluish feathers, which characteristics tend towards darker meat. The squabs produced by yellow and white Car- neaux are just as large and just as many in number as compared to those of the red variety. WHITE CARNEAUX It may be possible to secure a white Carneau by merely se- lecting and breeding Carneaux with the greatest number of white feathers. I believe the term White Carneau, however, could be justly applied to a white bird that came within the standard for White Carneaux in size, color and other markings, even if it had a small percentage other than Carneau blood in its veins. I can substantiate the consistency of this statement by pointing to breeds of chickens and animals. For instance, with chickens 42 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE there are white Plymouth Rocks, white Orpingtons, white Wyan- dottes and even white Rhode Island Reds that are made breeds and have been created by crossing in chickens with white plumage with the standard bred in order to obtain the desired feather color. A white Plymouth Rock chicken was first made by using the barred Plymouth Rock as a basis, then the size, shape, color of legs, feet, etc., was retained, but the feather color was bred to white by crossing in white chickens of some other breed and then breeding everything out except the feather color. Buff Rocks, Black Orpingtons and many other varieties of chickens have been established in this way; then, why is it not possible to cross a white-feathered pigeon with a Carneau, retaining only the white plumage qualities of its ancestors? If this can be done to such an extent that all the qualities of a Carneau are retained, including type, size, weight, color of eyes, beak and its breeding qualities, so that competent judges of Carneaux cannot detect any difference in the bird except its feather color, then why is this not a true white Carneau and why should it not be accepted as such? Such an undertaking and accomplishment is far more dif- ficult than might at first be estimated, and as it would require scientific effort, patience and time to bring about the desired results, why not reward a person who is successful in his un- dertaking by praise rather than condemning him? Here are some of the difficulties one will encounter if he starts to create White Carneaux by crossing, which in my opinion is the only way that they can be bred; the first offspring from a white bird and a Carneau will more than likely have dark feathers, dark beak and dark skin. The feathers will either be reddish or bluish in cast or both, and the youngsters will apparently be farther away from the white color than its Car- neau mother or father. This offspring, however, must be crossed back to a Carneau in order to keep it from getting too far away from the Carneau type and blood. Then the offspring from the cross must be again mated to a white bird with a possible chance of some of their young being white. Right here, however, is where the breeder will strike his first obstacle, as the white youngsters from such a combination will have black or blue eyes and, as CARNEAUX 43 the White Carneau standard specifically states that the eyes must be orange, this is a stumbling block which few breeders will ever get beyond. It can be accomplished, however, by again and again brecding back to the Carneau and again and again breeding the offspring to white birds until the white: bird is produced with an orange eye, then by crossing such birds back WHITE CARNEAU One of the essential features of a white Carneau is yellow or orange eyes which is the most difficuit part of the breeding as most white birds have dark eyes. a4 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE to full blooded Carneaux and their offspring with other white birds with orange eyes which have been produced in the same way. In time they will produce orange eyed white birds that will reproduce their kind and can be perpetuated as a breed. There are other points, however, and difficulties that must be considered and worked out along with the color scheme and the orange eyes. One is the light beak which is provided for by the White Carneau standard. It is hard to produce the white bird with orange eyes and a light beak, especially so when the first cross between a white bird and a Carneau will invariably throw youngsters with dark beaks and the first orange eyed bird produced will invariably have a dark beak. Difficulty also arises in maintaining the Carneau size and type. White Homers can be crossed in, but they are undersized and it is almost impossible to eliminate the strong Homer type in future generations. A White Runt is oversized and it is hard to eliminate the Runt-like appearance from future offspring. A white Maltese hen pigeon furnishes a good type, except the neck is too long, and it is hard to eliminate the uplifted tail. Therefore, when one asks what kind of a white bird can be used, the answer is that the white bird must be manufactured for this purpose by crossing and recrossing white Homers, white Runts and white Maltese, until a bird is produced that has al- most the correct Carneau size and type. For the benefit of anyone who might undertake this project, I will add that only a small percentage of white Homer blood should be used. Just enough to make a bird thrifty and active and to keep down the size slightly. A cross between a white Runt and a white Maltese will be a little oversized, but a well divided composition of a Maltese and a Runt is almost the de- sired type for a Carneau, except as just stated, the possibility of it being a little oversized; so a small amount of Homer blood is necessary to reduce the size. The next difficulty is the breeding qualities, as the Carneau is a fast breeder, and it would not be consistent to create a white Carneau in size, shape and other qualities without main- taining its breeding and squab-producing proclivities. This can be done if the white offspring is created in such a way that at least seven-eighths of its blood is Carneau. If anyone thinks that it is a cinch and an easy matter to breed and create a CARNEAUX 45 White Carneau by crossing, let him be convinced of his error by trying it out for himself. There has always been a great demand for birds with white feathers, as they seem to attract the eye. The White Carneau when perfected, like white chick- ens, will be a very popular breed. There are a few White Car- neaux in existence, but as yet this variety is in the experimental stage. It, however, is a good cause and a worthy undertaking from a commercial standpoint, besides the work being most interesting and instructive to one who likes pigeons and enjoys accomplishing hard tasks. The first test of a White Carneau is the color of the eye. An orange colored eye is necessary. Without this the type, size and feather color mean nothing. Even though a white bird has an orange colored eye it must have the other qualities to qualify as a White Carneau and must be bred so that it will reproduce itself in color, type, and other necessary qualities when mated to a White Carneau. , The fact that the White Carneau must have orange eyes makes them much more difficult to breed. Mr. A. Besche in the American Pigeon Journal says: “White Carneaux are fast gaining in poularity and we hear consider ably more of them now, especially so in the past twelve or fifteen months. To those who are breeding whites I should say, “stick it out” for I see nothing but a prosperous future, “greater de- mands,” and hence better prices. Those who are not breeding them should try a few pairs and help bring this beautiful color even more to the front.” BLACK CARNEAUX Black Carneaux have not yet been produced to any, great extent. They can be produced in the same manner as the black Orpington chicken is produced and along the same method as is described in the article on White Carneaux. It is almost impossible to produce Black Carneaux by selection, even though you might continue to select and mate together the darkest colored birds for an indefinite period. The result would be a dark blue or slate colored bird instead of a black one, as the dark pigment in a Carneau is not black but blue, and it is this bluish tint with the red that gives the red’ such a rich maroon cast. 46 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE A bird with all the Carneau characteristics and one that will coraply in type, size, head, color of beak, eyes, and in every other detail to the standard, can be produced with black, dun, white or bluish feathers by the process of crossing in a black pigeon of some other breed or any other color desired, and then breeding out the foreign blood by crossing and recrossing the offspring back to full blooded Carneaux, saving only youngsters of the desired color or those that had a tendency to the desired cole. To cstablish a black breed of Carneaux therefore, by this methed, we must cross Carneaux with black pigeons of some other brecd. Homers, Runts or Maltese will do, but preferably a cross between these three brecds as is described in the article on White Carneaux, Black Homers, Mondaincs, Runts and Maltese do not have light beaks, ad there are very few breeds of black pigeons that have light beaks. There are black Tumblers with light beaks, but they have pearl eyes, and a Black Carneau must have a Carneau eye and not a Tumbler eye; hence the Tumblers or any pcarl-eyed pigeon cannot be used in the production of a black Carneau without encountering the necessity of breeding out pearl eyes, which would be an added obstacle. The offspring of a jlack pigeon and a Carneau will occasional- ly be dun er brown with light beaks, but offspring of the same combination are more apt to be a dirty red with a smutty or bluish breast aud rump, and some of the squabs by the same mating are apt to be :mottled in various colors, with occasionally a blue barred offspring; none of which can be used in the mak- ing of a black Garucau except the duns or browns with light beaks, and if these show bars on their wings they cannot be used. : By recrossing the duns and browns with light beaks with othev hirds of the same color and produced in the same way, now and then a black one will appear with a light beak. If it is then crossed back with a full blooded Carneau they will produce an occasional black youngster with a light beak, and after this point is reached successfully by several different routcs, »v as to keep fairly free from in-breeding, such birds can be mated to others produced in the same way and remated until they will perpetuate themselves in color. It must be kept €aRNEAUX AT in mind that in the effort to secure color, the type and qualities of ihe Carneau must not. be sacrificed or lost track o1, otherwise ithe result would not be a black Carneau. Black Carneaux must have light colored beaks, orange eyes and Carneau type in all other particulars. They must be bred so as to reproduce themselves in all qualities including light colored meat and beaks. Mr. .A. Besche writing, on the subject of Black Carneaux for the American Pigeon Journal, says: “Up until the present time we have heard but little of the black Car neau, but few have made their appearance in the show room, and are no doubt bred by comparatively a small number of fanciers. What is needed to bring this additional color to the front, and to prompt more fanciers to breed them is to have the several clubs take them up and include blacks in the Carneau Standard. We could procure classifications in the premium lists oi the various shows which are held yearly in the different parts of the country. You will then see this color forging ahead rapidly. No one can deny that a good jet black, with rich beetle green lustre about its neck, and deep solid color body, wing and tail feathers, and bred according to a revised standard, could not help but make a handsome bird. Yes, I may add, that if iny judgment does not mislead me, these will in time compare with the other colors.” UTILITY RATHER THAN FANCY By E. H. EGGLESTON From Hearst’s Sunday American The public, as well as the majority of Carneau breeders, have held Carneaux with white feathers at too small a value, some- times to such an extent that these birds are considered crosses, or a poor class of culls, and has hurt the commercial end of the industry. As you know, the Carneau is a utility bird, and it could never be anything else any more than a Plymouth Rock chicken would be classed as a fancy breeder. Of course, the Carneau is a beautiful bird, and this is especially true of solid reds and yellows, and it is all right to produce all red or all yellow Carneaux and to compete for prizes in ‘these classes, but it is not all right to allow a few fanciers to make a hobby 48 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE of an industry to the detriment of those who are following it in a commercial way. The men that raise fancy Carneaux, proba- bly combined, do not own two thousand birds; yet they dictate the policy of the future of this breed over thousands throughout the United States who probably own half a million birds. It is a case of the tail wagging the dog, and the strangest part of it all is that these fancy breeders, are chiefly responsible for the present conditions, are not satisfied with the status of affairs, and complain about their customers demanding show birds for squab producing purposes. Almost every day I receive letters from people who want Carneaux for squab breeding purposes, and yet they describe and expect what is now classed as show birds. They must not have any white or blue feathers. I am not alone in this position, as almost everyone that sells a few Carneaux is up against’the same proposition. Now what is responsible for this condition? Nothing more than the fact that the prevailing color of Car- neaux is red and white or yellow and white, and that birds of this color have been legislated against by the fancier’s stand- ard until the public in general has been educated to the belief that the Carneau that has white feathers on its body is no good. Now, I have a plan that I believe will remedy conditions, and be a big boost for the Carneaux, both as a utility and a show bird. The success of all shows depends upon their financial success. Most pigeon shows today are run at a loss, because the general public is not sufficiently interested to make the gate receipts large enough to offset the expense of holding the show. Even when pigeon shows are held in connection with poultry shows, the pigeon end of it is not much of a success from a financial standpoint. Poultry breeders do not meet with this difficulty, for the reason that the fancy end of the business has not run away with the utility end, and in all poultry shows there are more birds entered in the utility classes than in the fancy classes. The people who enter Plymouth Rocks receive a double benefit. They gain a certain amount of publicity, and learn what constitutes first-class birds in their variety. In ad- dition thereto they enjoy the sport of competing equally as well as the fancy. Now, my plan, in short, is to bring about a similar condition with pigeons, and I am interested in the Carneau, and as I CARNEAUX 49 believe the Carneau the greatest utility bird known, naturally believe that the place to start is with the Carneau. I believe that if our standard was changed so that the average utility Carneau breeder would have a chance of winning prizes, and so they could show birds with the object of receiving some benefit by publicity, as well as for honor, that almost immediate- ly we would see a large number of entries in each show in this class, and in a short time there would be a lot of interest created among the utility breeders. And with the aid of the many Carneau breeders throughout the country, we would be able to increase our membership naturally, and bring about many things favorable to the Carneau cause. Now, here is the standard that I would favor: I would start out with this statement that the prevailing color of Carneau pigeons was red and white and yellow and white, that the red should be a dark, rich, bronze color, etc., and the yellow a dark golden shade; that these birds had white feathers over their body in irregular designs, and follow this by describing the ideal type, weight, size, head, beak, eye, etc., with instructions lo the judges that birds should be judged and graded by com- parison with other birds in the same class, and points of excel- lence should be reckoned by the following schedule: Color to count 10 points, weight 8 points, and so on down the line, using the same schedule as our present standard gives, except I would change the proper weight to 19 to 23 ounces for cocks and from 18 to 22 ounces for hens. Birds over or under this weight would not be disqualified, but count so many points for each ounce under or over. I would next give the same schedule for yellow and white Carneaux, except changing the color from red to yellow, then a class for all red Carneaux and for all yellow Carneaux. Birds in these classes would not be eligible to compete in the red and white, or yellow and white classes. Following this the same standard for all white Carneaux, then there would be a standard for utility Carneaux shown in pairs. Any Carneau color eligible to compete with this class, preference to be given to the birds freest from slate and bluish feathers. In this class I would advise that the points of color be reduced and the points for weight and breast be increased. I would not favor an A. QO. C. class, and would cut out the rose wings, as such birds cannot be reproduced and are only 50 AMERICAN SQUAB' CULTURE chance types of that color. Naturally there would be quite a howl to go up on the adoption of such a standard, and we might lose some members among the fancy, but by getting busy with the utility Carneau breeders throughout the country, I am sure we could gain ten members, yes, a hundred, for every one we lost, and such members would have some money interest.in the business, and be of more value to a successful organization than a fancier. However, I do not feel that it is necessary to lose the fancy breeders, for with the red and yellow standard they should go ahead competing the same as they have been. In a short time, however, we would to a great extent change the present prevailing opinion that the Carneau should be red and not red and white. 1 am well satisfied with the results that I have accomplished this year in the sale of Carneaux, as I started in the spring with over 4,000 marketable birds, and sold all I cared to spare at good prices before molting time, and I believe that next year will be even better, for I have had an increase in the sale of birds eacn year over the previous year, but that does not alter the case. [| am not speaking from a selfish standpoint, but from a standpoint of what I believe will be greatly beneficial to the Carneau cause. SOLID COLORED CARNEAUX Solid colors are not important in Carneaux for squab breeding purposes. “Any color, just so it is red” is an old-time saying that applies to some pecple’s opinion of Carneaux. A pigeon of any size, type, shape, weight or peculiar markings seems to be acceptable to a lot of people, just so it is red or reddish. The qucstion is often asked: “Should squab breeders demand solid color Carneaux?” My answer is, NO! A friend of mine who raises Carneaux once stated that there were three kinds of Carneaux breeders, two of which were color blind and the other sensible. He went ou to say that one class would have nothing but red Carneaux with no white feathers, and as little slate or blue feathers as possible, regardless almost of size and other qualities, with the result that their lofts were usually full of undersized, CARNEAUX 51 ill-shaped, slow breeding birds. This class, as he put it, was “blind {o everything but color.” Another class was actually color-blind and could not dis- tinguish slate, gray or even blue feathers from red ones and called everything Carneau that was reddish; as a result they had a lot of Carneau-Homer and other Carneau crosses with reddish backs and slate rumps, tails or breast. Such crosses do not look like Carneaux in size, type aud markings, | ut their red feathers lead many people to believe that they are Carneaux. Now, do not understand that pure bred Carneaux do not often have slate or blue feathers along with the red, but if they do they will look like Carneaux in type and general appearance. As all Carneau crosses have more or less slate or blue feathers, it is a good protection to inexperienced breeders to steer clear of birds with such feathers and thus avoid getting hold of hybrids. The natural color of a Carneau is red, with white feathers scattered over the body, rare exceptions yellow. When the white ieather is bred out, more or less blue or slate feathers appear and often the red takes on a smoky or dusty appearance. This is due to the pigment in the feather coloring. With no pigment ‘he feathers are white, with too much they are dark blue, and so it is hard to get just the exact amount of coloring to make all of the feathers dark red with no white, blue or slate. If one knows the true Carneau type it is easy to tell half or quarter breed crosses, as the general characteristics will crop out in one way or another in a hybrid, and this is generally true cven of birds with only one-eighth or one-sixteenth other than Carneau blood in them. As an example, a Carneau-Homer cross will invariably have a flat head with eyes near the top of the head, long bill and generally undersized, with more or less slate. A Carneau-Runt cross will show a long body, short legs, long tail and a tendency to droop the wings, with usually a short thick neck and more or less slate. Even when Carneaux are crossed with white birds of other breeds the young will show dark blue or slate feathers. A Maltese and Carneau cross is as a rule just the opposite to the Runt cross, as the body is short, legs and neck long, and the short tail has a tendency to elevate like the Maltese. There will be some slate feathers, but not as much as in the Carneau-Homer, 52 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Carneau-Runt or Carneau-Mondaine crosses. All such hybrids are short many of the good qualities that go to make the Car- neau such a splendid all-around squab breeder. There are many peculiar markings about the Carneau that are not common with other breeds. The type is distinct and about as follows: Medium length body, legs and neck, a good all-around compromise between the Runt and Maltese; medium sized, smooth, even bill; no feathers on legs below knee; large round eyes, orange or red in color, set in the middle of the head; forehead high and prominent; broad back, deep keel and good carriage. It would be just as nonsensical for a person breeding Homers to discard every bird except the pure white ones, or some other solid color, as for one breeding Carneaux for squab purposes to discard everything but solid red birds. We all know that the Homer breeder would be sacrificing a lot of his best breeders of good squabs for feather color, and just so with the Carneau squab breeder if he discarded all except solid red Carneaux. CHAPTER IV OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS To give a full history and description of each variety of pigeons best adapted for squab breeding would consume considerable time and space. I will, therefore, confine my remarks to a brief description of the most popular breeds of today, which are Carneaux, Homers, Runts, Hungarians, Maltese, Mondaines, Polish Lynx and White Kings. Most any of these birds like the popular breeds of chickens are all right and each have their place in squab breeding. HOMERS The Homer is a bird a little larger than a common pigeon, but, owing to their build and feeding qualities, they produce squabs almost twice as large as a common squab, and a much fatter and better flavored squab. Homers come in all colors, black, white, blue, red, dun, silver and commingling colors, with blue barred and blue checkered as the predominating color. By reason of the prolific qualities of the Homer and its pro- duction of a plump, fat, meaty squab, it stands second to none as a utility pigeon, and if it were not for the fact that its squabs are small compared with other popular breeds hence bring less on the market, the Homer would stand foremost in the country as a squab producing variety. The utility or squab breeding Homer is the same breed as the Racing Homer, except one branch of the breed has been developed for its homing and fast flying tendencies, while the other has been developed for the production of squabs. The homing instinct is an objectionable quality in a squab producing or utility pigeon, for the reason that if liberated they will fly away, unless the bird was raised at the place liberated. They are not able to find their way back home, as is generally presumed, unless they have been trained 53 54 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE for that purpose, by first taking them a short distance from their place of birth and liberating them, then a greater distance and greater distance until they will be able to return home from a distance of several hundred miles. Homer squabs are desired where squabs are served in cafes, clubs, hotels, etc., as a part of a regular meal, but the person who orders a squab as a principal part of his meal prefers a larger bird, and the same is true with private trade. As there is also a ready market for large squabs, and as squabs range in price according to the number of pounds they weigh per dozen, the natural desire of squab breeders is to produce a large bird. The effort has con- pe BLUE BARRED HOMERS sequently been to try to develop a breed that would produce as many squabs as the Homer, and at the same time a larger and more valuable squab. Homers are very thrifty, hearty good feeders, and make splendid mothers. On account of this quality they are often kept and used as foster parents for the purpose of hatching and rais- ing the young of other breeds. The Homer seems to have a wild-like instinct, and is quick to fly off its nest and slow to return to it, hence the successful breeder of Homers must bear — this peculiarity in mind and manage his pens of Homers in a way not to disturb them, and in a way to make them as tame OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 55 as possible. The Eggleston plan of double nests and squab house with the aisle in front is especially adapted for this pur- pose. The chief objection to this breed, is its smallness in size. But in almost all markets throughout the country there is a ready demand for fat, well developed, plump, small sized squabs, which the Homer squab will supply better than any other breed. Therefore, the Homer as a squab producer has its place among squab producing pigeons, and is a profitable breed to raise. GIANT RUNTS Some jester in ancient times must have given this largest of all pigeons its name which has until] recently been just plain Runt, but to overcome the likely impression that a Runt pigeon was a small breed, the Amcrican breeders have adde:t a prefix and now the breed is known as the GIANT RUNT. The Runt is an ancient breed. John Moore in his “Treatise on Pigeons” edited in London, 1735, calls the Runt an ancient breed. He mentions the Leghorn Runt as an exceedingly large, broad-breasted bird with tail slightly crect and wings somewhat drooping. He describes the Spanish Runt as standing up more boldly with wings resting on the tail. But the nearest of all to our staudard Runt ot today seen.s to be his description of tha Roman Runt. He states that the Roman Runi stands up boldly, very broad-breasted and weighing up to two and a half pounds. Some other birds were even heavier than that for, as he states, a Runt will improve in size for at least four years. Th? Roman Runt seems to be the one the Germans have as they call it the Itioemer Taube or Roman Runt. Moore states that even back in 1735 he had seen gentlemen pay 25 pounds ($80 to $85 in U. S. money) for a pair of Runts weighing four and three-fourths pounds to the pair. Mr. King writes in the American Pigeon Journal: “The Giant Runt, being the largest bird in the pigeon family, always at- tracts a great deal of attention. Some breeders claim that the Runt is not as prolific a breeder as the small breeds. This may be the case in some instances if the stuck is old and wornout or of the stock originated from a poor-producing strain. I have found that more often the fault lies in the fact of the over- crowding of these birds.” 56 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Small individual houses, with a separate compartment for each pair is the best way to obtain good results. The added expenes in building these separate houses, will be more than offset by a year’s breeding, in extra returns. The dimensions of the individual houses, are as follows: The house proper is seven feet long, six feet wide and six feet high. They are built on the double-deck order, having two floors and each floor is divided into two compartments, making four in all. There is a slanting roof over half of the top. The nest boxes should be at the back and fifteen inches square. The approximate cost, including material and labor, for the above houses, is $12. This will house four pairs of breeders. The white Runt is a faster breeder than the other varieties, although there are exceptions. The average weight of Runt squabs is from three to four pounds to the pair. If one is selling squabs by weight, which is the most profitable way, the added weight is a great advantage over smaller breeds. For a strictly fancy trade, Runt squabs cannot be surpassed. On account of its size some think that the Runt squab would be coarse and lacking in flavor, but this is not. the case. Runt squabs are not only large and fat but juicy and well flavored. Runts are bred in most all colors common to pigeons and will breed true to color if one desires to pay attention to that feature. For squab producing purposes, however, color cuts but little ice, except to keep away from smutty tendencies which will tend to dark meated squabs. Sam Elton, describing the various color varieties of Runts, says in the American Pigeon Journal: From a fancier’s standpoint, the giant Runt is the most inter- esting breed to breed and is rapidly coming to the front and attracting a great deal of attention. In breeding blues and sil- vers, it is best to mate these two colors together. By continually breeding blues together in time they will become too dark and smutty or smoky in color. The same applies to the silvers, for they will become too light in color with very indistinct bars. White Runts White Runts are gaining in popularity rapidly. Probably this is partly due to light meated squabs coupled with the fact that people just naturally take kindly to white pigeons. The color of the white Runt should be a clean uniform white over the OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 57 entire body, including flights and tail. They should have dark on the ball of the eyes in England while pearl is preferred in other parts of Europe. The beak and claws are almost white, more so than those of colored Selfs. Young whites sometimes have pinkish feathers, but these generally disappear after they molt. The legs and feet are free and clean from feathers. Blue Runts The blues should be of beautiful light blue color. The head, neck, flights and tail should be of a darker blue. The rump should be all white or all blue in England while on the Conti- nent of Europe it should be white only. Blue rump is considered faulty on the Continent. The wing bars are neat and black, dividing at their lower part and rejoining at the other end in the shape of a long narrow “V.” Between this “V” a long blue triangle is seen. The tail feathers terminate with a black band of about 1144 inches or more. The outer side of the other feathers are white, beginning at the black band and extending upward for about 4 inches. The beak and claws are a dark slate color. Legs and feet are clean and free from feathers. Faults are rump splashed with colored feathers and dull or smoky blue or white feathers in the flights, tail or body. The blues are about the biggest Runts. Sometimes they have white feathers under the abdomen and on the cuff or leg. This is a fault that may be overlooked, provided such feathers are in small numbers. Light blues are preferred to dark blues. Blues and silvers of great size and feather lengths are sometimes mated to a good white in order to improve the size and the length of the feathers in whites. Young blues or silvers from these matings should not be mated to a pure blood blue or silver or to any other Self-colored bird, but to a white. Never mate a delicate, long-feathered bird to a short, cobby, broad-backed, big-chested bird as no improvement will be gained from such a mating. In order to secure light blues, they are mated to silvers, but here the blues gain and the silvers lose in color. Grizzle (Pique) Runts I have never seen this variety out of France. They have almost entirely disappeared. There are two varieties: the white- speckled black and the grey-speckled black. The former are 58 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE most favored. It is a very pale white and the latter a very pale gray while young, the black markings appearing only after the first molt. Silver Runts The silvers are of a clean, pale cream color. The wing bars and tail band are a dark brown or black. I have never seen a SILVER RUNT silver with black bars. The neck and breast are — brilliant brown. The rump and under-wing color is a pure white. The beak and claws are pale pink, but a little darker than those of the colored Selfs. The great fault is in dark or dull color. They improve still more than the whites efter second molt. The grays. be- come darker. Those marked on their necks and bodies with red feathers have no value. They should have white and OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 59 black or gray and black feathers only. The beak and claws should be clean but slightly darker than those of the whites. The legs and feet are clean and free from feathers. They have pearl eyes. Selfs All selfs should be of a solid uniform color all over the body. They should have no mixtures or other colored feathers on their body. They should be clean, clear and without smokiness. Rumps should also be clean and of the same color as the other part of the body. The beak, claws and feet should be clean. All colored selfs should have pearl] eyes. Yellow Runts Yellows should be a solid uniform color throughout. They should not be too pale nor should they approach the red. The beak and claws are clean and have no marks on them. They should be a pale pink. Legs and feet are clean. Some faults are ashy rump and dark marks on the beak or white feathers in flights or tail. Sometimes the young have whitish feathers in the flights or the tail, but they generally disappear after the first moult, if not, then eliminate the bird. Never mate two pale yellows. Never mate yellow to black nor yellows to birds with barred wings. Red Runts The reds should be of a rich chestnut red over the whole body, including flights and tail. The beak and claws are rather of a flesh color. Faults are smoky rump, dull red or too pale a red. The only way to secure good reds is to breed from red matings. I never had a good red from anything but two good reds, and well selected reds at that. Good reds are the most difficult of all Runts to breed. Red hens run rather too small. Never mate a red to birds with barred wings. Black Runts The best blacks are those with a brilliant neck as low down as their breast (a reflecting beetle green). The beak and claws are pale pink as far as possible. -Nearly all blacks have beaks 60 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE that have a dark-colored crown or dark markings toward their extremity. It is very difficult to secure a perfect black plumage and a white beak as well. Faults are dull smoky-black color. Entire black beaks are to be discouraged. Never mate black to yellow. In order to conserve a white beak in blacks, they are mated to a good red with a white beak. The strength of the bird is its type, perfection of its carriage and the beauty of its head and eye, and last but not least, its squab producing qualities. HUNGARIANS The Hungarian is peculiar both as to type and color markings. They are a most beautiful bird, stand erect with head and tail uplifted on the order of the Maltese pigeon but not so extreme. Their color markings are regular and positive, gen- erally black and white but can be bred in red and white, blue and white and kindred colors. Starting from the butt of the beak, a strip of white extends across the head, down the neck and ends in the center of the back with a connecting ring of white feathers around the neck extending to the under part of the bird which is all white. The face, breast and tail are black and the entire wing is black except the end of the wings, or flights, which are white. All other colors are marked the same with the colored feathers taking the place of the black. The Hungarian is very hearty, an exceptionally tame bird, very domestic, an extraordinary good feeder and a splendid producer of extra large golden meated double breasted squabs in goodly numbers. Mr. Lewis in American Pigeon Journal says: “One of the most beautiful utility breeds of pigeons is the taped Hungarians, with their contrasting colors of black and white. The first birds of this kind that we had in this country were imported from Hungary from which they derived their name.” The Hungarian pigeon is a very peaceful bird. I sup- pose this characteristic was acquired after they were imported from the land of trouble, which is more than we can say for the originators of the breed. The male birds seldom want to claim an “affinity” and one never finds eggs or squabs destroyed on account of continual fighting going on in the lofts, which often happens with some breeds where more than three or four pairs OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 61 are kept in one pen. I have often taken a squab from some other variety that was not getting properly fed by the parents and put in a nest with a pair of Hungarian squabs and the old birds would raise the three to be fat and plump at four weeks BLUE BAR HUNGARIAN of age. In the show room these birds are very attractive on account of their color markings. The beauty and many other qualities of the Hungarian should make it a popular squab breeder and a good show bird. MALTESE The Maltese is also known as the Maltese Hen Pigeon probably because it resembles a chicken about as much as it does a pigeon. Its habits are like all other pigeons, except it is a poor flyer, likes to nest near the ground and has greater strength. The Maltese is not quarrelsome but will fight if given cause 62 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE and can whip any other breed of pigeons. The Maltese 1s a splendid feeder, healthy, and takes good care of its young. As squab producers they have few equals as to the size of the squab and especially the amount of meat on the breast. In this respect the Maltese squab is more like a quail only much larger. The Maltese is an old variety. Mr. Pearce writing for the American Pigeon Journal stated: “The origin of the Maltese like other varieties appears to have no particular starting point. When Noah went into the ark, he had several birds known as doves, but possibly our Homer fanciers would claim these as the first of the Homers for the fact that these doves did manifest a homing instinct when one returned to the ark with the olive branch. Like other creatures, when going back to the time of the flood or earlier, the question of origin is as puzzling as it is interesting.” In supposing that all so-called varieties originated from these original doves, the question is naturally asked: “Why the many colors, shapes and sizes?” They are possibly due in part to the influences of climatic conditions, effects of mineral absorption, environment, freaks in nature, special selection and mating by man. Thousands of reasons might be produced to partially sub- stantiate the origin of all the numerous varieties. The Exhibition Mallese is the same as the squab producing bird except it is bred smaller and more attention is given to the length of the neck and legs and the upright carriage of the bird. Dr. Kleeman says: “Maltese breeders and fanciers are agreed that the true Exhibition Maltese with long, well arched head, long, thin, curve neck, long straight legs and short coupled body is one of the hardest birds to breed true to type. The average pair of Maltese will raise six pair of squabs a year, figuring conservatively, and out of the six pairs one can expect one pair of show birds, two pairs of stock birds which lay the foundation for more show birds, and three pairs of culls.” Split tails in Maltese are very hard to overcome. This can be accomplished however by mating such a bird to one that has a short, full, broad tail while the bird must have an oil sack. Wry tail is another defect which is very hard to overcome as it seems to be hereditary. I have mated wry-tail birds—that is a left wry with a right wry—but to produce the desired result the birds must both have oil sacks, otherwise the off-spring will develop OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 63 split tails. Short wing flights crossing in front of the tail can only be produced by mating a short-back bird to a long-back bird and in this way one can correct this defect and strike a happy medium. C. R. King writing for the American Pigeon Journal covers the Maltese nicely when he says: “California has long been noted for its fine Maltese. In fact, there is no doubt that there are WHITE MALTESE more and better Maltese bred and raised in California than in any other state in the Union. The climatic conditions are such that the birds seem to develop and thrive from the start. From the utility standpoint, the Maltese is one of the most valuable birds. They are very strong feeders and take good care of their young. They are used quite extensively on the Pacific coast as a producer of ‘double breasted’ squabs for mar- ket. These squabs weigh around twelve pounds to the dozen. The Maltese is an ideal bird for crossing, being short, blocky, 64 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE and very full breasted. For this purpose it is used with the Runt more than any other breed and probably one-third of the squabs raised on the Pacific coast are from this cross. These squabs range in weight from twelve to eighteen pounds to the dozen. I have raised a few that weighed twenty-two pounds at four weeks of age. This cross, and in fact any cross in which the Maltese is used, make strong and healthy breeders and feeders. Quite a few of the Homer breeders, especially breeders that have white birds, are crossing them with the Maltese. This makes an ideal cross, being fast producers of fine-shaped squabs which weigh from eleven to thirteen pounds to ‘the dozen. We have crossed the red and the yellow Carneau, which results in a fine-looking bird, and produces squabs that weigh from twelve to fourteen pounds to the dozen. This is about the only successful cross one can make with the Carneau on account of ihe danger of dark-skinned squabs, but by crossing with the red or yellow Maltese one is sure to produce white-meated squabs. From ihe fancier’s standpoint, the Maltese is considered one of the most difficult birds to breed to perfection. First-class specimens must be ‘well up’ on legs, short back, long neck, carry Wings folded in front of tail and must be of good size but not “beefy.” Fanciers of this variety consider themselves lucky if they can produce one or two top-notch specimens in a season's breeding, and it is usually from the stock pairs that the best results are obtained. First-class show birds are quite scarce and bring good prices, ranging from $15 to $50 per pair. First- class utility stock ranges from $3 to $6 per pair.” B SWISS MONDAINES The Swiss Mondaine is a pigeon larger than a White King and smaller than a Runt. They are of longer legs and neck and are more graceful looking than either and are indeed a very beautiful bird. They are becoming very popular in Ameri- ca both as squab breeders and show birds. Those who breed them claim they-are among the best as squab producers, hearty, thrifty and exceedingly domestic. It is claimed that the Swiss Mondaine came from Switzerland, but be that as it may, the breed is now recognized and they have a recognized standard. There is a Swiss Mondaine Association OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 65 with a large membership and many Swiss Mondaines in America. . There are many large breeders of Swiss Mondaines throughout the country among them are F. M. Prevost and Wilbur T. Helm who have been kind enough to furnish some information regard- ing this breed. A portion of letters received from them is quoted below: Mt. Clemens, Mich. Mr. E. H. Eggleston: Your letter of recent date received and I am enclosing you Swiss ‘ PART OF A PEN OF WHITE SWISS MONDAINES 66 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Mondaine standard. I consider this a wonderful squab producing bird. I have over four thousand pairs of these birds and am meeting with great success shipping them to all parts of the country for squab breeding purposes. I filled one order for one thousand pairs. To start with I purchased several pairs at eighteen dollars per pair from a party that came direct from Switzerland in 1905 and have kept them and improved the strain ever since. I have never seen such squab breeding. Squabs average three pounds in weight at twenty-four days old. I have a very large plant constructed along your lines and ideas which is giving me the greatest of satisfaction. F. M. Prevost. Oxnard, California. Mr. E. H. Eggleston: The following is some information regarding Swiss Mondaines. For almost «a decade there have been a few White Swiss Mondaine pigeons in this country, with a light scattering of the Blue-Bars and an occasional Silver, which is an off-shoot of the Blue-Bars, The White Swiss has been in a few breeders’ hands who realized their worth and as none of their owners happened to be men who kept them for a purely commercial purpose, but who were at the same time rather jealous of their pets, their price was prohibitive, in those days when a squabbing pigeon was considered a child’s plaything or at most, far less valuable than a common chicken. However, today a utility pigeon’s worth is appreciated and its worth is high or low according to its production. And as the Swiss Mon- daine’s squabs run from 15 to 18 lbs. to the dozen, good, healthy birds of this breed are worth considerably more than the average utility pigeon ‘whose squabs usually average 10 lbs. to the dozen. The number of squab marketed from a pair of Swiss Mondaines will equal the production, squab for squab, of any of the utility breeds that produce the 12 lb. squabs. The consumption of grain per pair is such a slight amount over that of the producers of the 12 1b. squabs, that unless there was large lofts of these birds this increased grain consumption would hardly be noticed. The scarcity of the White Swiss Mondaine is their only drawback for the commercial squab plant, for this scarcity tends to keep their selling price well above that of the more common utility breeds. However, the writer knows of a number of relatively large com- mercial plants that are “running up” flocks of White Swiss to take the place of the birds they now possess, Those that are interested in pure bred live stock will appreciate the fact that 4 number of the leading White Swiss Mondaine breeders have a Record Association under way that will issue registered pedi- grees on the White Swiss, this in itself may not amount to very much at the present time,—but time will tell, and in every instance the non-registered are forced to give way to the bird, stock or hog that has its pedigree of pure breeding. OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 67 The White Swiss Mondaine is a bird that has not been pampered with its private apartrhents, it has had to go into regular, every day squab houses and in doing this it has been working under a handicap, for it’s a large bird, but in the little 12 in. nests it has proven its worth, and today the squab house with the 14 x 14 in. nests that are well filled with the bouncing twenty to twenty-four ounce squabs is as nice an investment as any one could wish for. The bird itself is ‘“ a long, sweepingly upright” white pigeon that realizes its size and strength and on that account is not nervous or flighty. It has a deep-hazel eye that is remarkable for its “liquid depth” and the smooth red, eye-cere and feet are the finishing touches to a graceful, well groomed bird, who has been pure bred for at least fifteen years with “speed in production” as the motto for all matings. WILBUR T. HELM. Crested Mondaines I confess my ignorance regarding this breed. I have tried to secure information with reference to same, but have made but little headway. The bird with a crest called Mondaine is a large, fine looking specimen of a pigeon, an extra good squab producer while it is active, which is chiefly in the spring and summer months. This bird might possess many qualities from a utility standpoint, but with no more direct knowledge or information, this is as far as I can go. POLISH LYNX As the name would indicate the Polish Lynx pigeons originat- ed in Poland. The breed is a very old one but as yet compara- tively unknown in America as squab breeders. They are of heavy blocky type, low short legs, and broad across the back and full breasted. Polish Lynx are bred in two colors, blue with white bars, where the ordinary pigeon has black bars and black and white speckled. They are certainly a very beautiful bird both in type and feather color and I understand are good squab producers. Although the author's personal experience with the Polish Lynx is limited, I could almost vouch for it on general good looks and its seeming domestic habits. 68 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE WHITE KINGS There is no bird in America that has made the rapid stride in popularity that the White King has the past few years. Since this breed has become standardized it has improved won- derfully in size, type, squab producing and other qualities. T attribute this principally to its color and the good judgment used in selecting a standard that allowed for the development of the points that make birds good fast breeders of large fat squabs. Following is an article by Prof. Frank C. Hare on the standard and origin of this new bird: “Years of scientific line-breeding by American fanciers with a definite standard or ideal to attain, resulted in the formation of a new breed of pigeons of unques- tionable merit. Although this breed, quite appropriately called the White King, is a composite of breeds in various classes, so completely have the different types and characteristics been harmonized, that present-day specimens have few birthmarks to indicate the heterogeneous parentage. The White King is a middle-weight pigeon, neither so large as to be cumbersome and slow breeding, nor yet so small as to appear insignificant among the larger breeds. Its attractive appearance is emphasized by the remarkable development of the deep, well-rounded breast, the broad, strong back, the com- pact, plump body carried horizontally on the short well-set legs. It is a breed of curves, with each section of the body blend- ing easily into another, and, when these rounded sections are seen in the harmonious grouping found only in the White King, ihe highest type of physical beauty is portrayed. A delineation of the revised standard of the White King as adopted by the American White King Pigeon Association will be instructive to numerous breeders who have not in their mind's eye a clear-cut picture of the ideal exhibition White King, and who wish to select for the show room a few specimens that will please judge and exhibitors and prove an honor to their loft. Let us first discard those specimens that are unworthy of consideration. The remainder can then be critically judged by the standard, weighing the defects of each specimen carefully, and deciding after this close study, what bird in each class— OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 69 cock, hen and youngster—is the best all-around White King. At this time forget that you own the birds. Judge them as they will be judged by the man who hangs the ribbons at the show. Discard all birds with pinched breast, narrow body or those showing a “knock-kneed” tendency; all that have a long body WHITE KING or long tail or long head and beak; those specimens in which the eye cere (bare flesh around the eye that separates it from the feathers of the head) is white or pale pink color, and all birds with feathers or down on legs or feet. The full-breasted, blocky, wide backed, broad-tailed White King is the ideal to earnestly strive for, not only in exhibition birds, but for utility specimens as well. The latter will produce plump, attractive squabs more rapidly and more economically than long-bodied, long-tailed White Kings. Bear in mind that 70 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE it requires four times as much nourishment to grow feathers than meat; and long feathered, long bodied squabs are rarely plump-breasted. The head of the White King male should be rather large and broad, with a round, full skull and prominent forehead. No characteristic, except the unsightly long body recently referred to, so greatly detracts from the knightly appearance of the White King male as a small insignificant head. The eyes are large, prominent, and of reddish-brown or dark hazel color. The cere is of medium size, perfectly round, fine in texture, the same color as the beak, with a light frosting of white on the upper surface. As the eye of the White King appears almost black in color from a short distance, the narrow band of red that encircles the eye (forming the beet-red cere) adds just the touch of color needed to beautify and brighten the white plumage of the read. Birds with white or pale colored ceres look commonplace in comparison. Until the adoption of the standard of the American White King Association, it sometimes happened that White Kings with a few feathers on their feet were awarded prizes at the exhibi- lions. Permitting birds with this serious defect, even though they were of excellent type in other sections, to win any prize at an exhibition, was a blunder the evil effects of which are revealed at most inopportune times. The only way to produce clean-legged, exhibition White Kings is to breed from a cock and hen of line-bred, clean legged ancestry. Obtain your ftock of show birds from a few pairs of pedigreed stock that produce red-cered, clean- legged youngsters of blocky type, rather than from a large flock of breeders of various types and character- istics. The birds with feathers on their feet are usually sold “utility stock,” and for this purpose are equally satisfactory and less expensive than exhibition stock. A ‘“knock-kneed” White King is only fit to eat. Stout legs and long, straight toes increase the stability and add to the appearance of any bird. The plumage is very close, short, smooth and firm. Looseness of feathers is a serious defect. The web, quill and fluff of the feathers in all sections is pure white. The wings are comparatively short, well folded, ending con- siderably in front of and resting on the tail. The front of the t OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 71 wing (wing butt) is embedded in the plumage of the breast. Covering the fronts of the wings with the breast feathers obliterates that racy frontal appearance seen on all varities of Homers. The records of the White Kings are not made in the air. Exceptionally large or small specimens are undesirable. Ex- hibition White Kings should weigh 24 ounces for hens, and 26 ounces for cocks. It is unwise to breed from cocks or hens considerably over or under these weights. That the standard of the White King as adopted by the American White King Association pleases not simply the lover of the beautiful in pigeons, but the practical, money-making squab producer who ships extra select squabs to a fancy trade, it is only necessary to refer to the unprecedented growth of the White King in popularity. It has completely substantiated its right of recognition as a handsome show pigeon for the fancier, and as a rapid producer of twelve-pound, plump breasted, white fleshed squabs in the lofts of those who have investigated its claims. It is a breed of deeds, not of words, a breed which typifies the American standard of industry, a beloved king among pigeons, a White King whose kingdom is ever increasing.” CROSS BREEDS The average beginner in the pigeon business undertakes to establish, create (or manufacture might be a better word) a squab-producing pigeon according to his own architectural de- signs. Crossing breeds of pigeoris is waste of time even by people who understand what they want to accomplish and have an idea as to the results of different crossing, for it takes years to develop a hybrid into a bird that will perpetuate itself in size, type, color, and qualities. Besides, it requires hundreds, yes, thousands of pigeons, a large outlay of capital, ample room and equipment, constant attention and endless patience. Even with all this the outcome is a gamble. How, then, can an inexpe- rienced person, with a vague knowledge of what he wants to accomplish, with a few birds and no equipment, expect to con- vert himself, like magic, into a Darwin or a “Pigeon Burbank?” This not only applies to beginners, but often to people who have been plodding along for years in the pigeon business with a few birds of first this and that variety. That some breeds are 22 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE better and superior to others goes without saying, but even an inferior breed, in my opinion, is better than newly-created crosses. With the former, one at least knows the kind he has, while with the latter it is a continuous grope in the dark. Why experiment with crossing breeds? I have asked many people this question and this is the general run of answers: “We wanted to see what a Carneau-Homer or a Carneau-White King or a Carneau some other breed would produce.” In many cases they had the result of the cross there to show me, and invariably they were much disappointed with the hy- az SQUAB BREEDING CROSSES brids produced. Another common answer to my question is: “We wanted to improve the size of our stock of this or that breed so we are crossing the Runt with them.” Other people had, so they said, a few birds that the color was not just what they wanted so threw them into a pen of mixed breeds; and this is their reason for crossing. Others were trying to raise a dozen or more breeds without sufficient room to raise one, and were allowing these different breeds to cross and re-cross as they pleased. ; A hybrid generally carries the color of one parent, the shape and type of the other and the poor qualities of both. To OTHER BREEDS OF UTILITY PIGEONS 3 illustrate: The color of a Carneau is very strong and predomi- nates in its offspring when crossed with birds of almost any other color or breed. For instance, a red Carneau and white bird of another breed will invariably produce a red hybrid with more or less blue and slate feathers on it. Often the whole tail will be dark blue or almost black, with the rest of the body red or a reddish brown. The offspring will, of course, show some of the Carneau characteristics besides the red feathers, but all such hybrids that I have ever seen resemble their other-than-Carneau an- cestors in the shape of the head and general type. As an exam- ple, the Homer-Carneau cross is generally under size, has a flat, snake-like Homer head, and a longer bill, but not as thick as the Homer bill. A Runt-Carneau cross will have a long body, short neck and legs like a Runt, with a Runt tendency to drag its wings, while a Carneau-Maltese cross will show up just the opposite, with a short body, long neck and legs, and a tendency to carry its tail high, a la Maltese. All these and other Carneau crosses that I have seen are generally red with more or less slate or blue feathers on them, and none of them are as good as the pure bred Carneau for squab breeding purposes; so nothing is gained by crossing. CHAPTER V FEEDS AND FEEDING WHEN AND HOW TO FEED There is some difference of opinion as to the best time to feed squab producing pigeons, also as to the method of feeding. Some advocate open feeding troughs, others use self-feeders, and I have seen a few men who preter to throw the feed on the floor of the squab house. The latter method is more often used by the breeders of a few fancy pigeons and it is probable that the squab raisers who use this method borrowed it from the fancy pigeon men. Those who practice throwing the grain on the floor, generally feed three times a day, as much as the birds will eat up clean, at the time they are being fed. Those that use self-feeders gen- erally fill their hoppers once a day with enough grain to last until next filling time, and those that use open troughs, as a rule, feed their birds twice a day. This is the plan more universally used by squab producers. There are objections, however, to all these plans. The objection to throwing the grain loose on the floor is that some of it will invariably be left and eaten later, and while laying on the dirty floor is apt to sour or spoil and give the brids canker. Another objection to this plan is the boldest and most hoggish birds will gorge themselves leaving little or nothing for the more timid ones. Another ob- jection is it requires too much time with a large plant to go: around to each nest room and wait while the birds are feeding and see just how much they will clean up. Then, too, with this method, it is necessary to feed three times a day, in order that the males can get food, early in the morning, with which to feed their young; at noon the birds must be fed again so that the females that are off the nest at that time will have a chance to 74 FEEDS AND FEEDING vi) get something to eat; and another feed is necessary at night so that the males may again feed their squabs. I have been told that twice a day was all that was necessary with this method, as females that were sitting will soon learn to fly off the nest at feeding time and eat along with the other birds, but my observation and experience has been that females will not stay off the nest long enough to get a sufficient amount to eat. They will, if they are hungry, fly down, but they will just stay long enough to pick up a few grains and then fly back to the nest. Pigeons do not like to let their eggs stay uncovered for even a short period of time. As proof of this, when the male takes the place of the female on the nest in the morn- ing, and when the female again relieves the male in the after- noon, the bird on the nest will not get from over the eggs until its mate is on the nest by its side; one will slip off the nest as the other one slips on, allowing practically no lapse of time in the operation. It is unnatural for pigeons to leave the nest for something to eat as is the habit with chickens. Self-feeders have never proven a success. No feeder has so far been perfected that will force the birds to eat the grain as it comes out of the hopper. While pigeons require several kinds of grain, they like some kinds better than others. Therefore, they pick out the choice kind first. This will leave the kind they like least or the undesirable grain uneaten and this uneaten grain will soon choke up the feeder. You might figure that when the birds are hungry enough they will eat up this less desirable kind of grain that has choked the feeder, and that would automatically make room for the new supply of the regular mixture, but such is not the case, for birds, by actual test, will not do so. Furthermore, one day the feeder will be choked with one kind of grain and another day with another, according to the appetites of the birds on different days. With an open trough, when grain is left one day the birds will invariably eat it up in the next day, especially if a smaller portion is given them. Of course, if one particular kind of grain keeps accumulating, the mixture can be changed and the portion of that kind be reduced. Where there are more than one pen of birds being kept, a good plan is to carry the grain left over from one nest room to another. 76 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE For instance, birds in one nest room will leave wheat, while kafir corn will be left in another, and still another will have all the grain cleaned up, so the left over wheat or kafir corn can be switched over to the pens where there was none of that particular kind left, and then the regular mixture of feed poured on top of it. Open troughs that are placed in the nest room must be protected in some way to keep birds from perching on the edge of the trough and fouling the grain. As to the best kind of feed trough, it depends on the construc- tion of the nest room. If the Eggleston plan of nest room con- struction is followed, feeding boxes or feeding troughs can be placed in the aisle outside of the nest room, which will prevent the birds from fouling the grain and at the same time place the troughs where they are easily accessible and can be quickly filled or emptied and cleaned. All pigeons have a habit of throwing the grain out of the trough, which causes considerable waste. They do this while hunting for choice kinds of grain. The troughs, therefore, should be built in a way to prevent as much of this waste as possible. The aisle feeding trough, you will note, is built with the two ends and the back higher than the front. This is done to pre- vent the birds from throwing the grain out, and if the feed trough is in the aisle the feed thrown out can be easily swept up and used over again. By personal experience and the experience of others, I find that birds should be fed twice a day, early in the morning and at noon. There are several important things to take into consideration when feeding birds, viz.: to supply feed for squabs ten days old or older, which is carried to them principally by the male bird; to supply feed for squabs under ten days, which is carried to them by both male and female, but principally by the female; to supply feed for maintenance of the male and female that have no squabs; for the maintenance of the young birds in the loft that receive little or no feed from their parents; to supply feed to the female that has eggs or very young squabs, causing her to remain on the nest the greater part of the day. The female sits on the eggs at night and until nine or ten o'clock in the morning, and again takes her place on the nest FEEDS AND FEEDING 77 about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. If feea 1s given morning and night, the males and non-setting birds will eat up the best portion and choice grain, while the female is on the nest, and when they come off for their feed and recreation, in the middle of the day, they will find nothing but picked over and refused grain and generally not enough of that. When the female is sitting, she needs good, choice, rich food. Therefore, by feeding at noon time, when the female is off the nest, she will get what she needs in the way of feed. There should be enough grain given at the noon feed. to last over until night. This will give the males an opportunity of feeding their squabs after they come off the nest at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The females will also have a chance to do some feeding in the middle of the day, which will produce larger and fatter squabs than if the female has to hustle for her own feed. This will compel her to leave the bulk of the feeding to the male. The birds should be given all they will eat up clean at the morning feed and a little left over for’ the youngsters in the loft, which, being less aggressive and weaker than the older birds, are crowded away from the trough and have to depend more or less upon what is left. The males will eat up the choicest grain in the morning first. Then they take a drink of water and fly to the nest and feed their squabs. This will give the squabs the best and most fattening food. The food that is left for the old birds will be sufficient in strength for them. The earlier the birds are fed in the morning, the better. They generally get up at daylight, and if there is any grain left over in the trough, from the day before, they will clean that up and be waiting for more feed, regardless of how early you might get up to feed them. WHAT TO FEED Pigeons are strictly vegetarians. They eat grain and seed principally, with a little green stuff, such as grass, clover, lettuce or Swiss chard. They are very particular as to the quality of the grain, especially birds that are kept in fly pens. Bad or spoiled grain is apt to make them sick. The first opinion of the average person who knows nothing about pigeons, is that they are like a chicken with reference 78 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE to eating; that is, they think a pigeon will eat and thrive on anything, including scraps and slop. About the only scraps from the table that a pigeon will eat is crumbs of bread, and bread is all right for them because it is a grain product, but too much bread is physicing. The average person who knows a little about pigeons is gen- erally of the opinion that most any kind of grain will do, and that an assortment of grain is not necessary. Then we have the other extremists who believe that pigeons should have a larger assortment of grain than is necessary. The latter class is generally confined to a person who has a few high grade fancy pigeons, and through his desire to obtain the best possible results, regardless of expense, he feeds his birds an assortment of expensive grain and seeds, but I have not noticed that their pigeons thrive any better than those which receive a small assortment of cheaper grain. There are several ways to err in feeding pigeons, namely: To overfeed, to underfeed, to feed too expensive, and too great a variety of grains; to feed an assortment of grains that are too light in food values, and to feed too small a variety of grains, or grains that are not sufficiently strong in food values. Then one can make a mistake by feeding too great a portion of certain grains, wheat for instance, which will, if fed in too great a quantity, cause bowel trouble. A well balanced feed scientifically proportioned is without question the best for not only pigeons, but animals of all kinds, including people. But such a thing is not always practical, and as several combina- tions of three or four different grains can be selected that will be almost a-balanced feed, you will not go far wrong by the latter method, which is not hard to follow. Three or four kinds of grain is all that is really necessary. to feed pigeons, but care should be taken to see that the grain is of a good quality, and that the assortment contains about the right percentage of the different food values. . For the benefit of those who do not care to make a study of this question, I will give below a few simple formulas or combi- nations of three or four different grain assortments that contain about the right proportions in food values, also specifying grains that can be substituted for the different kinds mentioned. Here are some of the combinations of cheap grains that can FEEDS AND FEEDING 79 be depended upon to give fairly good results, and which can generally be secured in most any section of the country for reasonable prices: Kafir corn, 3 parts; whole corn, 4 parts; wheat, 3 parts; Can- ada peas, 2 parts. _ Buckwheat, 1 part; kafir corn, 3 parts; whole corn, 4 parts; Canada peas, 2 parts. Wheat, 3 parts; cracked corn, 1 part; whole corn, 3 parts; Canada peas, 2 parts. _ Millet, hemp and sunflower seeds can be added to any of the above combinations in portions of 44 part to 3 parts wheat, and 4 parts corn. Milo maize of feterita is practically the same as kafir corn, and either of these two grains can be substituted for kafir corn in part or in whole. All three are splendid pigeon feed, and birds should be given all they will eat of these grains. If Canada peas are not available or too expensive, they can be substituted with cow peas, peanuts or soy beans. Pigeons, however, do not take very quickly to soy beans, and will have to be educated to eat them, and the same is true of peanuts, but they will learn to eat peanuts much quicker than they will soy beans. Wheat, kafir corn and corn should be made the basis in this country of all pigeon feeds, as each of these grains are, generally obtainable at reasonable prices. Your pigeons will to a large degree act as a barometer, so to speak, as to the proper proportions of wheat, kafir corn and corn that they should be fed, provided you notice which one of these grains they leave in the trough in the largest quantity. Pigeons, if hungry, will eat all the wheat, corn and kafir corn you give them, even if it is not in the right proportion, but they will first eat these grains in about the proportion they should have, and then if hungry eat the balance of the kind that was over in proportion. This is also true with millet, buckwheat and sunflower seeds, but is not true with hemp, peas or peanuts, as pigeons will eat more of these articles than is good for them, until they get stalled by an oversupply of rich food, as a child would candy or nuts. 80 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE A good practice when feeding a small assortment of cheap grain, is to change the feed combination slightly once or twice a week. Some breeders switch from one combination to another daily; for instance, wheat, kafir corn and peas one day, and wheat, milo maize, corn and peanuts the next day. Corn is the one grain that contains the largest per cent of the different essential food values for pigeons. Kafir corn, milo maize and feterita contain about the same food value as corn, and each contains more of the different essential food values than any other grain. Each of these grains constitute almost a balanced food, and either could be fed alone for a short period and for a longer period by adding a small portion of peas, or pea substitute. Cracked corn is not as good as whole corn for pigeons, but is necessary in the absence of kafir corn, milo maize or feterita when pigeons have young squabs to feed, as squabs less than a week or ten days old can not take whole grain corn. Squabs can swallow whole corn easily after they are ten days old. There is no danger of squabs getting choked on whole corn, for their throats are larger than the opening in their beaks, and they can swallow anything that they can get in their mouths. COMPOSITION OF PIGEON FEED If one cares to go into the question of the composition of feed in a scientific way much benefit can be had by studying care- fully the relative values of the different articles of feed suitable for pigeons, but even a sight knowledge gained by a hurried reading of the following facts will prove beneficial as well as interesting. To start with, I will quote from an article written by Mr. Jas. P. Kinnard: “The feed of herbivorous animals, poultry and pigeons, con- tains the same four groups of substances found in the body, towit: (1) Water; (2) Ash; (3) Protein (or nitrogenous nutri- ents); (4) Fats; and in addition thereto they also contain another class of nutrients called (5) Nitrogen-free extracts, mostly carbo- hydrates, which is, by far, the most plentiful feed contained in nearly all grains and vegetable feeds. Thus it will be seen that there is no element contained in the animal body similar to the nitrogen free extracts, or carbohydrates, the most plenti- ful of all material contained in seeds and grains.” FEEDS AND FEEDING 81 Nutrients The groups of food materials are called nutrients. To a certain extent, at least, these nutrients may replace one another, although no nutrient can take the place of protein for building tissue and preparing waste of nitrogenous materials in the body. The fats and carbohydrates perform similar functions, and to a large extent, carbohydrate materials may replace fat in the food, even when a large fat production is demanded of the animal. To supply food in the right proportions to meet the various requirements of the body, without a waste of food nutrients, constitutes scientific feeding. Analysis of Feed Stuffs A complete analysis of feed stuffs gives in percentages the contents of water, ash, protein, nitrogen, free extracts (mainly carbohydrates), and fats. Water Water, or moisture, is more or less contained in all feed stuffs, but being more than ordinary water, it has no special nutritive value. The more water a feed stuff contains, however, the less of the other nutritives it contains, and the more liable it is to injury by heating, souring, or molding. The water contents of feeds vary. In grains and other concentrates it runs from about 7 per cent to 12 per cent but larger in fresh grains. Nutritive Ratio The nutritive ratio is the proportion of digestible protein to digestible non-protein, but, as heretofore stated, I shall not enter into the digestibility of feeds, except to a very limited extent, for fear of making the subject appear too intricate and difficult of understanding, and confusing to the reader. In calculating the digestibility of feeds, as practically all pigeon feeds have about the same proportion of digestibility, I shall give only the total content of each element, as shown by chemical analysis. In calculating the nutritive ratio, the percentage of fats (either extract), is multiplied by 244, and to this product is added the sum of the percentages of nitrogen-free-extract (hereinafter called carbohydrates), and crude fiber, and this total is divided by the percentage of protein, which gives the nutritive ratio. 82 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE To illustrate: If a feed stuff contains 15 per cent protein, 4 per cent fats, 70 per cent carbohydrates, and 3 per cent crude fiber. The percentage of fats, 4, multiplied by 244 gives 9, to which product is added the sum of the percentages of carbo-hydrates and crude fiber. Seventy and 3, gives 82, which, divided by the percentage of protein, 15, gives a nutritive ratio of 1:5.5, nearly, a very fine ratio for pigeons, by the way. The percentage of fat is multiplied by 214 times as much nourishment as the same percentage of carbohydrates and crude fiber combined. Ash Ash is the material left after the consumption of a feed stuff with fire, and consists chiefly of lime, magnesia, potash, soda, iron, chlorin, and carbonic, sulphuric, and phosphoric acids— substances largely used in the formation of bones. As a rule a ration composed of a variety of feeds contains sufficient ash, or mineral, to supply the body of animals, but this is not altogether true with that of poultry and pigeons. They must be supplied with a good health grit. Corn is very deficient in ash, and when fed alone to pigeons, it becomes necessary to add ash materials, such as are contained in the specially prepared pigeon health grits, composed, usually, of granite grit, sharp sand, ground shells, salt, charcoal, and other ingredients containing medicinal properties, to assist in grinding the food in the crop, in making egg shell, and in addition thereto to assist in keeping the body in a good, thrifty, healthy condition; and the addition of ash in the materials men- tioned is of the utmost importance to pigeons in confinement. Corn is good feed, as corn is usually the most plentiful of feeds, but, being largely composed of carbohydrates and fats, it cannot be safely fed alone to animals, poultry, or pigeons, because it is deficient in some of the most important elements necessary for the maintenance of the body, as protein and ash. Protein Protein in food is that constituent, or nutrient, that forms lean flesh, muscle, ligaments, hair, wool, feathers, most of the internal organs, and other portions of the body, and is most important food to be fed, as well as being the most expensive. It furnishes material for flesh and replaces the wear and tear FEEDS AND FEEDING 83 of the body. Besides furnishing material for tissue, it also con- tains carbon and may be burned to form heat and energy, or serve as a source of fats or carbohydrates in the materials fed, containing a deficiency of such nutrients and an excess of protein; but the production of fat, heat, and energy with protein is very expensive. Therefore, as protein substances are always the most expensive feeds, it never pays to feed an excess of protein, such as is contained in cotton seed meal to cattle, beef- scraps to chickens, and peas or scrap peanuts to pigeons. Be- sides, an excess of protein is really injurious, producing an en- largement of the liver, and a plethoric condition of the system, generally. For these reasons, feeds very rich in protein should not be fed alone, nor in too great proportions. Fats and Oils Fats and oils are used in the animal body as a source of fat and also to furnish heat and energy. Animals require heat to keep the body warm and energy to run the animal mechanism, and do outside work. The beating of the heart, eating, breath- ing, movement of the intestines, and the muscular movements, such as the head, arms, legs, wings, require energy furnished by the burning, or oxidation of fats, carbohydrates, or protein, one pound of fat in the feed being equivalent to 244 pounds of carbohydrates. Value of Fats Fat ranks next to protein in value as a food element, or nu- trient. The more protein and fat a certain class of feed stuff contains, the better the quality, as compared with other feed stuffs of the same class. Peanuts containing 58 per cent protein and fats combined is more valuable than peanuts containing only 48 per cent protien and fats combined. Two feed stuffs of different kinds cannot, however, always be compared on the basis of their protein and fat contents alone, for other factors must be considered. Crude Fiber Crude fiber is that part of vegetable feeds that resists the action of acids and alkalis, and consists mainly of the cell walls the woody fiber. It is the most indigestible part of food pro- 84 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE ducts. The hays and fodders contain large quantities of crude fiber, while as a rule, seeds, grains, and other concentrated feed stuffs contain only a very small proportion of crude fiber. This element is, therefore, of but little importance in the consideration of feed stuffs for pigeons, their food consisting almost entirely of grains and other concentrated feed stuffs, containing but very smal! proportion of crude fiber. Hence, crude fiber enters but very little into the consideration of pigeon feeds, but they should contain only small proportions of crude fiber. Barley contains considerable crude fiber, on account of the husk remaining on the seed, and this explains why pigeons do not like barley very much. Carbohydrates Nitrogen-free extracts (mostly carbohydartes), meaning feeds free from nitrogen, or protein, are composed of starch, sugar, dextrin (gum), and other substances of a similar nature, and are mostly carbohydrates, containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and is the most plentiful of all nutrients contained in grains and other feed stuffs suitable for pigeons. Value of Carbohydrates Most concentrated feed stuffs, consisting of grains, such as corn, milo maize, kafir, feterita, wheat, buckwheat, rye, barley, millet and rice, are carbohydrates and composed largely of starches, sugars, and dextrin (or gums) and are easily digested and of great advantage to the animal body; while, on the other hand, the nitrogen-free extracts contained in wheat bran, corn bran, corn cobs, peanut hulls, hay, fodder, etc., are composed of other materials than starch, sugar and gums, and are of less value as feed stuffs. Therefore, the carbohydrates, or nitrogen- free extracts of these two kinds of feed stuffs cannot be compared. Utilization of Foods When food is digested, there are considerable losses due to undigested food, to losses as gases, and to the work involved in digestion. The remainder represents the net value of the food to the animal or bird. This net food value is the nourishment secured from food, after deducting all losses involved in the process of digestion. This net nutriment must first be used for taking care of the bodily needs, and the excess, if any, can then be used for productive purposes. FEEDS AND FEEDING 85 The needs of pigeons may be grouped into two classes: (1) tissue building materials, for building or repairing tissue con- sumed during the life process, and (2) energy forming materials, which may be used for heat and energy, or stored up as fat. Protein is the only constituent of food that can be used to repair animal tissue, to build lean meat. It is required in compara- tively small amounts for full grown pigeons, except when they are feeding a pair of big husky squabs, for squabs are rapidly growing tissue, and require large quantities of protein. Hence, while mature pigeons, not mated or working, that is, raising and feeding their squabs, require only small quantities of protein, yet when raising squabs, the old pair must be fed sufficient quantities of food to sustain animal heat and energy and repair waste tissue in their own bodies and, in addition: thereto, to furnish the necessary material to raise a pair of squabs that will in four weeks’ time nearly equal the weight of‘their parents. To enable them to do this, the mated pairs should be fed a ration containing a large proportion of protein, and consequently a narrow nutritive ratio. Hence, practically all grains are more or less deficient in protein. There is an absolute necessity for feeding pigeons a liberal ration of such protein feeds as Canada field peas, scrap peanuts, or soy beans. Protein is utilized in building the lean meat and assists in making the frame of the squah, while the fats and carbohydrates furnish the fat which keeps its body warm, and furnishes the energy to run its animal mechanism. TABLE OF FOOD ANALYSIS From the U. 8. Department of Agriculture. Water Ash Protein Fibre Carbo- Fat per cent percent percent percent hydrate percent per - cent Buckwheat ».. 12.6 2.0 10.0 8.7 64.5 2.2 Cow Peas ..... 11.9 3.4 23.5 3.8 55.7 1.7 COP ..4 ata es 1.9 1.5 10.5 el 69.6 5.4 Hemp Seed .... 9.0 4.5 21.0 , 18.0 16.9 30.6 Kaffir ........ 12.5 1.5 10.5 2.1 70.5 2.9 Maize ........ 12.0 1.4 11.0 3.0 69.7 2.3 Feterita ...... 11.5 1.3 13.0 2.0 67.4 2.7 Wheat ....... 105 1.8 11.9 1.8 71.9 2.1 Millet ........ 12.1 2.8 10.9 8.1 62.6 3.5 Peas ........- 15.1 2.4 23.7 7.9 50.2 0.8 Peanuts ...... 75 a4 27.9 7.0 15.6 39.6 Soy Beans .... 7.7 5.7 35.4 4.5 21.6 20.3 Sunflower Seed 8.6 2.6 16.3 29.9 21.4 21.2 86 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE ‘ GRAINS AND SEEDS The following description of the various grains and seeds fed to pigeons is from the pen of J. W. Williamson, the noted Red Cross Grit man of Glassboro, N. J.: Kafir Corn Kafir corn is becoming quite popular with squab raisers, and takes the place of Indian corn to a certain extent. While its properties are not equal to Indian corn, yet at the same time it makes a nice change, and is not a great deal below the rich fats and protein given to Indian corn. One thing in its favor is, it is not as binding as Indian corn, or as loosening to the bowels as wheat. For pigeon food I class it between Indian corn and wheat. It derives its name from a South African tribe known as Kafirs, not Kaffir, as will be noticed in pigeon literature. The dictionaries, on the other hand, the Century, for example, gives preterence to the single “F.” Government officials after carefully looking the matter up also adopted the single “F.” It was first grown in the United States in 1886. There are a great many varieties. The most common seen in the markets are the white and red, which are grown all over the United States where Indian corn is raised. The most of it is raised in the western states, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska produce more of it than other states, from which western feed merchants draw their supply. Farmers in the western states state they can grow it with greater success than Indian corn, as it stands ‘the blight better. There is little difference in the nourishing qualities of the white and red, but the latter is most prolific. It is about the size of hemp seed and the shape is round. To our customers raising their own feed, we will cheerfully give full directions how to raise their own Kafir corn, or any other pigeon food grown in this country. Milo Maize and Feterita are about the same as Kafir corn, also Egyptian corn which is grown in California. Indian Corn When buying corn the purchaser usually asks for yellow corn, or Poor Man’s corn (the white variety), but with these FEEDS AND FEEDING 87 two grains there is over 273 yellow varieties and 217 of the white. For feeding animals and birds it does not matter very much which particular variety is used as there is a very little differ- ence in the amount of protein and fats. The yellow varieties, however, are mostly used. The corn used for pigeons should be sifted cracked corn. If the cracked corn is not sifted there is considerable waste as the fine meal will not be eaten by the birds. Wheat There are as many varieties of wheat as there are corn, and in purchasing same, you are apt to get one variety one time and another at another, and yet not know the difference. In fact, it makes no difference as far as feeding is concerned, , but a wide difference in being prolific and profitablé to the farmer. Under this heading all the varieties will be classed as two, the same as the Kafir corn, red and white, but the latter wheat should not be used as pigeon food regularly. When it is used, mix in other hard grain; also, when using new red wheat, mix in hard grain and watch the squabs. If too loosening to the bowels reduce the amount. Rice will be found very good to feed along with new grain. Wheat Screenings These are very good, providing you can secure good screen- ings. If you can you will find them a most excellent pigeon food; containing besides wheat, various other grains and seed, which are very healthful for pigeons, but avoid poor quality. Scorched Wheat This should never be fed to pigcons. At present there scems to be a great many poultry men buying it from the Baltimore market—some dealers in wheat also mix it with good wheat that is being sold as poultry feed. When buying wheat make. your purchases from the mill—the farmer, or reliable supply houses. Peas There are quite a number of varieties of peas. Pigeons will eat most any variety but Canada peas are by far the best regu- lar food for pigeons, They are a very small pea, being perfectly: *- © 88 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE round and smooth, of a light yellow color, and always very hard, and can be used shortly after taken from the vine. Pigeons de- light in eating them, and bring their squabs along in fine condi- tion. They are grown the same as the ordinary garden pea. They can be grown anywhere the garden peas are grown and even in colder climate than the garden peas will stand. What is known as Cow peas or blackeyed peas is also a splendid pigeon food and often are much cheaper than Canada peas. Rice There are over 160 varieties of rice. It is an excellent food for pigeons, to be fed with wheat. It is raised principally in the southern states, where rice can be purchased at a reasonable price. A great deal of it can be used for feed, especially where lots can be bought that have a little chaff in, and not suitable for table use. Pigeons do not take to it at once but after a few meals take to it more readily. Oats Oats are very nourishing and preferable even to peas. The price is the main drawback in using them, but when they can be secured at a reasonable price, they should be fed as nothing will bring along squabs as rapidly as hulled oats. Oats that are not hulled should never be fed. Barley Those that do use it with hulls on do so merely because it is cheap, but cheap foods should not play a part in squab raising, as it means cheap squabs. Buckwheat Buckwheat, either the dark brown, or gray, is used by many squab raisers, but it should not be fed in large quantities, and not much of it in summer, as it is very heating. Mix it with wheat, as if mixed with corn, both grains being very heating will be found to give bad results. It is.a good, hard grain and is excellent to mix with white wheat or new red wheat, when the old wheat happens to be scarce. FEEDS AND FEEDING 89° Hemp Hemp seed is very fattening and stimulating, and should not be used separately. The best variety is the Russian Hemp. Birds are very fond of it, but should not be fed too much of it. It is excellent during the molting season. Sunflower Seed This also should be used the same as hemp; it is even richer in protein than hemp. A small amount goes a great ways.. Birds do not like it as readily as they do hemp. It is excellent during the molt and gives a good lustre to the feathers, and is an aid in shedding the old ones. Millet Millet is used’ as a stimulant as birds breed better when a small amount is used with other food. There are a great many varieties. It is used very extensively as human food in Japan, India and China. It is grown all over the United States, the most of it in states west of the Mississippi. It is sown broadcast. Golden Wonder Millet (termed by some, German Millet), is the variety used mostly in squab production, but all varieties are used. Rape Rape seed is a very small round brown seed, somewhat the size of millet. Pigeons are very fond of it. It is used as a dainty. Lentils and Vetches Lentils and Vetches are somewhat similar, and grow like peas. The former is mostly used in soups for flavoring. The pods only contain two flat round seeds. The lentils are mostly im- ported, but some are grown in Arizona and Mexico. They are steep in price and are only used as dainties for squab raising. We seldom use any. FEEDING BREAD TO PIGEONS There is little or no advantage to be gained by feeding bread to pigeons except from a standpoint of economy. Most bakeries, especially the large ones, have stale or unsold 90 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE. bread which they will sell at a bargain. One or two cents a loaf is the usual price this bread is sold.for, but often it can be contracted for at a cheaper rate. If bread can be secured at about that price it can be fed to an advantage along with the regular feed or grains. Pigeons will not eat bread until they become accustomed to it and then only a limited amount. The best way to feed bread is to slice it up and Jet the birds pick the soft centers out of each slice, then gather up the pieccs, put them in a pan of some kind and pour a little water on to soften the crusts. Let the pans of bread remain in the lofts for about an hour and then remove them. Throw away the uneaten bread as it will sour if left standing, especially in warm’ weather. Care should be taken to give the birds no more than they will eat and in this way avoid wasting the bread. At first birds will eat but a very little bread, but the amount can be increased by feeding them when hungry. If you cannol secure bread for less than grain costs you per pound it is not worth wnile to feed it. A little bread, however, jis not a bad .thing and can be given pigeons occasionally as a change from a regular diet and in this way prove beneficial cven though it costs as much as grain. At any rate, birds should ' be taught to eat brcad and thus prepare for occasions when it might he necessary to feed it to thein. WHAT PIGEON MILK IS Young squabs under three or four days old receive no grain from their parents. Their food consists of what is known as pigeon milk, a gruel substance which forms in the crops of beth the male and female, ahout 15 or 16 days after they start setting. It takes 17 days for -ixeon eggs to hatch and by this time beth parents are provided with this so-called pigeon milk with which to feed the squabs. Nature provides this pigeon milk for the reason that very young squabs are too delicate to receive solid focd. The male accumulates the gruel or pigeon milk in the crops by the little time he sets on the nest in the middle of each day and the female accumulates it by a longer daily period of setting. When squabs begin to get old enough to receive grain the parents eat smaller grain before feeding their young, and as the squabs grow the parent bird will eat larger grains. FEEDS AND FEEDING 91 At 10 days old an average squab can receive whole grains of corn with no inconvenience; and right here I might add there is no danger of squabs becoming choked on whole grains or corn for the reason that if the space between the beak is large enough for the grain to enter it will pass into the throat and into their crops without difficulty. If you have an opportunity some time I would suggest that you take a young squab a week or 10 days old and for your own curiosity put two or three grains of corn into its mouth at once and you will be surprised to sce how easily they will slip down its throat. THE HIGH COST OF FEED I have received a large number of letters and have been asked often if squabs can be raised profitably since the world war has increased the price of grain so greatly. The answer is, yes, provided one studies the feed situation and takes advantage of the local conditions by feeding more freely of the grain that is the cheapest in his section, but at the same time he must know enough about the values of different seeds and grain to enable him to feed a balanced ration. Prof. Frank C. Hare writing for the American Pigeon Journal, very ably covers this question. He states, “The present high prices of food stuffs make it imperative for most of us to study the feeding question more thoroughly than under normal price conditions, when we can buy at a reasonable cost almost any mixture of grains we fancy. We have reached the point where we would like to use some of the home grown grains that are cheaper than the imported grains we formerly fed and we want information about compounding a pigeon feed at home that will maintain the production of squabs and the health of breeders.” Bear in mind that pigeons are more or less like children and are apt to eat too much of things that are not the best for them. Too much hemp for instance, is not good for pigeons yet they will eat as’: much as they can get and hold. But as between corn, wheat and other staple grains their likes and dislikes. should be considered when same does not interfere too much with the cost of feed. CHAPTER VI GRIT, CHARCOAL, SALT AND WATER GRIT, SAND AND GRAVEL There are several different kinds of grit on the market for pigeons composed of various substances and combination of substances. Birds that fly at liberty have an opportunity to pick up many things in the way of sand, gravel, different kinds or dirt, roots, etc., all of which come under the head of grit, or at least they are eaten by birds for that purpose. The small gravel, as it is commonly called, is eaten and re- tained in their gizzards as a part of their digestive organs with which the food is ground, while dry sand, clay, roots and even pieces of wood are eaten for the chemical substances and food values contained therein. These two forms of grit are often confused to the extent that sometimes one is entirely neglected with the idea that the other will take its place. Small gravel or various shapes of small, sharp stones cannot be dispensed with for reasons just stated, while the other substances mentioned can be substituted with various other articles. ' There are several kinds of health grit manufactured and sold that contain many of these different articles, including salt, sand, Venetian red, small shells, charcoal, wood pulp and certain kinds of dirt that are relished more or less by pigeons and are probably very good for them, but are often eaten only because the birds crave salt and the so-called health grit is generally salty. In such cases I do not believe the birds are benefited but are injured by having to eat articles they do not want in order to get the salt they crave. If the fly pen is kept strewn with fine gravel or coarse sand and a supply of it kept inside of the nest room for the young 92 GRIT, CHARCOAL, SALT AND WATER 93 birds, and to be accessible when snow is on the ground, other forms of grit may not be essential, but I can see no harm in manufactured health grits as long as the birds are furnished with plenty of salt so that they will not be forced to eat these substances in order to get what they want. Some very successful breeders supply their birds with differ- ent kinds of dirt and sand and by a little experimenting they find just which of these articles contain what their birds like. The soil in different sections of the country contains different chemical properties. You might be surprised to see pigeons eating a certain kind of dirt; if you knew the chemical proper- ties of this certain kind of dirt you would more nearly under- stand why they eat it. A piece of plowed up sod placed upside down in a fly pen will often furnish the birds a feast in regards to dirt, grass roots and other substances which you might not know was there. : Certain kinds of old plaster and mortar will be eaten with relish by birds that are confined to fly pens. As a final suggestion, therefore, I would recommend that birds be given plenty of such articles which can be found in most any community and are inexpensive. If they do not eat one they will probably eat another, and anything they eat, even in very small amounts along this line, will prove very beneficial to their health, as nature seems to guide them in this respect. CHARCOAL While charcoal is probably not necessary to the life of a pigeon, it is a very healthy product and should be kept constantly before the birds. Charcoal can be secured in most any poultry supply house and comes in three sizes, fine, medium and coarse. The medium size is the best as the birds will not eat the charcoal dust and the coarse size is too large for them to swallow. Charcoal aids digestion, absorbs the impurities that birds might get in feed or water and contains other health giving properties. It should be kept in small jars in the middle of the nest room or in a grit hopper as described elsewhere under that heading. Charcoal is an extra good remedy for bowel trouble of different forms and is especially good to feed the old birds when young ones show a loosness of the bowels. 94 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE In order to get birds to eat an extra supply of charcoal mix salt with it or pour salt water over the charcoal. Sometimes it is necessary to take other forms of salt away from the birds for a day or two in order to make them eat the salt and charcoal mixture. This is only necessary, however, in extreme cases of bowel trouble. The same charcoal and salt mixture should be kept before the young birds during weaning time and for a few weeks after the old birds have stopped feeding them. ° In dry weather it is not a bad plan to throw a few handfuls of charcoal in the fly pens, as birds seem to enjoy picking it up, but this is a wasteful method in wet or bad weather. OYSTER SHELL Pigeons require a certain percentage of lime substances to keep them healthy. Their systems require the consumption of lime in certain seasons of the year and under certain conditions more than at other times. The female, however, requires more lime than the male as she needs it for the manufacture of egg shell. Lime for this purpose must be supplied in the form of shells or certain lime stone. Oyster shell is probably the best, most convenient and usually the cheapest lime containing sub- stance and the one that the birds seem to like the best. Clam shells will do, but are not as good. Small sea shells are extra fine. Do not confuse your oyster shell with grit, however. Birds need grit with which to grind their food, and lime-containing substances do not serve this purpose. Mediumly crushed oyster shell should be kept before the birds at all times. It can gener- ally be secured in three sizes, fine, medium and coarse, at poultry supply houses. The coarse is too large and cannot be swallowed by pigeons. The fine is so small that there is a lot of waste to it as pigeons will not eat the dust. Hence, the medium is the practicable size for pigeons. The best way to supply oyster shell is in a small receptacle placed in the middle of the nest room or in a grit hopper as is described elsewhere under that head. SALT People who are not familiar with the habits of pigeons are surprised to learn that they eat salt, and especially when they GRIT, CHARCOAL, SALT AND WATER 95 learn that they eat it in quantities. They require a certain amount of salt daily and it should be kept before them at all times. Do not give in loose form to birds that might be hungry for some, as in such cases they are liable to eat too much, which will make them sick or even kill them. A bird that is getting all the salt it wants, however, will not eat too much even if fed to it in loose form. Some people advo- cate the feeding of rock salt in large lumps. Personally I do not favor this plan. It is very hard for the birds to get the amount they desire unless the salt is wet and sometimes then they get it in too large quantities. If a rock of salt is placed out in the fly pen in rainy weather, sally water will run into the ground and birds in order to satisfy their appetites will eat the salty dirt which often is foul and very injurious to them. About the best'way to supply salt is to artificially rock table salt, which can be done by first moistening and then baking it in a slow oven just as it comes in the sack. By tying a string around the center of the sack, forcing the salt to each end, it will turn to rock easier. These sacks should be put in the nest rooms just as they are and the birds can get. what salt they need by picking right through the cloth. They will soon pick holes through the sack and can then easily get plenty of salt. The cloth will help to hold the lump together and keep it from getting fouled or wasted. If after dampening the bag of sali and drying it out in the oven it does not seem firm enough, dampen it again a littie and bake it some more. The hotter the oven the quicker the results to a degree that it does not burn the sack. Homemade sacks filled with barrel salt will answer the same purpose. SULPHATE OF IRON Pigeons require a certain amount of iron in their systems. In some communities there is plenty of iron in the wuier that they drink, while in others, on acccunt of there being little or no iron in the water, it is necessary to supp!yv same either in the form of Venetian red or by putting old nails or iron in their dringing water to rusl. It is rather difficult to know just what action to take in this matter without knowing the chnemica] analysis of the water 96. AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE supply where the birds are kept. To a large ¢xtent, therefore. you will have to do your owl experimenting and be your own judge as to this, remembering that a little iron is necessary and that the birds will] not eat invie than they really need, unless forced to do so through thirst or fcr the want of salt which some breeders mix with Venetian red, thus forcing their birds to eat more of one article than they want in order to get a sufficient amount of the other. DRINKING WATER FOR PIGEONS Plenty of fresh water is one of the essentials of successful pigeon raising. One pigeon will drink more water than two or three large hens. The water must be clean, viherwise it is apt to cause canker or other sickness, especially so if birds are confined to fly pens. Pigeons that fly out are not as susceptible to canker as those that are kept penned up. Even cleaa water that stands in the nest room all night where there are a lot of birds is not good for them to drink, as it will draw a lot of impurities out of the air and is more or less foul. I have visited a large number of squab plants where smaii drinking. fountains are used and invariably found sick hirds. Such fountains ought to be filled two or three times a day in order to supply a sufficient amount of fresh water, but better still a more suitable plan of furnishing water supplied. Many plauts are so arranged that the water has to be carried some distance and one door after another be opened and closed, going to and from the different units with pails of water. A few hours’ work on a water system will save several weeks time in a year. It will furnish fresh water constantly and be better in many ways. Even with a small number of birds a water system is a great advantage. Young squabs must have plenty of water if they are kept in good shape. In fact, water seems to have as much to do with their putting on lots of fat and growing rapidly as does feed. In addition to a drinking trough in the fly pen, a drinking trough should be run through the squab house, or along the back of same with openings cut through so that the birds can get to the trough. If running water or city water is accessible one faucet will supply a whole row of units with fresh drinking water, a barrel can be used with a dripping faucet to furnish GRIT, CHARCOAL, SALT AND WATER 97 a supply of running water constantly. In freezing weather water can be turned on twice or three times a day for a short length of time while all the birds drink, and if it should freeze it can be thawed out by pouring a little hot water in the trough. By making this drinking trough V-shaped the birds can drink with only a small amount of water in the bottom of the trough, while if the trough is made with a flat bottom, it will require much more water to make it deep enough for the birds to drink, which will make it freeze easier and also consume much more water. Open drinking pans or troughs that permit birds to get into or perch on the sides of are not practical for pigeons, as ‘they will foul the water and then drink it, which will make them sick. Drinking fountains that are made with a dent at the bottom are the most practical for pigeons in the absence of a drinking trough, but even if you have only two or three pair of birds it is but little trouble to make a small three-cornered V-shaped drinking trough to run along one side of the nest room, and either arrange faucets with city water or a keg with a faucet that can be filled up once or twice a week and the faucet turned on so it will drip slowly into the trough. This will supply fresh water constantly and save much more trouble and time than will be required to make the trough and arrange the keg. If the trough is placed inside of the nest room it should have a board cover with about two-inch space between the board‘and the trough which will permit the birds to drink and at the same time prevent them from fouling the water. , By supplying drinking water inside the loft, as well as in the fly pen, it will enable the youngsters on the floor to get plenty to drink before they are old enough to get in the fly pen, which is very essential. It will also enable a female to fly down off her nest any time during the day and get a fresh drink while if the water was out in the fly pen she would not want to leave her nest long enough to get a drink. Then, too, during feeding time the birds often are afraid to spare the time to fly out in the fly pen to get water after they have eaten, so fly to the nest and feed their young and then fly back to get something more to‘eat before it is all gone, while if the water is handy inside the loft they will invariably take a drink before feeding their squabs, which is the natural and proper way for them to do. — ' 98. AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Remember that plenty of good fresh water is one of the nec- essary things in pigeon raising, and a little time spent in ar- ranging a watering and bathing system will save hours of timie in the long run and assure better success. BATHING Pigeons of all kinds require a bath once or twice a week. In extremely cold weather they will not bathe except on bright and sunshine days. In spring and fall they should have a bath once a week and during the hottest weather twice or three times a week, depending on the condition of the weather. Pigeons like to bathe on dry, sunny days so they can dry their feathers easily. Some people say that pigeons bathe every day, but upon investigation they will find that the same bird will not bathe every day, but some birds will bathe one day and others another, and it might seem, therefore, that the majority of the birds in a pen would bathe every day, but such is not the case. To supply a daily bath is not necessary. Bathing water should not stand before the birds very long after they bathe in it for it will become too foul to drink, and as birds like to drink out in the fly pen or wherever they happen to be, they will drink the foul water which is apt to make them sick. Warm water is also not good for the birds to drink in hot weather, as it is likely to cause sour craw. Warm water in the winter time, however, is good for them. Bath water should be provided regularly once or twice a week according to the season of the year. Between 12 and 2 o'clock are good hours for bathing, provided the sun shines. It is never advisable to Supply pigeons with a bath late in the day as they will not have time to dry their feathers before night and are apt to catch cold if they go to roost with wet feathers. F Bathing Troughs I have found that the average squab raiser loses considerable time carrying water and arranging for baths for birds. The most common plan is to have a bath pan 12 to 16 inches across and four or five inches deep which they set inside of the fly pen and carry water by hand to fill. The pan is invariably not GRIT, CHARCOAL, SALT AND WATER 99 large enough for many birds to bathe at the same time. They will all try to get in at once and by their fluttering and anxiety to bathe waste a lot of the water and in a few minutes there is not enough left for a bird to bathe in. The water is usually dirty on account of being splashed over on the mud around the pan and birds walking in the mud get their feet muddy and then climb into the pan. Such an arrangement takes lots of work and only furnishes a poor bath. By a little work a bath trough can be made five inches deep, ten inches wide and several feet long. See article on “How ° to Build a Bath Trough.” The trough should be placed just outside of the fly pen with a gate to open up on bath days. The birds can get to the bath only when the gate is open and with a little work a drinking trough can be made in connection with the bath trough which will permit the birds to drink when the gate is down. If there is more than ong unit or fly pen a single trough can be extended along in front of several units and one faucet supplies the water for the entire group of pens. As a rule considerable time is wasted in opening gates and doors to get into the fly pens or nest houses to furnish water for drinking or bathing purposes, but with this arrangement the drinking and bathing trough is on the outside of the fly pen and is easily accessible for filling, emptying and cleaning. In the winter time, in a northern climate, an outside trough cannot be used regularly, but on especially warm and sunshine days, when the water is not freezing, the outside bath trough can be filled for an hour or so in the middle of the afternoon and then as soon as the birds have their bath the water can be let out. Birds that have eggs or very small young will not bathe except on extremely hot days. Therefore, a trough as above mentioned would be ample for all the birds that wanted to bathe at one time and will furnish each of them a fresh clean bath. If city or running water is not available a hose can be attached to a pump for the purpose of filling the bath troughs, or a barrel can be used on a slide either pulled by hand or by a horse. This, of course, depends upon the distance the water is to be carried. Even if you only have a very few pair of squab breeders it will pay to arrange a trough on the outside of the fly pen for bathing purposes. Of course, in such a case a trough 100 - AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE ... a couple or so feet long would be sufficient.. But if it is your intention to eventually increase your flock it would be saving time to make a large trough at the start. These troughs, should. be made out of galvanized iron, cement or. wood. -If made of wood, they must be coated inside with asphalt or tar to keep from leaking. If tar is used it should be put on hot, which will make it spread easier. If there are any large cracks or holes in the trough they should be plugged up and a couple of extra coats of tar applied to the holes or cracks and allowed to dry before the trough is given a final coating. CHAPTER VII CARE OF PENS, BANDING, NESTING MATERIAL CARE OF :‘SQUAB PLANT It is not necessary to keep a pigeon plant clean to an extreme, but each nest should be cleaned out when vacated by squabs or while the squabs are still occupying the nest if they appear to be exceptionally dirty. If the Eggleston double nest system is used it is an easy matter to clean the nest by removing the dirty nest bottom and replacing it with a fresh one. If the nest contains squabs, a small handful of clean nesting material should be put in first and the squabs put on top of it. It is not a good plan to clean the nests before squabs are two or three weeks old. If they are exceptionally dirty you should change your feed. Each nest room should have a thorough cleaning about once a,month, including the sweeping of the floor and sprinkling it with, air-slacked lime. . If you have a ground, cement or cold floor it is not a bad idea to cover the floor with a mixture of lime and sawdust, mostly sawdust, and just enough lime to make it clean and fresh. A good plan with a large ‘plant is to do your cleaning by degrees, that is, to clean so many lofts every day, so that the time will not be missed and you will get to each loft every month. Of course, if you have special help for that purpose to come on certain days it would not be practical to have them. come more than once or twice a week, which naturally depends upon the size of your plant and the capacity of.your help. , Some of the most practical squab breeders never have a gen- eral. cleaning day. They keep. house on the same plan as a good housekeeper by keeping everything in order, cleaning the dirtiest nests as they need them and sweeping out the plant most every day, and in this way they do not miss the time and the plant is always clean and orderly. 101 102 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE CARE OF FLY PENS The ground in the fly pen should be covered with coarse sand or gravel and then about once a week throw a couple of shovels of fresh sand or fine gravel in each fly pen. This will keep the pens clean and also furnish gravel for the birds to eat. Of course, in time the pens will fill up and will have to be cleaned out. A good cleaning once a year, however, is all that is nec- essary. The dirt mixed with sand and droppings that come from the bottom of a pigeon fly pen makes the best kind of soil for flowers or gardening. Care should be taken not to get the soil too rich. Pigeons will not scratch like chickens, hence will not dig up fresh gravel in the fly pen, so the gravel must be freshened up by throwing in a little fresh every few days. This will also keep the pen clean and sanitary. HOW TO BAND Small bands or rings are placed on the legs of pigeons as a mark of distinction or identification for several reasons, namely, to keep a record as to the age and parents of a bird; to be able to tell which birds are mated and to be able to tell what pen a bird is out of and to be able to readily distinguish male from female. The age of the bird is told by the date on what is called the year band. These are small narrow seamless bands and are made so small around that they cannot slip on or off an old bird’s foot. They can be put on young birds only in the nest about two to three weeks old. When they are older than three weeks their feet joints are so large seamless bands will not slip on. These bands, however, are large enough to allow plenty of room for the growth of a bird's leg. On these seamless bands are usually a number which can be recorded for various purposes, such as telling from what parents the bird came, as proof that particular bird won or did not win a prize at a pigeon show, etc. These seamless bands are only necessary for birds that are being raised for show purposes, otherwise inexpensive, open or removable bands will do. Some breeders band their birds with two bands, one to de- ermine the pen or loft that they came from and the other to CARE OF PENS, BANDING, NESTING MATERIAL 103 determine mated pairs, and the nest box they occupy. By using different color bands with numbers thereon one band on each bird is sufficient for both these purposes. There are several systems of numbering and color banding, but I think the following plan is easiest to keep track of and the most serviceable: For instance, if you have 30 pairs of birds in a nest room, select three color bands for that particular nest room. For example, white, pink and light blue, with numbers arranged from one to ten in each color. Band the males on the right leg and the females on the left, using the same number and. color for each pair. All numbers come in duplicates so as to supply the same number and color for the male as for the female. Make a record on or over the door of the nest room of the band colors and numbers to be used for that pen. That is, write “White 1-10,” “Pink 1-10,” “Light Blue, 1-10.” In the next nest room use “red,” “yellow,” and “green.” In the next, “orange,” “cherry,” “dark blue,” etc. There are two objects in using three colors for each pen. First, if you. desire to find male number 6 with. white band your number of birds in the pen that are likely to be the bird that you want are reduced to 9, as there are only 9 other cocks in the pen with white bands, while if 30 cocks in the pen had white bands it would be three times as difficult to find: the desired bird. Second, by using bands of different colors you can keep your numbers to a small denomination, which will also render you, service in picking out special birds, for the reason that single numbers, such as 1, 4, 6, etc., are much larger and more easy to see than double numbers, such as 13, 15, 16, etc., and as a rule you will find it is hard to tell the first or second figure where numbers in two figures are used. You can see one figure but will not know what the second figure is as it is partly on the other side of the bird’s leg, or you can see the second figure and cannot tell:-what the first figure is. An- other thing, if a number gets a little dirty it is difficult to distinguish 13 from 15, 16, 18 or 19, or to tell the difference between 23, 25, 26, 28 or 29. These numbers look more or less alike when part of them are covered up with dirt, but with a large single figure on a band the number can be readily told clear across the nest room or fly pen. 104 ‘ "AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE "The plan of. having three cvlors to each pen uses up the various colors very fast, which is about the only objection to this plan, but as the only advantage to be gained by having ‘different colors for different pens is to be able to tell what pen a bird came from in case it should get loose. I do not consider that offsets the advantage of the three colors to the pen system. ’- Besides, the pen a bird comes from can generally-be told when ‘a‘bird gets out as it will invariably be found close to the pen that it came from, and even with a large plant, birds banded with: white, pink or dark blue, for instance, would be quite a ways from other birds banded with one of these colors. ‘Then if there is any doubt a search could be made to see if the bird with that band number and color and of the same sex was in or missing from a pen. About the best way to band birds according to pairs is to wait until they start work. A female will be found on the nest early in the morning or late in the afternoon except when she is laying when she might be found on the nest any time. The male will be found on the nest during the middle of the day. ae ‘' When a bird is banded, mark the number of its band on ‘the hest box in a conspicuous place. With a letter signify the color of the band after the number, “w,” for white, “p” for pink, and “b” for blue, etc. Then, if it is o female, make a dash following i ‘the letter, and if a male that is banded, signify the same by a straight up and down mark after the number. When both birds have been banded, the dash and straight up and down mark will form a cross. By this method you can look in the nest room and see at a glance which birds are banded, which are not, and if a female is banded and you are there in the morning you will know that it is'a female by the dash following the number and letter and it will not be necessary to bother the bird or catch it to see which Teg it is banded on. The same is true if a male is on the nest, and’ your marking shows that male has been banded. ‘When one bird of a pair is banded take the other correspond- ing band and hang it on a wire in front of the nest room ready for use. Then you-can tell by looking at the bands on the wire just how many birds yet wnbanded. : With my nest room plan there is an aisle between the nést room and fly pen and a wire partition between the nest room CARE OF PENS, BANDING, NESTING MATERIAL 105 and aisle and by hanging the band on the wire on the same side that the nest is on it is easy to find the band for any unbanded bird. A good plan is to tack a small card on the outer edge of each nest on which to record band numbers of the old birds for that nest and the date and number of squabs that are taken out of each nest. An ordinary express tag makes a good aa for this purpose. A better plan is to record nothing on the card at the nest hox but the band number, color and the cross as explained above, then have a card or a little day book hung outside of the door of each nest room and record on same the band number and band color of each pair in that nest room. Immediately after the number make a monthly record of the number of squahbs. each pair produces. After a number of birds have been put into a nest room and. each pair is banded for that nest room, the male on the right leg and the female on the left, a card tacked at the side and the numbers and colors of each band are recorded on the edges of the nest, then all of the unmated birds in that nest. room should be removed and placed in with unmated birds for the purpose of securing mates, or if you are positive as to the sex of the birds removed it is a good plan to shut them up in pairs to mate as many males with as many females separately as needed to fill out the allotment for the nest room. . ; For instance, if 60 birds were put into a nest room to start with, 40 birds have mated up and are banded, the remaining 20 birds should be removed from, that nest room and either placed in a pen with other unmated birds out of which can.be selected pairs as fast as they mate up, banded and put back in the original nest room, or 10 females may be shut up with 10 males in 10 separate mating coops and as fast as they mate up be banded and put back in the original nest room. The latter. plan would be a little faster than to merely put them into a pen with other unmated birds as two pigeons will mate up quicker in a mating pen than any other. way. If a bird dies its mate should be located and taken out and. mated up with another bird, then banded with the same bands and put back in the same nest room. If a pair is taken out for ‘ 106 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE any reason their leg bands should be removed from their legs and saved to be put on another pair for that pen. NESTING MATERIAL Pigeons build their own nests out of small twigs, coarse hay, straw, etc. Tobacco stems cut up into short lengths is the best material. All that is necessary is to put the nesting material within reach of the birds, and they will carry it to their nests one straw at atime. You cannot help them any or hurry them along by putting the material in the nest for them as they prefer to build their own nests. The value of tobacco stems for nesting material cannot be overestimated as the straws are about the right size, round and pliable and are liked by the birds. Added to these qualities the tobacco stems will tend to keep away lice and to keep the birds healthy. Tobacco stems can be secured from cigar factories at a small cost, generally 50 to 75 cents a hundred. ‘The short, curly Havana stems are the best, but if these cannot be secured the large, coarse kind will do if cut up into lengths 8-or 10 inches long. A good way to cut.them up is with a corn knife, hand axe or hatchet, using a block of wood to chop them on. They can be cut up with a heavy pair of scissors, but this is a rather slow process. Alfalfa hay makes a splendid material for nests as it is short, round and pliable. Straw does not make very good nesting if it is used alone as it is so straight and flat that the birds cannot weave it into a nest of any shape, but birds like a little straw along with other material to make a soft lining out of. Pine needles are recommended by some as good nest material and are also claimed to keep lice away. Having never person- ally used pine needles, I cannot give any definite information regarding them. Birds like an assortment of material for nest making, there- fore, where it is convenient it is well to give them some of several materials, such as prairie and alfalfa hay, wheat or oat straw, and tobacco stems. This will not only please the birds, but will also save the to- bacco stems and yet give them enough to act as lice preventative. CHAPTER VIII ENEMIES OF THE SQUAB PLANT LICE, MITES AND OTHER VERMIN The same lice or mites that get on chickens will also bother pigeons. Then there is a pigeon louse and a feather louse, but if pigeons are kept in a clean place, that is whitewashed two or three times a year, and tobacco stems are used for nesting material they will not be bothered by lice or vermin of any kind. Whitewash and lime is not only a good preventative, but it will destroy the lice if the house and nest are sprayed with it. The feather louse as a rule is harmless and does not bother the birds except certain times of the year. Mites that get in the nest and on the eggs and young ones are probably the most destructive and birds are apt to be bothered with mites some time before detecting it for the reason that you cannot see them on the old birds like lice, but if you examine your squabs you can find the mites under their wings and, as a rule, on the side of the head. If mites are discovered on small squabs the best thing to do is to change the nests, sprinkle the squabs with Lambert’s Death to Lice or Persian Insect Powder. The former, however, is much more economical and just as effective. It can be obtained from almost any drug store. Dip your nest bottoms in crude oil and all vermin will stay out of the nests for a year or more. A good plan is to put a small amount of crude carbolic acid and a small amount of crude petroleum into the whitewash before using. By sprinkling dry lime on the floor of the nest room the birds will fly from place to place, scatter the lime all over the room, in fact, every little crevice will be filled with lime dust. Air slacked lime is the best to use, as it will not burn the pigeons’ feet if they get it on them and then get their feet wet in any way. Yet it is just as strong and powerful as the other kind, 107 108 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE A little sulphur in the bathing water when birds are lousy is not a bad plan, provided you can get your birds to bathe in it, but the easiest and surest way is to keep the house well white- washed and to use tobacco stems for nesting material. When they are not convenient, or obtainable, an ordinary moth ball dropped in the corner of each nest box acts as good lice pre- ventative. Pigeons bathe regularly and can keep themselves clean, which is one reason why: they are not bothered very much with lice. . Chicken lice do not seem to stay on pigeons very long at a time.. They are very annoying and destructive, however, during the period that they stay’ and will cause pigeons to leave.their nests and often make them slow up in their work, besides caus- ing the squabs to be small and poor. So it is well. to guard against. them even though they are not a permanent nuisance. - Should it be your misfortune to have your birds in or near an old chicken house, or one that is alive with lice or mites, and should these pests get a hold on your squab plant to such an extent that a mild treatment does not seem to do the work, you can clean the entire place of lice and mites by one gigantic effort if you proceed as follows: First take out and burn all the unused nest material, feathers and dirt from your squab house and the surrounding yard, then start in with your nest room. Dip each bird with a warm solu- tion of sheep dip; which is a coal tar product and can be pur- ehased at almost any drug store. To dip the birds use a good size bucket with sufficient enough liquid to enable you to immerse the bird completely under except its head. Care should be taken not to get any in its eyes. As a preventative it is not a bad plan to grease the bird around the eyes with a little vaseline or tal- low. The dip should be diluted with warm water to about one- half the strength required by the directions. : When dipping a bird churn it up and down a time or two in the liquid so that it will get completely wet clear to the skin, otherwise. the feathers, being oily, the dip will-not take hold. After the birds are dipped put them out in the fly pen to dry, providing it is a warm day. They should not be dipped except on warm days so that they will dry quickly. If the bottom of the fly pen is inclined to be dirty it is hest to lay down a few boards for the birds to sit on while drying. ENEMIES OF THE SQUAB PLANT 409 They will ‘climb on the boards without help. Treat cach old bird in this manner and put them all out in the fiy pen, then have a bucket of whitewash ready end whitewash the inside of the nest room while the birds are drying. Nesis with any young or eggs can be ‘taken out during this operation. In order to keep from getting eggs or squabs mixed, and so that you may know the exact nest they belong in, it is well to provide some boxes to put them in, numbering the’ boxes to correspond with the nest numbers the squabs came from. Young squabs that cannot walk will naturally be more easily cared for than those that are old: enough to walk and will not stay where you put them. - ‘I would advise that the old nest material be destroyed and be replaced with nests made of fresh material, first covering the bottom of the nests with air-slacked lime. A good plan is to dip éach nest bottom, providing your nests are of the removable type, as they should be. : After you have whitewashed the nest room, paint a strip six or’ eight inches wide clear around the nest room next to the floor with crude petroleum or coal tar thinned with gasoline. You can use an ordinary paint brush for this. Then’ ‘shut the doors and windows tight and spray each nest with naptha or formaldehyde, the latter being the best and can be obtained from almost any fair size drtig store. You should tie a sponge or wet cloth over your mouth’ and nose before spraying, as the formaldehyde is apt to make you sick if you breathe too much of it. The spraying can be done with an ordinary insect sprayer or alrnost any kind of an ato- mizer, the larger the better. : Leave the’ house closed up for twenty or thirty minutes, then open up and let it air out before the birds are permitted to go back, otherwise the fumes of the formaldehyde will make them deathly sick and will even'cause them to throw up their feed. As soon as one nest room is completed proceed to another until the entire plant has been covered.‘ As previously stated, this is quite a severe method, but it will do the work and thoroughly rid you of lice and mites if'you cannot get rid of them any other way.” If, this operation is performed’ on a warm day it’ will not be necessary to keep the €ges or squabs warm except to throw a Tent cloth: ‘over thiem 110 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE and keep them out of the air. Be sure and allow birds you dip enough time to dry off thoroughly before night. The sheep dip will not dry as quickly as water and will give them a greasy, dirty appearance for some time afterwards, but they will get rid of it, however, by bathing in due course of time. If you have a large plant naturally it will require several days to get through as you cannot work early in the morning or late in the afternoon. But once you go through the plant as directed you can feel certain that you have no more lice or mites to contend with. CATS, RATS AND MICE Cats will eat squabs but can be kept out of the plant with little trouble. The birds should be wired in, and anything that will keep a pigeon in, will keep a cat out. The presence of cats around the plant is an advantage as an enemy to rats and mice, provided cats are kept out of the nest rooms and fly pens. Cats that have been raised from kittens in a squab plant are not liable to bother the squabs or breeders, especially so if they are fed regularly. Rats are very destructive and their elimination is a problem that all squab breeders have to solve. If a squab house has a floor high enough off the ground fo permit cats or dogs to get under, this will prevent rats from accumulating under the floors. If no floor is used, a layer of cinders several inches or a foot thick can be put down in the bottom of a squab house and then dirt or clay packed on top. Rats cannot bore in cinders successfully, the sharp edges of the cinders are too much for them. About the best plan is to dig a trench a few inches wide and 18 inches deep around the outer edge of the squab house. Then nail a one-inch mesh wire to the lower edge of the squab house, allowing the wire to extend down into the trench. Fill the trench up with dirt and you have Mr. Rat barred from your place, provided there are no holes above the ground that a rat can enter through. This plan can be used with or without a floor, and with such a' plan it is not necessary to build a squab house up off the ground, which will permit you to bank up dirt around your plant in the winter time to keep out the cold. Cold floors are very bad for pigeons. ENEMIES OF THE SQUAB PLANT 111 Wire or other traps can be used successfully for catching rats or even poison can be resorted io if there are no cats and dogs to eat it or the poisoned rats. While mice do not eat squabs or bother the eggs, they are very annoying around a squab plant, are great consumers of feed, and bother the pigeons more or less by getting into their nests. The feed supply should be kept in a mouse-proof bin or re- ceptacle; old boxes, buckets, barrels or other articles should be kept off the floor in a manner that will not permit mice hiding under or behind them. One of the best mouse traps I know of is a small box, partly filled with cotton, feathers, shavings, or paper,.and placed.on the floor of the squab room with a small hole in the bottom corner, big enough to allow mice to pass in and out. If there are any mice around, they will soon adopt the box for their home; the box can be carried out every few days and opened over a half tub of water; the mice will jump out into the tub and drown. Then the box can. be put back into the nesting room for another catch. The longer such boxes and their contents are used, the more readily will the mice occupy them. : Every time a rat or mouse hole is found in your squab house, you should nail a piece of tin or a thick block over it, which will prevent them from getting a start in your plant. THIEVES AND BAD BOYS The element of danger from thieves or bad boys bothering pigeons can in many ways be guarded against. A high fence along the exposed sides of the plant, an electric lighting system that can be turned on from the residence and expose the pres- ence of any one in the plant at night, or the presence of a good watch dog, are good precautions. The possibility of being hothered by boys or thieves is not great, for the reason that there is no ready local market or immediate demand for grown pigeons and they cannot therefore dispose of then prumptiy like chickens. The percentage of saleable squabs in the nests is so small that the danger of their being stolen is reinote. SPARROWS, HAWKS AND OWLS Sparrows have become so numerous throughout the country that is necessary to guard against them, otherwise they will 112 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE consume an enormous amount of feed. They are so bold, cun- ning and daring that they will find and enter a remote opening, tly right into a nest room and almost take possession of same. Inch mesh wire is the best protection against sparrows. In this way they can be kept out of the fly pens and therefore out of the squab house. ‘Hawks and owls do not bother pigeons if they are kept in fly pens, for the reason that they cannot get through the wire, but hawks often prey upon pigeons if they fly out. They are more apt to catch the young birds that are just learning to fly, but often dart down and pick up an old one. Owls will only bother pigeons in the country and not then unless the birds occupy a barn loft or some placé where the owls can conceal themselves in the day time and prey upon the birds at night. As a whole, however, there is little to fear from hawks and owls, as it is harder to catch old birds and young ones are not usually in a place where they can get them. If sparrows bother to any great extent they can be disposed’ of double quick by soaking wheat or other small grain in alcoho!’ for a couple of hours or over night, then scatter the wheat out where the sparrows can eat it. When they do, it will make them drunk and they can be picked up by the basket full if theré are that many. The wheat should be placed somewhere so that the pigeons or chickens, if you have any, cannot get to it as it will affect them the same way and if they get too much it will kill them. It takes ten or fifteen minutes for a sparrow to topple over after eating the soaked grain, but it will not get far away as it takes effect in a short time. CHAPTER IX MOULTING AND COLOR BREEDING MOULTING Like all other feathered animals, pigeons moult (shed their feathers, once a year. They commence to mouit in the summer and finish getting their new feathers before cold weather, and thus nature has provided a way for them to keep covul in het weather and. warm in cold weather, and at. the same time be annually supplied with a new suit. .During the moulting process a bird will shed every feather, but only a few at a time, so at all times they are partly covered with feathers and have enough so they can fly. At the height of the moulting period, however, it is sometimes difficult for some birds to fly, especially if they have not moulted out evenly, which is sometimes the case, caused by poor condition or insuf- ficient feed of the proper feather producing value. Birds require food during the moulting period with a lot of. oil in it. Sunflower seed, millet, hemp or peanuts are all good feather producing feed, sunflower seed being the best for, the purpose, millet next. : air. 2 Mr. Mushet says: “Probably there is no period in the life, of the pigeon that requires more attention than during the time, of moulting, not only on account of the breaking down of the muscular tissues, owing to natural conditions, but also the drain on their vitality incidental to the production of a complete cover- ing of new feathers. Too great care cannot be given birds during this trying ordeal. At this time the birds are more than ever subject to ailments. and while they may have gotten bravely over their moultings, many troubles which are apparent later may be traced directly to adverse conditions, which, under ordinary circumstances, would be of little importance.” To sum up the matter briefly, I would suggest that all lofts be thoroughly cleaned before moulting and. disinfected with 118 114 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE sheep dip or some other germicide, pigeons be kept free from draughts and made as comfortable as conditions will allow. Bathing should be provided for at least twice a week, care being taken that bath is emptied to prevent the pigeons drinking foul water. Breeding during the moulting period should be discouraged as much as possible, and no squabs should be raised for breed- ers until the moulting season is entirely over, as the energies of the parent birds are centered on recuperating their natural activily and not on feeding their offspring. Observation exer- cised with good common sense on the part of the individual breeder will accomplish a great deal at this critical period, as the different breeds of pigeons have characteristics peculiar to themselves and what might be applied to one loft might not be to another. EXPLANATION OF FEATHER COLORING It is generally believed by men who have made a study of the origin of the different kinds or species of pigeons that they all originally came from:the ancient Rock Pigeon which was of.a bluish gray in color with two black bars or stripes across the lower end of each wing, very much ‘the same in color as the blue-barred Homer of today. The most positive proof of this theory is that the off-colored birds of any breed will show a tendency in color to “Blue Bars.” The same is true when the different ‘breeds are crossed for sooner or later the offspring drifts toward the color design of the Old Rock pigeon. In fact, in all colors and varieties of pigeons there is a characteristic marking of the feathers, such as bars on the wings and dark tips on ‘the end of their tail feathers and the various color schemes built up from a bluish gray. That strongly supports the idea ‘that all pigeons came from a common variety. This is also borne out by the habits and characteristics of all pigeons which are in a general way the same with all varieties. (See article on “Characteristics of Different Varieties.”) Taking the ‘Blue Bars as a feather color basis we can: easily trace this bluish gray through the color scheme of all pigeons. The same fundamental principles govern the coloring in pig- eon feathers that govern the color of all other animals or fowls. MOULTING AND COLOR BREEDING 115 That is to say, all colors are made from the three primary colors. Red, blue and yellow, with the negative white and the positive black, which gives various combinations of five so-called colors. The bluish gray pigeon color is more of a lead color than a blue and lead color is made by a mixture of black and white. A number of blue barred or gray pigeons with black bars put to themselves will sooner or later produce some all white and all black birds. The white birds are those that are void of pigment, hence negative in color or white. The black birds are the opposite with an oversupply of pigment which gives their feather coloring an extreme opaque appearance, hence look black, generally a muddy, bluish-black. By careful examination of the gray of the supposed original pigeon color it will be found to contain slight variations. Some birds will show slight reddish or purple cast, others have a tendency towards yellow or green. The various slight differences in shades are not noticeable unless one makes a special study of color and understands the prin- ciples of color and color combinations. You no doubt under- stand that blue and red make purple, red and yellow make orange and blue and yellow make green. Now the reason we have no green or purple pigeons is because the bluish color of pigeons is a combination of black and white and is, in fact, lead color or gray and not really blue, hence without blue there is no green as it takes blue and yellow to make green and without blue there is no purple as it takes blue and red to make purple. With lead color or gray substituted for blue we can get a slight purple or green cast, but no green or purple. Now, going back to explain the possibilities of the various colors of pigeons other than the supposed original color, the feather coloring of all pigeons shows the presence of more or less red and yellow, by selecting those that show the most red and breeding from them and again selecting the reddest of their offspring, pigeons of different shades of reddish feathers have been produced, but as yet it has not been possible to produce bright red or bright yellow birds and probably never will on account of the predom- inating colors of a pigeon being gray (if you will permit me to call gray a color) and as a combination of black and white makes a lead color and the presence of this lead color which cannot be entirely eliminated, gives the red or yellow a muddy look and prevents bright red or bright yellow. The various 116 “AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE color combinations of pigeons, therefore, are, first, lead color (a' combination of black and white with a little red or yellow east); second, black with generally enough red or yellow to make a muddy black. Third, white; fourth, same colors with red predominating; fifth, the same colors with yellow predomi- nating and sixth, a combination of one or more of these color schemes . The presence of black, which generally shows first in the form of two black bars on the wings, and the presence of white, which generally shows first in the larger wing feath- ers, making the wings “white tipped,” are the most common feather ‘markings and those that are the most difficult to éliminate, Such colors as silver and dun are chance or negative colurs, the same as is yellow that appears as the result of certain color tendency that shows up with the combining of red and yellow with Jead color with more or less black or white, but there are no green or purple shades because both green and purple re- quires blue and fhere is no blue in the feather coloring of pigeons. ‘The bluish color that we see being the result of a mixture of black and white. “HOW TO BREED YELLOW, DUN OR SILVER COLORED PIGEONS -Since .writing the first edition of this book the author has caréfully studied the question of how to breed yellow, dun or silver colored pigeons that will reproduce these colors and has made conclusive experiments until he has found a positive rule in securing birds in yellow, dun or silvered colors with- assured results: ‘ To start with let me explain that yellow in pigeons is the negative color. to red, dun is the negative color to black and silver the. negative to blue. To make this more plain, I will designate red, black and blue as positive colors and yellow, dun:and silver as negative colors. »|Now and then will be found a pair of red pigeons that will produce: occasionally, a yellow offspring which is always a female. Now and then will be found a pair of pure black pigeons which will produce occasionally, a dun offspring which is always a female and now and then will be found a-pair of MOULTING AND COLOR BREEDING 117 all blue pigeons that, occasionally will produce a silver offspring which is always a female. It has been a great question in the minds of many who notice these irregularities in colors as to how to produce a male in the negative color, viz.: yellow, dun or silver inasmuch as these negative colored birds that spring from the positive colors are always females. If you will follow me closely, I will explain how to breed negative colored males. First locate the parents, whethér they be red, black or blue that produce the yellow, dun or silver colored females. Separate these parents and remate the male of that mating with a negative colored bird of its respective color, viz.: if it is a red cock remate it with a yellow female; a black cock with a dun female or a blue cock with a silver female. It will be all right to mate the positive colored cock with its negative colored female offspring, but just as well to mate the cock with the negative colored female of no relation. ‘Before I go further and to make it more simple, we will leave off the black and dun and blue and silver combinations and make the illustration wholly from the red and yellow combi- nation, the black and dun, and blue and silver, being identical with the red and yellow. What applies to one will apply to the other. Explaining a little more, regarding the positive red cock that occasionally produces a yellow female, such cocks are not pure red positive colors, although they cannot be distinguished in color from pure positive red cocks. There is something there that one cannot see. They are impure bred and when mated With a negative or yellow female the offspring of that mating will be on an average one-fourth impure red cocks, one-fourth yellow cocks, and one-fourth pure red hens and one- -fourth yellow hens. The offspring of the impure red male youngster will produce the same as the offspring as its impure red male father regard- less of whether it is mated to a red hen or a yellow hen and the male offspring will be red if it is mated to a red hen and yellow if it is mated to a yellow hen. (‘The next generation or A reproduction will continue as above, therefore one can secure yellow males out of every four on an average, which will pro- duce yellow youngsters of both sex if mated to yellow females by mating an impure red cock to a yellow hen and a red male 118 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE of that mating will reproduce one-fourth. yellow cocks the same as their fathers if mated to yellow females and the yellow cocks will reproduce both males and females if mated to yellow males. On the other hand, the red females whether from impure red cocks mated to red females or from yellow cocks mated to red females will always be color pure, hence the color of any red female's offspring will not be influenced by their yellow or red parentage. What is true of red and yellow matings as explained above, is also true of the black and dun matings and blue and silver matings. This applies to all breeds of pigeons and all colors and all combinations of colors, also to birds of any of these colors mixed with white in large or small proportions. Pure red males, if mated to pure red hens will produce pure red males and females which in turn will produce pure red off- springs of both sex. Pure red males mated to yellow females will produce one-half pure red males, one-fourth pure red fe- males and one-fourth yellow females, therefore it is possible to produce yellow malcs from pure red males and it is impossible to produce dun males from pure black males or silver males from pure blue males. By studying the following diagrams, one will be able to more closely comprehend the intricate explanations made above and more readily grasp the results of certain matings. The following table shows how to produce impure red males that will, when mated with yellow females, reproduce yellow mates an average of one out of every four. Pigeons will not produce with a limited number of hatchings exactly according to this table, but in time they will average exactly as the table shows: Pure Red Male Impure Red Mé:e Impure Red Meie , and Produce Red Female Yellow Female Red Female Yellow Male Impure Red Male Impure Red Male . and Produce Yellow Female Red Female Yellow Female MOULTING AND COLOR BREEDING 119 Impure Red Male Impure Red Male Yellow Male and ERAGE |. Hed Female Yellow Female | Yellow Female Impure Red Male { Impure Red Male Impure Red Male and Produce Red Female Red Female ( Yellow Female Yellow Male Yellow Male Yellow Male and eens Yellow Female Yellow Female Yellow Female It will be noted that it takes an impure male mated with a yellow female to produce yellow males and that an impure male can be produced from the mating of pure rcd males to yellow females or by mating yellow males to red females, but when once a yellow male is produced and mated to a yellow female, the offspring will all be yellow. The offspring as shown in the tables will not always prove in the same ratio of one to four, but they will average that proportion. What is true of Red and Yellow combinations is also true with Black and Dun and Blue and Silver combinations. INBREEDING The chance of inbreeding and the danger of harm from it is not as great as most people think. To repeatedly mate brother with sister, mother with son or father with daughter would bring bad results, but an occasional mating of this kind, as might occur by chance, will make little or no difference and show no ill effect. The percentage of chance of close inbreeding is so small that it does not pay to guard against it. As an example, with as few as six pairs to start a flock with, there would be but one chance in five for a brother to mate with sister out of the first lot of youngsters and considerably less than that as the flock increased. . The chance for a parent bird to mate with its daughter or son, would be less, as the size of the flock would be much larger by the time an old bird would probably die and make it necessary for an old bird to get a new mate. 120 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE The fact that a female will mate up about two weeks younger on an average, than a male, reduces the chance for brother to mate with sister. This is caused by the habits of birds more than by the age that male and female mate. A male will gen- erally get a home or a nesting place before he gets a mate. In fact, this is generally the way he gets a mate (see article on mating), while a female will mate up with some older male that has a home to take her to about the time her nest brother is thinking of getting a home. ‘ CHAPTER X PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES GENERAL REMARKS “On this subject no one seems to be very capable of advising ‘except as to chief remedies and that birds should be handled in such a way as to keep them healthy, thus preventing disease and making medicine unnecessary. ' There are various common, diseases that pigeons are more or ‘less afflicted with and some of these are harmless, while others prove fatal. Later on I will describe some simple remedies that I have found to be fairly effective, but cannot vouch for them except in a small way. . Pigeons, are just like people and pigeon doctors are just like ali other doctors. One will have one theory and a remedy for a certain disease, and another something entirely different.,, If 4 person gets a headache or stomach trouble, one doctor will prescribe certain medicines. Another doctor will tell you that you need electrical treatments, another that a change of climate is necessary or a visit to certain springs, or forms, of violent exercise or dieting will bring about certain results, while another doctor might. want to massage it out of you and still another pronounce you incurable. All of these various characteristics are found in pigeon doctors, so you can see what a person would be up against trying to follow the various remedies offered by people with different experiences and ideas. To this I might add that no one seems to understand the delicate make-up. of, a pigeon and its anatomy as some of our leading physicians ‘do the human anatomy, Then, too, it is hard to proportion remedies for such a small being asa pigeon and hard to detect the results. ‘You. cannot feel a pigeon’s pulse or take its temperature suc- cessfully or ask it to describe its ailments. So, as a whole, 121 122 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE doctoring pigeons is not a successful undertaking and the best we can do with any degree of success is to, first, keep pigeons well by giving them proper food and water and other supplies and, second, if they do get sick, take a chance on some simple remedy that cannot harm them even though it might not do them much good. The following are a few symptoms and simple remedies: ROUP AND COLDS During rain and cold weather and certain seasons of the year, and cspecially in the sections of the country where there is more or less dampness, there is danger of pigeons contracting colds and roup. The best remedy for any disease is a preventative and this is especially true with colds and roup. The same thing that will cause birds to catch cold will cause them to catch more cold if the cause is not removed. All the medicine in the world will not cure a bird in the presence of drafts, damp lofts or other unfavorable conditions. As with people, plenty of fresh air is necessary, but the admittance of air and the nest box arrange- ment must be so that birds will not be exposed to drafts and can keep warm and dry. One of the first things to do for pigeons with a bad cold is to give them a slight physic. A tablespoonful of Epsom salt to a gallon of water given the birds the first thing in the morning is about the best way to give physic. All other water must be kept from them, otherwise they will not drink the water con- taining the salts. Next see that there are no drafts in the loft, especially near the floor. If the floor is cold you will find the air circulation is wrong or that the wind blows under the house. Cold floors are very bad for pigeons. For this reason I do not favor building the house up off the ground. A thorough clean- ing out of a nest room, using plenty of dry lime and dry nesting material, a change in the air regulation, plenty of fresh water for the birds to drink, and a change in their feed will break up colds or roup nine times out of ten. For severe cases give the hird a pinch of dry sulphur twice a day and place them in a warm, airy place, away from the other birds. There are other remedies that no doubt have lots of merit, but doctoring pigeons PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 123 is hard and uncertain as to results. Therefore, preventatives are better than cures. The time to start remedies is at the first sign of a cold which can be detected by wheezing or hard breathing. It is then time to change the air circulation, look out for drafts, wet, damp rooms or cold floors and remedy same. “GOING LIGHT” When birds are getting thin, they invariably are not receiving a sufficient amount of good food, and birds that are especially weak and thin can be best doctored by putting them in a place by themselves, where they can get an extra amount of choice grain, charcoal, grit, oyster shell, and plenty of fresh water. A dose of Epsom salts, used at the ratio of about one table- spoonful to a gallon of water is a good remedy in case birds are in a rundown condition. Epsom salts is also a good bowel remedy if given not oftener than once a week. A small dose will generally give the bird that will not eat an appetite, giving them water with salts in, as described above. In order-to get birds to drink such water, however, it is.generally necessary to take all the water away from them in the afternoon and then give them water with salts in the next morning. Birds often become sick or “under the weather” during the moulting season. Hemp or sunflower seeds are good feather producers, and a little fed along with the morning feed is a good idea. I for one do not believe that there is such a disease as going light. That some pigeons may get poor, run down and become weak is not denied, for that is a fact, but that there is a certain ailment known as “going light” is questionable. Pigeons are very healthy, and the percentage of deaths from disease is extremely small as compared with chickens. If a person takes a bad cold, which runs into bronchial trouble, asthma, or tuberculosis; or, for instance, has poor digestive organs, we generally know the cause of the poor health and call it by its proper name; whereas, if a pigeon suffers from any of these troubles we say it is “going ligh.t” Bad or impure feed, dirty and impure water, damp lofts and unsanitary conditions, will all be instrumental for a bird losing its appetite, and as a result “go light.” If a bird gets a sour 124 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE crop, a case of constipation, running off of the bowels, an in- active liver, a clogged gizzard, or even a severe cold, it will eat but little, if anything, and naturally “go light.” Hence a certain remedy to cure “going light” would not suffice. That which would be good for a cold or a soup crop might not be beneficial for some of the other ailments mentioned. Before one can intelligently doctor a bird, he must first diag- nose its troubles or at least form a conclusion as to the cause. The old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure especially applies in the pigeon business. The proper care and attention and a simple remedy given at the first sign of sickness will keep pigeons in the best of condition, Birds that get sick should be put in a pen by themselves, where they will not be bothered by the aggressive cocks in the loft. Such a place should afford plenty of light and fresh air (no draught), be warm in winter and cool in summer. They should be provided daily with fresh water, grit, salt, charcoal, oyster shell, and have plenty of appetizing food. A good plan is to apply the same general principle of treat ment to a pigeon as one would to a person, using one’s best judgment as to how much treatment is practical and profitable, and basing opinion upon knowledge of what can be accom- plished. The most common cause for “going light” is lack of nourish- ment. The pigeons actually are starving for want of nourish- ing grain like Canada peas and pigeon peanuts. “Going light” is also seen in females driven too hard by the males. Such females should be removed from the breeding pen and_ rested. There is no germ cause for “going light.” SORE EYES The principal cause of sore eyes among pigeons is colds, due to dampness or overhead drafts. The symptoms of sore eyes caused from colds are: First, swollen eyelids, followed by a slight discharge and gummed up eyelids to the extent of total closing of the eye. To cure sore eyes caused by colds, cure the cold by removing the cause, then nature will take its course, provided the birds are accorded the proper treatment, such as plenty of fresh air, good wholesome feed and pure water. The PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 125 first thing in sore eyes, colds, or most any other ailment for that matter, is to see that bird’s bowels are active, yet not loose. This can be regulated by the feed given, add a little more wheat to your feed mixture if birds seem to be bound up, and if the’ bowels are too loose reduce the portion of wheat. Charcoal is also a good bowel regulator, especially if the bowels are too loose. If the eye is glued shut, soak the lids loose by applying warm water, with the aid of a clean soft cloth or cotton. If this is not convenient, hold the bird’s head with the closed eye up and spit in it, allowing the sputum to flood the eye for’a minute, when it will come open. This sounds like an unclean remedy, but it is a good one nevertheless. In fact, sputum is good for most any’ kind of sore eyes. Canker will cause sore eyes, but if the canker appears on the side of the head near the eye you can always tell a canker sore eye by the presence of a hard lump on or near the eye. These lumps are apt to be of most any size from a grain of‘ wheat up to a lump almost as large as the bird's head. This form of canker is not serious and can be removed ‘by cutting a large enough slit in the skin with a sharp knifé to permit the cank- ered’ lump to be squeezed out. The wound will bleed a little when cut, but not to hurt anything, and will stop bleeding ‘as soon as the cankered lump is removed. There will be no blood’ at all from the inside of the cankered lump or the pocket it is in: The wound will heal up immediately and the bird will get ‘welll When several birds are confined to close quarters or in ship’ ping crates, they sometimes pick each other in the eye, which will make it sore. There is nothing necessary in such cases, as the-eye will heal in a few days, although it may look very’ bad at the time. If a bird should in any way lose an eye they will work and produce as many good squabs as they would with two good eyes. They, of course, will not look:as well with one eye, but are just as useful. A good rule is to save a one- eyed formals and kill the one-eyed males. , ‘ There are some good eye remedies on the market, but the percentage of sore eyes is small with a good flock of healthy. birds and the cure of all such diseases is so uncertain with. pigeons that it is hardly worth while to doctor them, : GREEDY in eetreontinen cases with birds of special value. i 126 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE LUMPS ON WINGS Lumps on pigeon wings are generally due to a sprained or dislocated joint, as a rule caused by rough handling and catching of birds or by catching them by one wing and allowing them to twist or turn around and thereby dislocate a wing joint. Nature tries to heal the place and as a protection grows a grisel-like substance over the affected part; the bird cannot use the joint, which affects or entirely prevents flying: Very little can be done for a broken, sprained or dislocated wing. The next usual cause for lumps on wings is canker. This is a different form of canker than appears in birds’ mouths and throats. Lump canker it is called, and while it often appears on the wing, it is just as apt to form on any other part of the body. This can be easily cured by splitting the skin and flesh over the bump and take the lump out as is explained in cutting canker lumps from eyes. By examining lumps that appear on the wings one can read- ily tell a canker lump from one caused by an injury. The canker Jump will stand out farther from the body and you can easily detect the canker substance inside before it is opened. Then there is what is known as.a diseased joint, which seems to be more or less hereditary, sometimes caused by close in- breeding. These diseased joints are thought by some to be tubercular in form. Perhaps so, it seldom hurts birds and they will live for years, and keep up constant work in that condition. If a bird, however, is disabled to the extent that it can not fly the best plan is to get rid of it as it does not add to the looks of the pen and will be compelled to nest on the floor which is bad. SORE FEET If pigeons are allowed to stay in a dirty loft or walk on muddy ground, they are apt to suffer with sore feet, which is caused by the dirt sticking to the bottom of their feet and caus- ing the skin to crack and bleed. The remedy for this trouble is to soak the dirt off with warm water, then grease the feet with tallow mixed with turpentine or lard and turpentine. Tal- low is better than lard. The tallow must be warmed before it will mix with turpentine. If sore feet are not taken care of the trouble will become PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 127 chronic. Rough calloused growths will appear on the bottom of the feet and feathers will start growing on these sore places until the bird will get so it can hardly walk. Turpentine and lard or tallow is about the only remedy and a dry, clean place for the bird to stay until its feet are well. MUD BALLS Muddy pens or lofts will cause birds to get mud balls on their toe nails, and if not taken off will keep getting bigger and bigger, like a snow ball, and cause the bird to lose its toe nails, and sometimes go lame. The way to get the mud balls off with- cut pulling the toe nail off is to cut them off with a knife. You will find the ball the thinnest on top, and by cutting or split- ting the mud ball along the top of the nail, holding the toe as you would sharpen a pencil, you will find it no trouble to get the ball loose from the toe without damaging the nail or making the toe bleed. Squabs in the nest will sometimes have mud balls form on their toes due to dirty nests, which generally comes from bowel trouble. In such a case the nest should be cleaned out, fresh nesting material put in the nests, the mud balls removed from. the birds’ toes as above explained, and then change the feed or conditions that caused the birds’ bowels to get out of order. Squabs will not fatten under such conditions. SIMPLE ‘REMEDIES Some simple remedies suggested by Mr. Roy Y. Whitney in American Pigeon Journal as follows: Colds Rub yellow murcuric oxide ointment into a bird's eyes that are watery and sore, once a day for three or four days and you will be pleased with the result. If your birds all seem to be catching colds, are coughing or sneezing, the following remedy will bring results: Fix your house so you can close it up tight. When the birds have all gone to roost, set a burner in the house with a pan over it con- taining about 1%4 pints of water and a big tablespoonful of Cresoline. Light the burner and close up the house. Allow 128 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE the vapor from the boiling Cresoline to rise for a couple of hours every evening for a week. This will eradicate a contagious cold. Give the birds a good laxative of Epsom salts in their drinking water while so doing. Canker Hard canker can be cauterized with chemically pure blue vitrol or bluestone. Wet a little paddle in some water so the ‘bluestone will cling to it. Hold the paddle against the canker for a minute or so. Remove the blackened canker carefully before applying the second time. Treat about twice in one day. Be careful not to let any bluestone run down the bird’s throat. A caustic pencil wil cauterize small spots of canker. Get the ‘bluestone at a drug store. The above remedies will do for an occasional case of canker, hut when it runs through a whole flock, you had better look to your feed and water. Plenty of liver salts put in the drinking water every day for a month together with a feed suitable to the climatic conditions will stamp it ‘out of a flock. Slightly underfeed your birds and cut down on yellow corn, hemp, or any other grain that is very heating. In other words, allow the bird a chance to cool off his blood. You will hardly ever find canker among underfed birds. Cheesy Canker Dip a piece of cotton into some Ichthyol and swab out the bird’s throat once or twice a day. Do not allow any to run down the bird’s throat. The cheesy canker or diphtheria roop will disappear. Loose Bowels Cut down on the amount of soft wheat you are feeding and substitute rice. Ifa bird is very sick, give it nothing but boiled milk to drink with its feed. If the droppings show that the bird has a cold in the bowels, make it swallow two No. 5 capsules full of quinine every day for three or four days, after which give it a physic of Epsom salts. Sour Crop Purge the bird’s crop with salty water. Give him a charcoal tablet, and let him go hungry for a day. . Do not let him overéat PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 129 for a day or so. If you feed clean grain and keep plenty of charcoal and salt before the birds, they won't be troubled with sour crop. : Egg Troubles Plenty of lime made into a paste and stirred into the grit will keep away the thin-shelled eggs. A small quantity of lime in the drinking water occasionally will also be of benefit. Do not pick a squab out of a hard shelled egg. Cover the egg well with saliva and lay it back in the nest. Your squab will hatch out without any further help. Vermin When you do your whitewashing, use about one pint of -Cresoline to every 10 gallons of whitewash. It will keep the bugs out of the boards and cracks. If you cannot get this, you can use salt. Mix the lime with a good strong solution of salt brine. Salt brine will kill almost any kind of an insect and so will salty whitewash. Spray the ground well with the whitewash; turn it over with a spade and spray it again. Your birds will not have to walk around on foul earth, which looks clean. Remember they are built to walk pretty close to the ground. Tonic Ten drops tincture of Gentian to each gallon of water is a good tonic. Give it once a week. Ten cents worth of permanga- nate of potash in one-half gallon of water makes a good strong tonic. Color the drinking water to the same strength as you would were you using Germazone, a little Venetian Red mixed into the feed once a week is a good cleanser. Feather Rot Feather rot in the wings or tail feathers can be cured by using vinegar on them. Apply it with a medium stiff brush. Do not try to make use of all these remedies at one time as there is such a thing as overdoing the doctoring stunt. Give the birds a good clean house, clean feed and water and you will have very little doctoring to do, especially if you take an interest in their everyday welfare, 130 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE FEEDING WEAK OR SICK PIGEONS As a rule when a pigeon gets so sick or weak that it will not eat the regular feed provided for well birds there is not much use trying to do anything for it unless one has plenty of time or has a special bird he wants to save. Young birds just after the parent bird has stopped feeding them are the most likely to need special feed, or females that have been driven too hard by the male bird. If either is cared for in time all that is nec- essary is to put them in a pen by themselves or with other such birds and see that they get plenty of good rich feed including a little hemp, plenty of peas and such grain as millet, buck- wheat, lentils, vetch, etc. Any of these grains will be eaten by sick birds when they will not eat the more common grains. These grains are generally more expensive than regular feed so they must be fed sparingly. If a bird is so sick or weak that it will not eat, then feed must be forced down its throat. (See article on “Feeding Squabs by Hand.”) A bird that is so far gone that it will not eat of its own accord, especially when it is given special grain, is as a rule past doing anything with. In such cases a mixture of two parts wheat bran and three parts corn meal with about a spoonful of ground red pepper to a cup of bran and meal is about the best thing to give them. This mixture should be made wet enough with water to make it easy to force down the bird’s throat or it can be given in capsules. This is an especially good way to give most any kind of medicine or feed to sick birds. Cotton seed meal or peanut meal is a good thing to mix with bran and corn meal. About one part to five parts of bran and corn meal. Small cubes of toasted bread is also excellent feed for sick birds. FEEDING SQUABS BY HAND Motherless squabs can often be successfully raised by hand if one has patience and will take the time to do so. If you have never fed a squab by hand, you will find the work very tedious at the start, but a little practice will enable you to show a marked improvement, PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIHS 131 Hand feeding is no more nor less than forcing the bird to eat by poking the feed down the bird’s throat. To do this you should open the beak with the left hand and poke the grain in with the right hand. The best way isto set the bird on some- thing, then take its head and neck in the left hand, resting the edge of your hand on the bird’s back to hold it from pulling away. Then hold the lower half of the beak between your thumb and second finger. Lift up the upper half of the beak with your front finger and put a grain of corn or other feed in the bird’s mouth and release its head to allow it to swallow. If it does not swallow and persists in throwing the feed out, then you will find it necessary to poke the grain part way down with the front finger of your right hand. Repeat this operation until the crop is fairly well filled. If you give the squab a drink before you start to feeding it the grain will go down easier. Some real young squabs will drink if you stick their heads in a cup of water. If they will not drink of their own accord, you should pour some water down their throats. You can best do this with a spoon, or better still with a medicine dropper, holding the bird the same as you would to feed it and opening the beak in the same way. Do not be afraid of giving the bird too much water. A small squab can consume two or three tablespoonfuls of water. If the grain chokes up the bird’s throat you can work it down with your fingers from the outside. In addition to feed and water, a bird should be given a very small amount of grit, oyster shell and charcoal. Hand fed squabs will not do as well as if fed by their parents, but they can be raised by hand and develop into good birds. Hand feeding can be done in connection with the feeding of the old birds, which is often a good thing if one has a good special squab that he desires to raise that is not getting enough feed. In such a case a few peas given to the squab nightly is a good thing. If it is fed by hand during the day it will not beg or tease its parents for feed as much as it would if hungry and so would get less feed from its parents. If you have three or four squabs in one nest it is not a bad plan to feel their crops at night and either change any that have empty crops to other nests or hand feed them a little. A hand fed squab will do better if you can slip him in a nest 132 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE every day or so where he will be fed by an old bird, or if you can exchange the squabs that you are hand feeding for other squabs daily, it is better, for then the same squabs will not be hand fed constantly. A breeder with a large plant will always have young squabs in other nests about the same size and thus be able to have any orphan squabs fed by foster parents, so that hand feeding will not, as a rule, be necessary. HELPFUL REMEDIES The experience of others is always worth something and so I quote in part from John S. McCreight: Pigeons in general have fewer diseases and ailments than chickens and less doctoring is necessary. There are times, however, when a little medicine or tonic is absolutely necessary, and if given in time will prove beneficial to those needing it and act as a preventative to those not afflicted. Pigeons are active and full of life when in good health, and are without doubt the liveliest and most hustling family of the feathered tribe. A bird when off his feed or sick is soon noticeable. You will see it huddled off to itself, feathers all turned up and its head in between its shoulders. You know the moment you see it that something is wrong. Now, to find what is the matter. Catch the bird and examine its throat; see if there are any sores or ulcers in the throat. If you find yellow pimples it doubtless has canker. If you find nothing wrong with the throat, examine the “craw.” If it is full and mushy and the breath of the bird is bad, it has “sour craw.” If neither of the above are found and you are not experienced in pigeon raising, you are rather up against it. There are a good many things that would make the bird act the way it does. If a young female, she might be egg-bound, or the bird might be going light. If you cannot determine what is wrong, pull out the bird’s tail—all the feathers—give it half a teaspoonful of castor oil and put in a coop by itself. Give plenty of fresh water and some stale bread crumbs and a little hemp. The chances are that with this treatment the bird will be all right in a few days. PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 133 It takes very little medicine around the loft and a mighty good idea is “not to doctor’—go on the principle of leaving well enough alone. Should you happen to need medicine for a sick bird, I will give you a few remedies: A tonic to put in their drinking water that I have used for several years and found very satisfactory is given below. I have given this every spring and every fall and it is about the only tonic I use. It can be filled at any drug store and costa generally about 35 cents. Tonic.—Copperas, one-half ounce; sulphate of soda, four ounces, gentian root (powdered) one-half ounce; phosphate of soda, two ounces, and pure creosote (Beechwood), one dram. The creosote must first be rubbed well in a mortar with about 40 grains of calcined magnesia. Put the creosote, after being prepared, in two quarts of hot water, stir well and gradually add the other ingredients, then set away and keep in a cool place. Dose: One tablespoonful to a gallon of water, and have no other water in the fly pen. Give them this once or twice a month and it will likely keep them in good condition. Diarrhoea.—Two drops of Jaudanum. Put bird in dry clean coop; no water or feed for twenty-four hours. Repeat dose in six to ten hours, if needed. Feed toasted, very brown bread crumbs for a couple of days, then a little hemp and then on regular feed. Canker.—Put in the bird’s throat, on the sores, some burned alum or you can use a little tincture of iodine. However, my remedy is the axe and I immediately break up the mating that produced the canker squab. Watch this pair carefully and see which of the parent birds is responsible and get the one respon- sible out of the loft. If a bird doesn’t eat like it should and shows a poor appetite, give one grain gentian root. Epsom salts is used by a great many in the summer. Put a teaspoonful Epsom salts to a quart of water and give no other drinking water. For a large number of birds increase the quantity in the same proportion. Cod liver oil is good to use on a bird off its feed. Dose: Three drops at a time, say, three times a day. Hypophosphites of lime and soda is also fine for a “going light” bird . Dose: One-fourth of a grain, three times a day. 134 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE Sour Craw.—This is caused from several causes, chief of which is not feeding the birds regularly. You miss a feed and then the birds get very hungry. When you do feed them they eat too much, drink water and the food becomes sour before it is di- gested. The treatment is to hold the bird upside down and gradually work the food out of its craw. Don’t try to get the food out too rapidly, but work easy and gently. Give the bird a little fresh water when you have the craw cleaned and bread crumbs. Let it stay in the coop until it is well, gradually adding grain to the daily feed until it is able to go on regular rations, but as I have said before the best remedy is to feed, water and house birds properly, and in this way prevent diseases. Pigeons are naturally very healthy and will keep well if conditions are right. CHAPTER XI MATING AND SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK HOW PIGEONS MATE Pigeons will mate and go to raising squabs under almost any conditions. Naturally, they will mate and do better under favorable conditions than otherwise. Almost any male or female. pigeon will mate with almost any other male or female, regardless of size, color or kind, provided, of course, they are given an opportunity to mate by shutting them up together, or putting them in a pen where there are no other unmated birds. If ten, twenty or more females are put into a pen with an equal number of males, in time there will be as many mated pairs, as there are males and females com- bined in the pen. That is to say, if 20 males were put in with 20 females and 19 of each mated, the twentieth male and twentieth female would then mate, there being no other odd birds in the pen for them to mate with. As a matter of fact, pigeons do very little choosing when it comes to selecting mates. The time, place, and condition of the birds has more to do with their pairing up than any particular attraction that one bird might have for another bird of the opposite sex. For instance, if a male has no place to mate, he is not apt to want to mate, but if he has a home, so to speak, (a place to build a nest that he considers his private property), he will protect that place from all other birds, and it will be his natural prolific instinct to secure a mate and go to housekeeping. When he is in this mood, he will go to his nesting box, or place he controls, and call for a female by successive long, cooing sounds. He will keep this up for hours at a time. If there is an un- mated female in the pen, such cooing is “sweet music to her ears,” and will attract her to the nest or place where the male is. She will find him in a squatting position, and generally slightly flapping or quivering one wing, as he coos or calls. To signify her willingness to mate, she will fly up to the en- trance of the nest with her wings slightly held out from he) 189 136 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE body alighting, with her neck feathers puffed out, which gives her, as a whole, a very mild and pleasing appearance. While the male is anxious for a female to come, he, nevertheless, con- siders her an intruder, as far as his house is concerned, and, _ therefore, at first he will not let her come into the nest box or get too familiar on his premises. He will fight her away vigor- ously, and then go back and resume his calling. The female not to be discouraged, will return again and again, until finally the male will let her come into the nesting box, which place she will enter, strutting and prancing in a very sprightly manner. She will rush right in almost on top of the male and pick him on the head and neck. For a time he will chase her away and then finally submit. If they are not disturbed or separated at this point, they will soon consider themselves mated, but the courtship and lovemaking does not end here. Newly mated pairs can be found at almost any hour, for sev- eral days after they have mated, squatting together in the nest- ing place; the male now having changed his long loud coos to short, low tones, uttered in quick succession. The female will also coo a little during this period, but her cooing is not as loud or as coarse as the male. The same lovemaking will take place each time before a nest is built for a new setting of eggs and squabs, but only for short periods. Like people, their longest honeymoon is at the start. If the female has no mate and does not hear any calling or long cooing, she will signify her desire to mate by prancing up and down with her wings spread away from her body, slight- ly, and now and then strutting with her tail on the ground. She will show these signs particularly strong as she lights after short flights from one place to another. Males that already have mated will be attracted by this flirtation, and often take advantage of the opportunity to court unmated females when they see them strutting around in this fashion. While the male does not intend to permanently mate with the female, she does not seem to know this, and takes him to be sincere (human nature). Sometimes a male will become so fascinated and interested with his new prospective spouse, that he will desert his regular mate even though she might have eggs or young squabs. In fact, such a condition is more apt to happen if she has eggs, for the reason if she is on eggs she does not see him; MATING AND SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK 137 otherwise, if she is there on the spot, and sees what is going on, she will immediately interfere and give Miss Flirting Female a good picking; but, strange to say, she does not seem to blame her mate, and lays all the blame on the weaker sex. PAIR OF CARNEAUX Picture shows cock in the act of cooing to his mate. This pair is just beginning to build another nest. If there is an odd male in the pen, he is apt to cause consid- erable damage, especially if he has secured a nest and has worked laboriously to entice some prospective mate to his home. Then he will change his tactics, by the rule that might makes 138 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE right, and proceeds to try and win him a mate by physical power. If he can succeed in whipping some other male away from his nest, breaking up the family, it is possible for him to secure a mate in that way; but by his undertaking, he generally only succeeds in breaking eggs, killing young squabs and wear- ing out himself and his antagonist, without getting the female to desert her former mate. The female will invariably contribute to the defense of her home, and iry to protect her young ones. It is not desirable, therefore, to have either odd females or odd males in a loft of working birds. It is better to have an even number of males and females, for invariably they will find each other and’ mate up. The best mating plan is to take an equal number of odd males and females, and shut them up together until they mate, and then turn them in with the regular mated birds. As stated previously, a male can be mated with almost any female, regardless of color, size or kind; so if you desire to mate any particular male with any particular female, all that is necessary is to shut them up together for a few days. Of course, they should be given food, water and grit during that time, and should have a place whcre it would be possible for them to inake a nest. Large space, however, is not necessary. A small coop with two ot three square feel of floor space is all that is needed. The mating coop should be sufficiently ventilated, yet free from drafts, as birds will catch cold quicker shut up in a small place than in an oper :com, * Newly mated bir¢s must be left together long enough to be- come well mated before putting them in with other birds lest they separate, Jf they are to be put back where their old mates are, they must be kert away several weeks or they will likely separate and go back to their old mates. The statement that any pigeon will mate with most any other pigeon does not inean that I sanction or believe in the plan of crossing breeds. On the contrary, I am very much opposed to crossing breeds, as it is not practical to create new breeds, and mongrels gencrally inherit the inferior qualities of both parents. Elsewhere in this book, will be found an article on this subject. MATING AND SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK 139 HOW TO TELL MALE FROM FEMALE With most breeds of pigeons, the male is a little larger than the female. He has a coarser look, thicker neck and larger legs and feet. These differences can only be readily noticed by com- parison or by those who are not only familiar with pigeons, but with that particular breed. The age of the birds must be ccrsidered. An old female is apt to be taken for a young male if one is judging by looks only or comparing two males or two females of different age. In such a case they are apt to pick the old bird for the male and the younger for the female: As a rule the male is more muscular, stronger and masculine. The best method to use, however, to tell the sex is to watch the birds in their everyday life. There are many ways that I can tell the female from the male that it would be difficult for me to fully explain. For in- stance, they drink and eat differently. The difference is so slight that you can only learn it by experience in watching them.