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.