stock means failure and loss in the end.

Your success depends upon the stock you buy. It is much better to buy good stock at a fair price than it is to get poor stock for nothing. No man can tell by looking at a lot of breeding pigeons whether they are good breeders or not. No man can tell whether they will produce squabs with white flesh or dark, squabs that will weigh ten pounds to the dozen or six pounds. No one can even guess at the age of a pair of pigeons and those which are old and worn out look just as nice as those which are only a year old.

The whole future of the beginner depends upon getting stock which is right in every way. Imported birds are usually of all ages and qualities. American-bred birds, if bought of a reputable breeder, may be depended upon to produce a large proportion of heavy, light-fleshed squabs and properly selected and mated pairs will go to work and breed regularly as soon as they have become accustomed to their new home. For these reasons I would not advise the purchase of imported birds except on rare occasions after carefully investigating the stock and the circumstances of their importation.

Fig 2. Showing a Well Arranged Squab Plant of Moderate Size With Colony Coop for Poultry in the Foreground.

CHAPTER III

The Construction of Houses

PIGEON HOUSE PLANS—NESTS—WATER FOUNTAINS—BATHING DISHES—KEEPING THE HOUSE IN SANITARY CONDITION

No doubt many a person has been deterred from making a start in the business of raising squabs on account of the fancied expense of building suitable houses. No one should make the mistake of thinking that a costly house is necessary. To be sure a well built, nicely painted house is ornamental and adds to the appearance of a squab-breeding plant; but this will come before long if the beginner has the proper qualifications and the ability to increase the size of his flock as rapidly as he may with good care and attention to his business.

The writer has traveled all over the great squab-breeding sections of the East and West and found about every kind of a pigeon house that the ingenuity of man has ever been able to build. We have seen houses which cost thousands of dollars and those which were built of the odd boards that were picked up about the farm. We have seen as fine birds and as large squabs in a house improvised from piano boxes as we ever saw in any of the great squab-breeding plants.

It is not so much a question of looks in a house as it is of comfort and good care. One of the finest squab-breeding plants in this country has grown up from a few birds which were housed at first in a corner of the barn. The owner persevered and kept adding to his flock as he made money from it, and he now has fine buildings and thousands of birds, all earned from an initial investment of something like $25. Not a cent was ever added to the original investment, all the increase and improvement in buildings having been paid for out of the earnings of the birds themselves.

Before we go further, let us say that the pigeon-breeders do not talk about pigeon houses. A house or room in which pigeons are kept is called a "loft," whether it is on the ground floor or in the peak of a barn. The pigeon house is a loft and the flock of pigeons kept in a loft is called a loft of pigeons. It is just as well to get the proper terms used in the business at first, as pigeon-breeders always use them. To return to our pigeon loft. A loft may be made in the corner of a stable or other out-house, with a fly outside. We might explain for the benefit of the beginner that a pigeon "fly" is a wired-in yard, a sort of big cage in which the pigeons are kept within limits. The flies are made by setting up posts about eight feet high and stretching two-inch mesh poultry netting on them. A fly is usually about ten feet wide and from twelve to thirty feet long. This is covered over the top with the same kind of poultry netting that is used on the sides.

Fig. 3. Showing End View of House No. 1.

We have seen as good pigeon lofts as any one would need made in the loft of a stable, the fly being on the roof. Posts were so set up on the roof that their tops were even with the peak of the roof. The enclosure was then shut in, sides and top, with poultry netting and the birds had a roomy and dry fly which was always clean, as the rains washed the droppings off the roof at frequent intervals.

In Chicago, we saw an extensive pigeon loft on the top of a flat-topped building high above the street; and a very well-known squab breeding establishment in a southern state is on top of a big hotel, the owner breeding the squabs he needs for his hotel in this high-placed situation.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the question of housing the breeding pigeons is not a very complicated one, as there is a wide latitude for action.

Some breeders even allow their birds to fly at large not using flies at all; but this practice is not recommended. In the first place, the birds do not produce so many squabs as they do under confinement and they are liable to accidents, such as being caught by hawks, shot by boys, or some other mishap which causes the owner to lose them and often lose squabs which such birds have in their nests.

It has been found best to keep the birds strictly confined. One well-known squab-raiser has a pen of fifty pairs of birds in his lofts which have been confined in the same place for seven years and are still working well. The writer visited this loft at the end of the seventh year of their confinement and noticed that they were producing squabs at a good rate.

For the convenience of beginners, we give ground plan and elevation of two styles of pigeon lofts. The loft designed as No. 1, may be built at a cost as low as $15.00, for one room, or it may be made to cost $50 or even more. It will be seen that the plan is for two rooms, but this is not the limit of size that is possible. We have seen lofts with a dozen rooms in them, but would recommend about four rooms as the most convenient limit where pigeons are kept extensively. Where a four-room house is built for lofting purposes, the plan should include a storeroom unless the owner has a room which conveniently can be used for a storeroom for feed and as a place for dressing and packing the squabs.

In House No. 2, it will be seen that an alleyway is built in the house back of the lofts. The partition between this alleyway and the lofts is made of two-inch poultry netting, but the partitions between the rooms are solid and as air tight as the outside walls.

A good many breeders are now using stout muslin instead of glass in the windows, as this gives light, lets the warmth of the sun enter the rooms and provides a good system of ventilation. Houses in which cloth windows are used are found to be fully as warm as those having glass windows.

On the side of the house next the fly, a series of openings is made near the roof, but low enough to open under the top of the fly. These openings may be about eight inches square with a six-inch wide shelf even with the bottom inside and outside. These are the doors through which the pigeons go back and forth to and from the fly, and the shelves beneath them are the lighting perches. These openings should be provided with a sliding door so that they can be closed when it is