Profitable

Squab Breeding

By CARL DARE

A complete practical guide for the beginner as well as the experienced breeder.

Reliable information gleaned from the experience of a lifetime in the work.

Full instructions on all points from the installation of the plant to the marketing of the product.

Des Moines, Iowa

1914

CARL DARE
Des Moines, Iowa, October 1, 1914

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
Profits of Squab Raising—Will It Pay?

CHAPTER II
Best Breeds for Squabbing—The Kind to Buy

CHAPTER III
The Construction of Houses—Pigeon House Plans—Nests—Water Fountains—Bathing Dishes—Keeping House in Sanitary Condition

CHAPTER IV
Feeds and Feeding—Breeding Habits

CHAPTER V
Increasing the Flock—Selecting Future Breeders—Banding—Mating

CHAPTER VI
Making a Market—Preparing Squabs for Market

CHAPTER VII
Diseases of Pigeons

CHAPTER VIII
Miscellaneous Information—Catching Mated Pairs

A Typical Mammoth Homer. The Most Profitable for Squab

INTRODUCTORY PREFACE

No business has had such a wonderful growth within the last few years as the raising of squabs for market. Only a few years ago the use of squabs for food was confined to a few of the most wealthy families. Game was plentiful and cheap and those who were not very well off preferred quail and other game birds to paying the high prices asked for the few squabs which were sent to market.

Gradually the demand for squabs grew larger, as more people became acquainted with their delicacy and good qualities as food, and this led to larger numbers being produced. Soon all the larger markets furnished squabs and then the smaller ones began to supply them and now many a comparatively small market is not complete without squabs as a part of the supplies of food kept on hand or provided on order.

Game birds have become scarce and high-priced, and squabs have taken their place in such a manner that the demand for game is not so large as it was, while the demand for squabs continually increases.

The rearing of squabs for market is immensely profitable as well as easy. Squab-raising can be conducted on a scale large enough to make it worth while in the back yard of a town lot, or it can be conducted on a scale large enough to require several acres with equal profit on every dollar invested in the business.

Squab-breeding is a business which is profitable when conducted as a side line on a small space and all the work may be done by women, children, or those who are not strong enough for the more laborious occupations of life. At the same time it is a business which men of affairs need not hesitate to undertake as there are squab farms on which pigeons are kept by tens of thousands with great profit.

The squab business may be commenced with small capital and rapidly increased from the increase of the flock, as each pair of breeding birds will produce at least twelve in a year so the increase is very rapid.

So great has the demand for a book which would give all the details of the business of squab-raising become, that we have felt compelled to publish this book. It is written to teach people, beginners mostly, not merely how to raise squabs, but how to conduct a squab and pigeon business successfully. We have found breeders of squabs who knew how to raise them fairly well and took pleasure in doing so, but were weak on the business end of the industry. The fancier, who raises animals because he likes their looks or their actions, or because he hopes to beat some other fancier at an exhibition, is not the man for whom we have written this book. We have developed utility pigeons and the squabbing industry solely because they are staples, salable in any market at a remunerative price. The success of squabs as we handle them depends on their earning capacity. They are a matter of business. Our development of squabs is based on the fact that they are good eating, that people now are in the habit of asking for and eating them, and there is a large traffic in them which may be pushed to an enormous extent without weakening either the market or the price. If, as happens in this case, pigeons are a beautiful pet stock as well as money makers so much the better. It is just as easy to pet a practical animal as an impractical animal, and much more satisfying.

This book is the latest and most comprehensive work we have done, giving the results of our experience as fully and as accurately as we can present the subject. It is intended as an answer to the hundreds of letters we receive, and we have tried to cover every point which a beginner or an expert needs to know. It has been our experience in handling this subject and bringing it home to people that the little points are the ones on which they most quickly go astray, and on which they wish the fullest information. After they have a fair start, they are able to think out their operations for themselves. Accordingly we have covered every point in this book in simple language and if the details in some places appear too commonplace, remember that we have erred on the side of plainness.

It has surprised a great many people to learn that pigeons are such a staple and workable article. They have been handled by the old methods for years without their great utility value being made plain. When we first learned about squabs, we were struck by the impressive fact that here was something which grew to market size in the incredibly short period of four weeks and then was marketed readily at a good profit. The spread of that knowledge will make money for you. Show your neighbors the birds; you tell them the facts, and perhaps give them a