The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



BARRENNESS 



It often happens that a pair of birds will mate, and 

 appear perfectly satisfied with one another, and yet the 

 hen never lay, although in apparent good condition and 

 going to nest and sitting regularly for a time. The 

 cause of this in a young hen, is too frequent laying, 

 without success in hatching, whereby the ovaries are 

 overtaxed and for a time they refuse to do their work. 

 In such a case giving the pair a pair of eggs, allowing 

 them to hatch and feed the. young, many times restores 

 the organs to their natural conditions, and the hen goes 

 on breeding as she ought. If an old hen, however, 

 while she and her mate will perform all the duties in 

 the care of the young devolving upon them, she never 

 comes back to a laying condition. Such a hen, unless 

 a fine exhibition specimen, should be killed, and not as 

 in some instances has been done, sold to an unsophis- 

 ticated fancier, who would look in vain for any progeny 

 from his purchase. 



SEVENTH DIVISION 



FRACTURES AND WOUNDS 



Broken wings and limbs, while not common, some- 

 times are met with in pigeon breeding. If a bird is 

 found suffering from such an accident, one wants to 

 take into consideration whether it is worth wasting time 

 and experiment upon. If worth saving, examine and 

 see to what extent it is injured. If a good, clean break, 

 have some one assist you, first providing splints of 

 pasteboard and wrapping material ; then unite the brok- 

 en portions as near as they originally were as possible, 



146 



