Squabs...

Image Gallery House is shown with open front. Wood or cardboard partition can be used to close two thirds of opening for winter months. Note that feed trough, water fountain and grit hopper can all be ""serviced"" without entering pen.

AS we've said we chose geese as our secondary poultry project, and we don't go in seriously for squabs. We thought we should include squab raising in the Plan, however, for those people who would want to raise them, particularly folks who live in the more crowded areas where there are city zoning regulations against chickens and other poultry. There are very few cities or towns that have strict ordinances against keeping pigeons.

In preparing this section about squabs we've visited a number of squab raisers and we've done a good deal of studying and reading. What we tell here is what we'd want to know before we started a new project.

Squab is one of those dishes that are usually thought of as being expensive, delicious and reserved for epicures. You can't even buy squab at most meat markets. Many people haven't so much as tasted this mouth-watering treat.

And yet, if you decide to have another poultry project in addition to chickens, you'll find squabs to be both interesting and delicious. Also, pigeons are among the easiest kinds of poultry to raise, among the surest of success.

They are not really cheap, though, even when you raise your own. They will cost you about half as much to raise as to buy, which means they will cost you about 35¢ to 50¢ apiece, depending on the price of feed at the time and other factors. Still, when you consider that one squab is about all one person can eat at a sitting, and that they are such a treat, the cost isn't so high at that.

Another point to remember is that it is just about as easy to raise twice the number of squab you will want for your own family, as it is to raise barely enough. You can then easily sell the surplus to cover all your costs (first class hotels and restaurants are always in the market for squabs), or you can swap the surplus with neighbors for things they raise and you don't or you can make presents of squabs to friends.

What Size Flock?

First, taking into account the size of your family, decide how many squabs you will probably want in the course of a year. (Squab, incidentally, is defined by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture as "a young pigeon which is marketed just before it is ready to leave the nest, usually at from 25 to 28 days of age, when it weighs from 12 to 24 ounces.")

One good pair of breeder pigeons should raise 12 to 14 squabs in the course of one year. They may do this at a more or less even production rate throughout the year, but more probably production will be greater in spring and summer than in fall or winter. If you have a quick freezer you can, of course, "even out" production by freezing when there is a surplus.

If you don't have a freezer, then you will probably want to plan to have enough breeders to produce all the squabs you'll need even during the poorer months.

Figuring in this way it will be found that a "loft" of 12 pairs of breeders will probably produce an abundance of squabs for your family.