IM<;KONS AND ALL Anorr THEM. 



time, and thru tin- slide is withdrawn, throwing the coop in 

 to one. 



Hut tliis is really not so speedy a way as the other. The 

 birds can hoar each other move and coo in a double coop and 

 thus a stubborn bird does not get that lonesome feeling that 

 comes over it, when put off by itself. I have never yet failed 

 to make a mating I desired, but I once spent three weeks 011 

 two particularly stubborn birds. 



Unmated birds should never, under any circumstances, be 

 allowed in the breeding loft. If an odd cock, he is liable to 

 crowd on a nesting hen, while her mate may be away, and 

 break the eggs or cause her to trample on her young while 

 very small. 



I have seen an odd cock visit several nsets, one right after 

 the other and cause trouble in each. Sometimes they attack 

 defenceless young in a neighboring nest and pick them 

 terribly. 



An odd hen, while not so bad, is also a nuisance, for when 

 the mating fever is on her, she will often crowd in on a pair, 

 that are just nicely mated and break them up, as the cock 

 will become undecided as to which is his mate. 



I use a lower room, the same in which the hens are confin- 

 ed in winter, and into it I put every odd bird and all young 

 birds as soon as they are done feeding from their parents. 



< .ood breeding birds often breed so fast that they will have 

 a nearly matured pair on the loft floor -and another, just 

 hatched, in the nest. 



I 1 will therefore be seen how necessary it is to get the older 

 voimg out of the way, so that the " pigeons' milk" may go 

 to the tiny ones in the nest. / 



