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FANCIERS' JOUENAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



CARRIER PIGEONS-CONSTRUCTING A 

 BREEDING LOFT. 



I have been several times requested to give my ideas 

 with respect to the construction of a loft for breeding Car- 

 riers, and thinking they may be of service to your readers I 

 forward them to you. 



I believe non-success in breeding this noble variety of 

 Pigeon is chiefly owing to several pairs being crowded 

 together in a small space, the result being a great amount of 

 damage to the adult birds by fighting — so frequently the 

 cause of wing disease and canker — and the loss of numbers 

 of eggs and young ones in the nest. Carriers are a prolific 

 variety, and a good proportion of young birds may easily be 

 reared. By adopting the plan I recommend, these misfor- 

 tunes are entirely avoided, and, so far as I have myself 

 practiced it, I found it to answer remarkably well. 



The building may be erected at a very moderate cost. 

 The erection is like an ordinary shed. A wall 9 or 10 feet 

 high, with a south aspect, will answer for the back. The 

 front of the shed should be 6 feet high, which allows of a 

 3-feet fall in the roof to carry off wet. The roof should 

 be boarded flat with 1-inch deals (I mean of course with 

 the above-mentioned inclination), felted, well tarred, and 

 spouted. The ends of the shed, and the back, if there is no 

 wall to work on, should be double-boarded, leaving about 3 

 inches between the inner and outer boards, and the vacancy 

 well filled with sawdust. Such walls retain a more even 

 temperature than brick or stone, being neither so cold in 

 winter nor so hot in summer, and are besides, less expensive. 

 In width the loft may be 12 or 14 feet ; the front boarded- 

 up from the ground 3 feet high, the remainder to the roof 

 wire netting. ■ Inside under the roof shutters should hang 

 on hinges, to fall down and cover the wire front during the 

 cold nights, and at other times when necessary. When out 

 of use they swing up and lie flat to the roof, where they are 

 fastened, and are then quite out of the way. 



At the back of the loft (there is no limit to the length 

 except in the number of breeding pens required), is a plat- 

 form 4 feet in width, half way between the floor and roof, 

 to form the bottom of the pens. Thin iron rods, 1 inch 

 apart, running from the platform up to the roof, form the 

 front of the pens, each pen being 4 or 5 feet long (the longer 

 the better) furnished with door, nest-box, &c. The loft at 

 the length of every three pens should be divided, so that 

 the occupants of every three pens may have their flight, 

 bath, &c, in the area in front in turns. Thus the pairs are 

 always separate, and breed undisturbed. Under these three 

 breeding pens, which constitute one section of the loft, the 

 front from the outer edge of the platform to the ground 

 should be wired, with a door, and fitted with perches ; so 

 that will form a most convenient place to draft the young 

 ones into as they are fit to leave their parents. As there 

 ' will be two or three such compartments in a loft of any 

 pretensions, the sexes can be separated when desired. In 

 this arrangement the birds are always under command, and 

 easily caught when required. 



The finish of such a building is, of course, a matter of 

 taste and outlay. The exterior may be planed and painted, 

 or only in the rough and tarred, the inside in either case 

 being well lime- washed annually, at the commencement and 

 close of the breeding season. — W. Masskt, in Journal of 

 Horticulture. 



(For Fanciers' Journal.) 



GOOD STOCK v. MONGRELS. 



" Don't you find your big chickens more sickly than the 

 dunghills?" and "Don't they eat more than the common 

 fowls ?" These are the two main questions asked and urged 

 against improved stock in fowls. My answer has been, 

 "No, not with the same attention." Dunghills will eat 

 more and lay less than any of the improved breeds of the 

 same size if confined to small pens, as improved breeds usu- 

 ally are, with little I'ange and less variety of food. 



Brahmas and Cochins are liberal feeders, I admit. But 

 in order to preserve their purity, and prevent admixture of 

 dunghill blood, most of us are compelled to confine the hens 

 particular^- to small yards and close quarters, and thus 

 having prevented the gratification of their natural desire to 

 gather their own food, and deprived them of health-giving 

 exercise, we naturally must supply the deficiency by feeding 

 properly, and look for a smaller supply of eggs, and a less 

 healthy and perfect development. Could farmers fairly 

 estimate the amount of food consumed by an ordinary barn- 

 yard fowl, in the shape of grubs, worms, and grain, it 

 would astound them, particularly if they looked upon this 

 as what might have been had grain alone been substituted 

 for it. 



All stock will pay for extra care, and particularly is this 

 true of blooded or improved stock. Farmers in the main 

 regard poultry, and particularly chickens, as a great nuisance, 

 and were it not for the good sense of their good wives, it is 

 hard to tell what would become of the pets. The great 

 •wonder, under existing circumstances, and the lack of care 

 in the treatment of fowls is, that chickens pay expenses at 

 all. To those of us who love our pets, and give them proper 

 attention, the matter is perfectly plain that they do pay, and 

 that improved stock paj r s better than common fowls, from 

 the fact that we are able to secure much higher prices for 

 even ordinary specimens. Of course the outlay in the be- 

 ginning is greater, and this is probably the greatest, objec- 

 tion which the advocates of common stock find to the intro- 

 duction of that which is blooded. 



In general, however, a single pair, or a trio, will, with 

 economical management, be sufficient to give one a fine stock 

 of fowls to begin with the second season, and enough may 

 be made by selling the surplus stock to neighbors to pay the 

 cost of the original trio. Neighbors can alwa3 T s be found 

 who will be ready to pay at least twice as much for the sur- 

 plus fowls as for ordinary fowls. Besides, a double good 

 will be done in the way of giving one a start, and at the 

 same time distributing good stock, and creating an interest 

 in the community. 



It is with much satisfaction that one notices the increas- 

 ingly wide distribution of many of our best breeds. Of 

 course the most beautiful, and the most highly and perfectly 

 developed birds will remain in the hands of the fanciers, 

 because these, in the main, are the only ones who thoroughly 

 understand the principles of mating and breeding to produce 

 beautiful birds. But so far as the utility of the fowls is con- 

 cerned — and this, after all, is the main item of interest to 

 the general poultry raiser — it need not and will not be 

 limited to fanciers alone. No one will be more pleased in 

 fact than the fancier to have a general and wide-spread 

 interest in poultry developed among all classes of poultry 

 breeders. A. N. E. 



