Have a certain time to do all the work and work to the schedule you have prepared. Clean the house on a certain day in the week, kill the squabs on the day which best suits your market. Feed as nearly at the same time every day as possible, for the birds soon learn to know when feeding time comes, and the squabs even learn to know when to look for the parents to feed them. Keep everything going like clock work, and the work will be properly done and the birds thrive better for the regular habits they learn.
GO QUIETLY
There will always be a number of birds sitting, others will be feeding the young, and quick motions or loud noises disturb them and cause them to stop feeding or to leave their nests. Keep the birds tame by going among them but go quietly.
THE BEST AGE
A pair of pigeons begin to breed at about six months of age, but young birds are not very profitable as breeders. After they are one year old they are in full working condition and for the next seven or eight years may be depended on to produce regularly, if they are the right kind of stock.
DON'T KILL TOO YOUNG
Do not kill your squabs too young. They should be killed just before they are ready to leave the nest, but not before their flesh has become firm and solid. A squab which is killed too young never brings a good price, as the buyers in the cities know one immediately they have felt of it, and a few squabs which have been killed too soon decrease the price of the whole package. Remember that the price paid for squabs in a given package is made on the basis of all of them being as poor as the poorest in the package.
MICE IN NESTS
If you find some of your squabs smashed flat in the nests, look out for mice. These little pests like to nest with a pair of pigeons, and particularly in cold weather have a fashion of crawling between the parent bird and the squab. This causes the parent to move about and kill the young. To kill the mice, take a large cigar box—or any box of about that size—and cut a small hole in one end. Put under this box a mouse-trap baited with bits of toasted cheese and on top of the box put a heavy weight so the pigeons can not get at the trap. Set a few traps around the feed bin also, and it will not be long until the last mouse is caught, as they like cheese better than the grain which has brought them to the pigeon house at first. A good cat kept around the feed room is often a good investment, but do not forget that a cat likes squabs very much and must be carefully kept outside the breeding lofts.