WATER AND FEED 57 



disclosed that he was feeding nothing but wheat, with the 

 exception of a handful of peas in the middle of the week and 

 a handful of hemp-seed on Sunday ! ■, 



A properly balanced ration is necessary to egg production 

 in the case of pigeons, same as poultry. 



Wheat is a good- regulator for pigeons but corn is the great 

 fattener and the main staple. 



When anybody fails with pigeons, if you pick up and handle 

 the birds you will find in nine cases out of ten that they have 

 sharp breastbones, which means that they are improperly 

 nourished, out of condition, and of course cannot produce 

 eggs because they have not the blood and fat to do it. 



All the grains which you feed should be old, hard, dry and 

 sweet. If they smell sour or taste bad to your own tongue, 

 don't feed them to your pigeons. Above all, keep your grain 

 dry. If you have the grain stored in bins which are damp 

 from ground water, or which catch the drippings from the 

 eaves, or through holes in the roof, first you will get sour grain 

 and then some of the grain will sprout, and this sprouted grain 

 will derange the bowels of your birds and bring on dysentery. 

 Do not let rank little growths spring up in a dirty squab house 

 or in the yard of your flying pen. Pigeons will peck at green 

 leaves and grass and will not be harmed, but do not give them 

 a chance to peck up sprouted grain and eat the sprout, grain 

 and all, for if they do they will have diarrhoea. A pigeon in 

 good condition and busy with a nest ordinarily will not touch 

 a nasty little green sprout, but in the moulting season, when 

 pigeons are in the dumps generally, and feeling like having a 

 stimulant, they will experiment with these sprouts. Keep 

 the floor of your squab house clean and the yard of the flying 

 pen raked up and you need not worry about this matter. 



Ground oyster shell should be placed in a box handy for the 

 pigeons to get at. The purpose of this oyster shell is to 

 provide the constituents of the eggshell. The female pigeon 

 needs it in order to form the egg. 



Grit is needed by the pigeons to enable them to reduce to 

 powder the feed which they take into their crops The 

 muscles of the crop work the grit on the grains and reduce 

 the grains so that they mix with the digestive fluids. Cart 

 two or three bushels of gravel or sharp sand into your flying 

 pen and cover the ground with it. It is not necessary to 



