CARE OF PENS. BANDING, NESTING MATERIAL 105 



and aisle and by hanging the band on the wire on the same side 

 that the nest is on it is easy to find the band for any unhanded 

 bird. 



A good plan is to tack a small card on the outer edge of 

 each nest on which to record band numbers of the old birds for 

 that nest and the date and number of squabs that are taken 

 out of each nest. An ordinary express tag makes a good card 

 for this purpose. 



A better plan is to record nothing on the card at the nest box 

 but the band number, color and the cross as explained above, 

 then have a card or a little day book hung outside of the door 

 of each nest room and record on same the band number and 

 band color of each pair in that nest room. Immediately after the 

 number make a monthly record of the number of squabs each 

 pair produces. 



After a number of birds have been put into a nest room and 

 each pair is banded for that nest room, the male on the right 

 leg and the female on the left, a card tacked at the side and the 

 numbers and colors of each band are recorded on the edges of 

 the nest, then all of the unmated birds in that nest room should 

 be removed and placed in with unmated birds for the purpose 

 of securing mates, or if you are positive as to the sex of the 

 birds removed it is a good plan to shut them up in pairs to 

 mate as many males with as many females separately as needed 

 to fill out the allotment for the nest room. 



For instance, if 60 birds were put into a nest room to start 

 with, 40 birds have mated up and are banded, the remaining 

 20 birds should be removed from that nest room and either 

 placed in a pen with other unmated birds out of which can be 

 selected pairs as fast as they mate up, banded and put back in 

 the original nest room, or 10 females may be shut up with 10 

 males in 10 separate mating coops and as fast as they mate up 

 be banded and put back in the original nest room. The latter 

 plan would be a little faster than to merely put them into a 

 pen with other unmated birds as two pigeons will mate up 

 quicker in a mating pen than any other way. 



If a bird dies its mate should be located and taken out and 

 mated up with another bird, then banded with the same bands 

 and put back in the same nest room. If a pair is taken out for 



