National Standard Squab Book. 47 



One way of mating pigeons is to turn males and females in equal 

 number into tlie same pen. They will seek their own mates and settle 

 down to steady reproduetiou. Another method is to plaee 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 necessai-y 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 Ilock. If you are raising squabs for breeders, you 

 should use the mating coop constantly so as not to iubreed, which the 

 young pigeons might do if left the 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. 



The mating coop should have a partition of lattice work or wire. Place 

 the cock in one side, the hen in the other, and leave them thus for two or 

 three days to flirt and tease each other, then remove the central lattice 

 work or wire and they usually will mate. If they show no disposition to 

 mate but on the contrary fight, replace the partition and try them for two 

 or three days longer. If they refuse to mate after two or three thorough 

 trials, do not experiment any more with them, but select other mates. 



The determination of the sex of pigeons is difficult. The bones at the 

 Tcnt of a female are as a rule wider apart than of a male If you hold the 

 beak of a pigeon in one hand and the feet in the other, stretching them 

 out, the male bird usually will hug his tail close to its body— the female 

 will throw her tail. The best way to determine the sex is to watch the 

 birds. The male is more lively than the female, and does more cooing, and 

 in flirting with her usually turns around several times, while the female 

 seldom turns more than half way around. The male may be seen pecking 

 at the female and driving her to nest. When one pigeon is seen chasing 

 another inside and outs.ide the squab house, the driven one is the female 

 and the driver her mate. 



Neither the squab-breeder nor the flying-Homer breeder is much con- 

 cerned about the color of feathers. There are 'blue checkers, red checkers, 

 black checkers, silver, blue, brown, red, in fact a'bout all the colors of the 

 rainbow. Color has no relation to the ability of a pair to breed a large 

 pair of squabs. We wish specially to emphasize the fact that the color 

 of the feathers has no influence on the color of the skin of the squab. A 

 white-feathered bird does not mean a whiter-skinned squab. The feed 

 a(fects the color of the meat a little. A corn-fed pigeon will be yellower 

 than ono fed on a mixture. Squabs with dark skins (almost black in 

 som.e cases) are the product of bU>od matings. The trouble with a dark- 

 colored squab is in the blood and the only remedy is to get rid of them 

 either by killing the parents or by remating. Usually the trouble comes 

 from one parent bird, which you can find by turning up the feathers and 



