214 MARKING OF POULTRY 



may be told at a glance. The bands may be used also to 

 identify strains or families of fowls. Though they have 

 their usefulness in this way, they are not an absolutely 

 accurate means of identifying fowls; in addition they 

 are liable to be lost from the shank; in such cases, 

 if no other band were used, the identity of a fowl 

 would be lost. Three celluloid markers are shown in 

 Fig. 6. The ring shown in (a) encircles the shank a 

 number of times. One end of this is hooked about the 

 shank and then the rest is wound around much in the 

 same manner that a key is worked on a key ring. The 

 ring shown in (6) is a small one of the same type as 

 that shown in (a). In (c) is shown a flat celluloid band. 

 Poultry supply houses sell celluloid rings and bands in 

 as many as eight different colors. 



MARKING OF PIGEONS 



To build up the productiveness of a flock of pigeons 

 and to maintain the quality of the squabs, it is necessary 

 to mark breeding pigeons in such a way that their 

 identity can be easily determined. This is usually done 

 by fastening a suitably marked band of some kind 

 about the shank of each bird. A careful record of each 

 breeding pigeon should be kept in a record book. This 

 record should include the ancestors of each bird, their 

 egg production, the time it takes for them to hatch 

 their squabs, the time it takes for them to rear their 

 squabs to a marketable size, and notes as to the quality 

 of their squabs. With this information systematically 

 arranged it will be possible to prevent harmful inbreed- 

 ing and to mate the offspring of different pigeons in 

 such a way as to improve the productiveness and quality 

 of the flock. 



Bands suitable for marking breeding pigeons can be ob- 

 tained in several styles from dealers in poultry supplies. 

 Some of these bands are made so that they indicate only 

 the year in which the breeders were- first mated. This 

 is usually done in one of two ways, either by having 



