When the nappies are changed at the end of two weeks, 

 the nest-box should be scraped clean with a trowel. When 

 the squabs are taken out for market at the end of four weeks, 

 the nappy should be washed and scalded and the nest-box 

 whitewashed. If the nappies are changed and the whitewash 

 used regularly, no trouble from parasites will result. In the 

 summer it is well to add a little carbolic acid to the white- 

 wash as an extra precaution. 



HOW TO MATE. 



One way of riiating pigeons is to turn males and females 

 in equal number into the same pen. They will seek their 

 own mates and settle down to steady reproduction. Another 

 method is to place the male and female which you wish to 

 pair in a mating coop or hutch. In the course of a few days 

 they will mate and then you may turn them loose in the big 

 pen with the others. The latter method is necessary when 

 improving your flock by the addition of new blood, or when 

 keeping a positive record of the ancestry'of each pair. By 

 studying your matings, you may improve the efficiency of 

 your flock. If you are raising squabs for breeders, you 

 should use the mating coop constantly so as not to inbreed, 

 which the young pigeons might do if left to chance. 



In case a pigeon loses its mate by death or accident, the 

 sex of the dead one must be ascertained and a live pigeon of 

 the same sex introduced to the pen to mate with the odd one. 

 Or the live one should be removed from the pen and placed 

 in the mating coop with a pigeon of the opposite sex. 



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