The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



l8 to 20 inches long, by upright partitions reaching out 

 flush with the edge of the shelf. This gives an apartment 

 for each pair, gives them the seclusion they prefer, and 

 prevents in a measure quarrelling, a condition of affairs 

 very necessary to successful breeding. 



These little apartments can be again sub-divided by a 

 half partition, say 1 1 inches long and 5 inches high ; this 

 allows spaqe for two nesting-boxes or pans, whichever 

 is used, and permits of the hen making a second nest 

 before the young are ready to leave the first, and allow- 

 ing the old birds to carry on the incubating process 

 without being annoyed by the youngsters begging to be 

 fed, as they are continually doing when not separated 

 from the parent birds. In front of this middle partition 

 place a strip about 3 inches wide extending from side 

 to side; this will keep the nest-pans in place, and pre- 

 vent the squabs coming to the front of the apartment 

 should they work themselves out of the nest, and falling 

 to the floor, where they are liable to be maltreated and 

 killed by old birds of other pairs. Occasionally you will 

 find birds, both male and female, so kindly tempered as 

 to feed every young squab that comes to them to be fed ; 

 but they are few, and it is to guard against the vicious 

 that I advise this precaution. 



To the front of every nesting-place I would have 

 fitted a movable wire door or screen made of two-inch 

 mesh wire. This will enable you to confine your pairs 

 to the particular nest you select for them until they be- 

 come settled, when it can be removed entirely and laid 

 aside until needed again. The fastening of these doors 

 to the apartment can be made a matter of choice ; either 

 hanging them on the side, so as to swing outward, or 

 suspending them from the shelf above, so as to raise 

 upward. Or they can be made in form of two doors, one 



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