PIGEONS FOR MARKET. I33 



and these troughs should be just broad enough to 

 allow the birds to feed without permitting them to 

 get in with their feet. 



Pigeon eggs hatch in sixteen or eighteen days. 

 After the first few days the young ones grow with 

 wonderful rapidity, if the parents are supplied with 

 proper food and do their duty. In from four to six 

 weeks the squabs are old enough to kill. Some 

 develop so much more rapidly than others that no 

 fixed date can be given at which it may be said they 

 are of the right age to be in the best condition to 

 sell. When this period is reached the neck feathers 

 have passed the pin-feather stage, and the tail is 

 usually about three inches long, but the bird is still 

 unable to fly. When they begin to fly they are too 

 "hard," as dealers say, and when the skin of the crop 

 and of the abdominal pouch is thin and transparent 

 and these parts are full and the breast undeveloped, 

 the dealers complain that they are too "soft." It 

 often happens that one of a pair — it is usually the 

 male — is ready for market a week before its mate. 

 By marketing the larger and leaving the smaller one 

 to be nursed by the parents, it will be ready to go 

 with the next lot. 



Squabs are killed and dressed just like chickens, 

 by bleeding in the mouth and picking dry. The}" are 

 in the best condition for killing in the morning before 

 the old ones give them their breakfast. 



After killing and dressing they may be tied in 

 pairs, or in half dozens, and put into cold water, or 

 packed on ice until sent to market. 



Where breeders are a long distance from market 



