Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1907 — PIGEON WISDOM. [ARTICLE]

PIGEON WISDOM.

Bome Valuable Hint* For Brodeers ot the Feathered Beautiee. Good shelter is half the food. No matter how well we feed, If the shelter Is not of the right order, only half the results will be produced. The runt hen cross Is said to .produce the finest squabs, but at present Is too high priced for the general market Give the loft a good coat of whitewash, and it is rechmmended that a little glue be mixed in it to prevent the whitening coming off on your clothes. K. C. Cummings says that it costs him $1.30 per pair to build houses; 92 cents to feed breeders, and two men to attend to 5,000 pairs. Ten cents per pair will cover cost of grit, charcoal, salt, lime, sand, tobacco stems, etc. It will be found that those pigeons that molted early yill be the first and best squab producers. It Is the hen pigeon that builds the nest. The hen usually lays her first egg in' the afternoon. Breeders under twelve months of age should, be avoided. Immature females cannot possibly produce large, well developed squabs, nor can they be depended upon to produce squabs entirely free from disease and ailments of all kinds. A few odd cocks have been known to destroy more young birds in one day than a couple of rats would in a whole night. A damp house creates catarrhal and bronchial colds, which later develop Into roup and canker. Filth poisons the air and becomes infested itself with disease germs, which In turn contaminate the nest boxes, communicating to both old and young diseases which destroy. As a good working pair of breeders Mill hatch the second pair of young within a week from the time the first pair were weaned, it is essential that proper food be given the old birds, that they may keep up their own strength and at the same time push their young to the market size.—Philadelphia Farm Journal.