46 National Standard Squab Book. 



ceired the attention of tiie eock binl. It is common lor a lieu pigeon ;U 

 five months, and sometimes lour, to lay an egg, but as a rule those first 

 eggs from a young ben are aot fertile because she has not yet mated with 

 the cocIy bird. After a lien pigeon has reaeheil six months of age, and is 

 paired witli a male, it is safe to assume as an almost invariable rule that 

 the eggs she lays \\'ill be fertil.?. When the male bird gets to be six to ten 

 years old, he may lose his vitality, and the eggs laid by his mate will not 

 be fertile. Then it is necessary to provide the female with a aew mate. 

 The breeders ^ve sell are of .frime breeding age, from eight months to 

 eighteeu months old, and the eggs laid by hens of that age will be fertile, 

 and of full size, am! the squabs bred from them will not be scrawny and 

 lacking iu vitality. 



Pi'Om the day of its hatching to market time the scjiiali is fed by its 

 patents. The first food is a liiiuid secreted in the crop of both cock ami 

 hen, aiid called pigeons' milk. The parent pigeons open their bills and the 

 squabs thrust their bills within to get susteaance. This supply of [jigeons' 

 milk lasts from five to si.x days. It gradually grows thicker and in a week 

 is found to be niixul with corn and wheat in small particles. When about 

 ten days olil, llie S(ina1is are eating hard grain from the crops of the ma- 

 ture cock ,inil Inn, which fill up at the trough, then take a iliiuk of water 

 and fly to ihc nest lo ministcT to (lie little ones. You see how impertMnt 

 it is til have fiioil available at all limes. 



In 14, 15 or 16 days after the first pair of squabs have been hatched, the 

 cock begins "driving" the hen again. This shows the necessity of a 

 second nest for the pair. In this second nest the hen l;iys two more eggs, 

 and the caie of the first pair of squabs, now between Hvii and three weeks 

 old, devolves upon the cock. When this pair is four weeks old, it is taken 

 out of the nest and. killed and both the mature birds are concerned then 

 only with the new hatch. This seiiuence of eggs and batches goes on all 

 the time. 



If there are not two nests, the two new eggs will be laid in the nest 

 where are the growing squabs and the parents in their eagerness to sit on 

 the new eggs will jiush the squalis out of the nest and they will die tor 

 lack of sustenance. 



The hen lays the eggs about four o'clock iu the afternoon. The cock and 

 hen take turns at covering the eggs, the hen sitting dui-ing the night until 

 about ten o'lhiek in the moi-ning, when the cock relieves her, remaining on 

 until the latter part of the afternoon. 



When tiie nappies are changed at the end of two weeks, the nest-lmx 

 should be scraped clean with a tr'iwel. 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 aTid 

 the whitewash used regularly, no troirble from parasites will result. In 

 the .summtr it Is well to add a little cai-bolic acid to the whitewash as an 

 extra precaution. Sprinkle unslaked lime on the floor nf the squab lioiise 

 and in the nest boxes. 



