When it is desired to catch mated pairs, take the catching net into the fly with you. Drive all the pigeons out in the fly and shut them out of the house. Then take another person with you and go into the fly. Watch until a cock begins to drive a hen and trap him in the net, while your helper watches the hen. Take the cock out of the net and hand it to your helper, who will catch the hen. Then band the two, putting the band on the right leg of the cock and on the left leg of the hen. If squabs are banded in the nest, nearly all of them will be found banded correctly if the band has been put on the right leg of the squab first hatched and on the left leg of the one hatched later.
STARTING A LOFT
Buy from ten to fifty mated pairs, according to the amount with which you decide to begin. Keep all the best squabs hatched during the year, so cross-mating them as not to have nest mates mated up for breeding. Dispose of all under-sized squabs, and when the birds have grown up sell all those which prove inferior. In this way you will learn to manage your loft and get your breeding stock at the lowest possible cost.
THE PRICE OF BREEDING STOCK
It does not pay to start with poor breeding stock. Buy of a reliable breeder and pay a fair price. No one can afford to sell first-class breeding stock except in certain seasons at less than $1.50 a pair in large numbers or less than $2.00 a pair when from ten to twenty-five pairs are sold in a lot. It is poor economy to buy common pigeons as squab-breeders at any price and just as bad management to buy cheap Homers and run the risk of getting old and worn out birds.
BEST WEIGHT FOR SQUABS
Squabs that weigh less than eight pounds to the dozen are not desirable, as they sell at a price which drops rapidly as they run below eight pounds to the dozen. It costs just as much to raise a dark-fleshed and light-weight squab as it does to raise a big plump bird with white flesh; and a pair of pigeons which produce dark squabs of light weights should be disposed of. Select all the time for heavy weights in your squabs and get the top of the market.
LENGTH OF BREEDING PERIOD
Pigeons will breed regularly for seven or eight years, so it is to the interest of the breeders to keep only the best in his lofts. The good breeder watches what kind of squabs each pair produces and keeps selecting the best from time to time until he has a loft full which may be depended upon.