FEEDS AND FEEDING 77 



about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. If feea is given 

 morning and night, the males and non-setting birds will eat up 

 the best portion and choice grain, while the female is on the 

 nest, and when they come off for their feed and recreation, in 

 the middle of the day, they will find nothing but picked over 

 and refused grain and generally not enough of that. When the 

 female is sitting, she needs good, choice, rich food. Therefore, 

 by feeding at noon time, when the female is off the nest, she 

 will get what she needs in the way of feed. 



There should be enough grain given at the noon feed to last 

 over until night. This will give the males an opportunity of 

 feeding their squabs after they come off the nest at three or 

 four o'clock in the afternoon. The females will also have a 

 chance to do some feeding in the middle of the day, which will 

 produce larger and fatter squabs than if the female has to 

 hustle for her own feed. This will compel her to leave the bulk 

 of the feeding to the male. The birds should be given all they 

 will eat up clean at the morning feed and a little left over for 

 the youngsters in the loft, which, being less agrgrcssive and 

 weaker than the older birds, are crowded away from the trough 

 and have to depend more or less upon what is left. 



The males will eat up the choicest grain in the morning first. 

 Then they take a drink of water and fly to the nest and feed their 

 squabs. This will give the squabs the best and most fattening 

 food. The food that is left for the old birds will be sufficient in 

 strength for them. The earlier the birds are fed in the morning, 

 the better. They generally get up at daylight, and if there is any 

 grain left over in the trough, from the day before, they will clean 

 that up and be waiting for more feed, regardless of how early 

 you might get up to feed them. 



WHAT TO FEED 



Pigeons are strictly vegetarians. They eat grain and seed 

 principally, with a little green stuff, such as grass, clover, 

 lettuce or Swiss chard. They are very particular as to the 

 quality of the grain, especially birds that are kept in fly pens. 

 Bad or spoiled grain is apt to make them sick. 



The first opinion of the average person who knows nothing 

 about pigeons, is that they are like a chicken with reference 



