The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



Many fanciers remove the first egg until the second is 

 hiid, believing that then they hatch closer together if 

 both, as it were, are started together; but the fact is as 

 the hen does not, as a rule, sit closely on the first egg 

 until the second is laid there is itsually not so great a 

 difference in the time of hatching. I am of the opinion 

 that the less the eggs are handled and the hen disturbed 

 during the first stages of incubation the better the 

 chances of success. If a record be kept of the time of 

 laying one can readily tell about what time to expect 

 the young to hatch. 



About the tenth day by taking the eggs in the fingers 

 and holding them between the eye and a strong light, 

 it can be determined whether the eggs are fertile or not. 

 If they have young inside of them, they will be dark and 

 a greenish shade show about the outside. If infertile, 

 they will be pinkish in color, showing that no results are 

 to follow further incubation, and might as well be de- 

 .stroyed. Sometimes one will be dark and the other 

 light, and this means only one young will make its ap- 

 pearance. If both are infertile, by destroying them it 

 breaks up the attempt of the pair to hatch, and after a 

 short period of rest the hen will lay another pair. 

 .Should these prove infertile, it shows that there is some- 

 thing wrong in the mating, and the fault is usually laid 

 to the cock, who for some cause is unable to fertilize the 

 eggs. In such a condition of affairs it is best to give 

 the hen another mate, for it is only a waste of time to 

 keep such a pair together. 



Sometimes this cock paired with another hen later 

 in the season may do good work, but ,to keep a pair to- 

 gether that prove by their acts that they are not suite'd 

 to each other is a loss of time and patience, and the 

 sooner the little hen who shows that she can do her 



70 ) 



